Hurt: a life behind the words

Johnny Cash keeps the words of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," but shifts the center of gravity. Nine Inch Nails' recording is listed as a 1994 release, with Trent Reznor credited as composer and lyricist. 1 Cash's official video's description credits his recording to 2002. 2

The mood here is reckoning. The original feels sealed inside the speaker; Cash's voice makes the same words feel like something a whole life has had to carry. That shift is why the cover lands harder without trying to outsing the original.

Play Nine Inch Nails' original recording first, then Johnny Cash's official video. The first gives you the wound; the second gives it a past.