"Hurt" | |
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Promotional single by Nine Inch Nails | |
from the album The Downward Spiral | |
Released | April 17, 1995 |
Studio |
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Genre | |
Length | 6:12 |
Label | |
Songwriter(s) | Trent Reznor |
Producer(s) | Trent Reznor |
The Downward Spiral track listing | |
14 tracks
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Audio | |
"Hurt" on YouTube |
"Hurt" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from its second studio album, The Downward Spiral (1994), written by Trent Reznor. It was released on April 17, 1995, as a promotional single from the album. [lower-alpha 1] The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Song in 1996. In 2020, Kerrang and Billboard ranked the song number two and number three, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Nine Inch Nails songs. [4] [5]
In 2002, Johnny Cash covered "Hurt" to commercial and critical acclaim. The related music video is considered one of the greatest of all time by publications such as NME . Reznor praised Cash's interpretation of the song for its "sincerity and meaning", going so far as to say "that song isn't mine anymore". [6]
The song includes references to self-harm and heroin addiction, though the overall meaning of the song is disputed. Some listeners contend that the song acts as a suicide note written by the song's protagonist, as a result of his depression, while others claim that it describes the difficult process of finding a reason to live in spite of depression and pain and does not have much to do with the storyline of The Downward Spiral. [7]
The music video for Nine Inch Nails' original version of "Hurt" is a live performance that was recorded before the show in Omaha, Nebraska, on February 13, 1995, and can be found on Closure and the DualDisc re-release of The Downward Spiral . The audio portion appears on the UK version of Further Down the Spiral . The version released on Closure differs slightly from the video originally aired on MTV. In addition to using an uncensored audio track, the Closure edit shows alternate views of the audience and performance at several points during the video.
To film the video, a scrim was dropped in front of the band on stage, projected onto which were various images to add visual symbolism to fit the song's subject matter, such as war atrocities, a nuclear bomb test, survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad, a snake staring at the camera, and a time-lapse film of a fox decomposing in reverse. A spotlight was cast on Reznor so that he can be seen through the images. Compared to the live renditions performed on future tours, this version most resembles the studio recording with its use of the song's original samples.[ citation needed ]
There are also official live recordings on the later releases And All that Could Have Been and Beside You in Time . Each version features distinct instrumentation by the varying members of the band in the respective eras.
During the Dissonance Tour in 1995, when Nine Inch Nails opened for David Bowie during his Outside Tour, Bowie sang "Hurt" in a duet with Reznor, backed by an original melody and beat. This served as the conclusion to the dual act that began each Bowie set.
During the Fragility Tour, the progression was performed by Robin Finck on acoustic guitar rather than on piano.
Since the 2005–06 Live: With Teeth Tour, Nine Inch Nails has been playing "Hurt" in a more toned-down style, featuring only Reznor on vocals until the final chorus, when the rest of the band joins in.
The song was brought back to its original form during the Lights In The Sky Tour in 2008, before returning to the toned down style on the 2009 Wave Goodbye tour.
Chart (1995) | Peak position |
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Canada Rock/Alternative ( RPM ) [9] | 8 |
US Radio Songs ( Billboard ) [10] | 54 |
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [11] | 8 |
The song was featured in the season two finale of the adult animated science fiction program Rick and Morty , overlaying the series of events in which Rick surrenders to the intergalactic authorities, allowing his family to return to Earth while simultaneously abandoning them. [12]
"Hurt" | ||||
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Single by Johnny Cash | ||||
from the album American IV: The Man Comes Around | ||||
B-side | ||||
Released | March 2003 | |||
Recorded | 2002 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:38 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Trent Reznor | |||
Producer(s) | Rick Rubin | |||
Johnny Cash singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Hurt" on YouTube |
In 2002, Johnny Cash covered the song for his final album during his lifetime, American IV: The Man Comes Around . Its accompanying video, featuring images from Cash's life and directed by Mark Romanek, was named the best video of the year by the Grammy Awards and CMA Awards, and the best video of all time by NME in July 2011. [17] The single contains a cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" as a B-side.
Cash's cover of the song had sold 2,148,000 downloads in the United States as of March 2017. [18]
Cash's cover is widely considered one of his best works. In 2017, Billboard ranked the song number four on their list of the 15 greatest Johnny Cash songs, [19] and in 2021, American Songwriter ranked the song number three on their list of the 10 greatest Johnny Cash songs. [20]
When Reznor was asked if Cash could cover his song, Reznor said he was "flattered" but worried that "the idea sounded a bit gimmicky." He became a fan of Cash's version, however, once he saw the music video.
A few weeks later, a CD shows up with the track. Again, I'm in the middle of something and put it on and give it a cursory listen. It sounded... weird to me. That song in particular was straight from my soul, and it felt very strange hearing the highly identifiable voice of Johnny Cash singing it. It was a good version, and I certainly wasn't cringing or anything, but it felt like I was watching my girlfriend fuck somebody else. Or something like that. Anyway, a few weeks later, a videotape shows up with Mark Romanek's video on it. It's morning; I'm in the studio in New Orleans working on Zack De La Rocha's record with him; I pop the video in, and... wow. Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps... Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine any more. Then it all made sense to me. It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. Some-fucking-how that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning –different, but every bit as pure. Things felt even stranger when he passed away. The song's purpose shifted again. It's incredibly flattering as a writer to have your song chosen by someone who's a great writer and a great artist.
— Geoff Rickly interviews Trent Reznor, Alternative Press [21]
Mike Campbell (acoustic guitar) and Benmont Tench (piano, organ, mellotron) of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played on the track. [22] Smokey Hormel also played guitar on the track. [23]
The music video was directed by former Nine Inch Nails collaborator Mark Romanek, [24] who sought to capture the essence of Cash, both in his youth and in his older years. In a montage of shots of Cash's early years, twisted imagery of fruit and flowers in various states of decay, seem to capture both his legendary past and the stark and seemingly cruel reality of the present. Much of the video is in a style deliberately reminiscent of vanitas paintings, thus emphasizing the lyrics' mood of the futility and passing nature of human achievements. [25] [26] According to literature professor Leigh H. Edwards, the music video portrays "Cash's own paradoxical themes". [2]
Romanek had this to say about his decision to focus on the House of Cash museum in Nashville:
It had been closed for a long time; the place was in such a state of dereliction. That's when I got the idea that maybe we could be extremely candid about the state of Johnny's health, as candid as Johnny has always been in his songs. [27]
When the video was filmed in February 2003, Cash was 71 years old and had serious health problems. His frailty is clearly evident in the video. He died seven months later, on September 12. [28] His wife, June Carter Cash, who is shown gazing at her husband in two sequences of the video, had died on May 15 of the same year.
In July 2011, the music video was named one of "The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos" by Time . [29] It was ranked the greatest music video of all time by NME . [30]
The house where Cash's music video for "Hurt" was shot, which was Cash's home for nearly 30 years, was destroyed in a fire on April 10, 2007. [31]
Chart (2003) | Peak position |
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Canada (Nielsen SoundScan) [45] | 38 |
Germany (Official German Charts) [46] | 75 |
Ireland (IRMA) [47] | 25 |
UK Singles (OCC) [48] | 39 |
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [49] | 33 |
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [50] | 56 |
Chart (2005) | Peak position |
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US Digital Song Sales ( Billboard ) [51] | 34 |
Chart (2006) | Peak position |
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Norway (VG-lista) [52] | 8 |
Chart (2012) | Peak position |
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Canada (Nielsen SoundScan) [53] | 42 |
Germany (Official German Charts) [54] | 68 |
US Digital Song Sales ( Billboard ) [51] | 69 |
US Alternative Digital Song Sales (Billboard) [55] | 9 |
Chart (2016) | Peak position |
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Australia (ARIA) [56] | 66 |
France (SNEP) [57] | 52 |
Scotland (OCC) [58] | 33 |
US Country Streaming Songs (Billboard) [59] | 22 |
US Rock Digital Song Sales (Billboard) [60] | 9 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil) [61] | Gold | 20,000‡ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [62] | Gold | 45,000‡ |
Germany (BVMI) [63] | Gold | 150,000‡ |
Italy (FIMI) [64] | Gold | 25,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [65] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [66] digital | Gold | 2,148,000 [18] |
United States (RIAA) [67] video single | 2× Platinum | 100,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
The song has been used in the 140-second advertisement "This is Why" created for the SickKids Foundation by Cossette in 2019 as part of the "SickKids Vs." campaign to support fundraising for The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. [68]
Cover versions of the song include:
The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994, by Nothing Records in the United States and Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the self-destruction of a man from the beginning of his misanthropic "downward spiral" to his suicidal breaking point. The album was a commercial success and established Nine Inch Nails as a reputable force in the 1990s music scene, with its sound being widely imitated, and the band receiving media attention and multiple honors.
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN, stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band until his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross, joined in 2016. The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was released via TVT Records. After disagreeing with TVT about how to promote the album, the band signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992). The following albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), were released to critical acclaim and commercial success.
Michael Trent Reznor is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band's line-up has constantly changed, with Reznor being its only official member from its creation in 1988 until 2016, when he added English musician and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross as its second permanent member.
And All That Could Have Been is a double album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on January 22, 2002, by Nothing and Interscope Records. The live album contains music recorded during the Fragility v2.0 US tour in 2000. Disc one is a live album of most of the band's normal set list of the time, while disc two contains a studio album titled Still, containing "deconstructed" versions of previous Nine Inch Nails songs and some new material. The double DVD set, sold separately, includes video recordings of the songs performed on the CD, as well as additional song performances and footage from the tour.
The Fragile is the third studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as a double album by Nothing Records and Interscope Records on September 21, 1999. It was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and the English producer Alan Moulder, a longtime Reznor collaborator. It was recorded throughout 1997 to 1999 in New Orleans.
Broken is the first extended play (EP) and second major release by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It was released on September 22, 1992, by Nothing, TVT, and Interscope Records. The EP was produced by frontman Trent Reznor and Flood.
"March of the Pigs" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from their second studio album, The Downward Spiral (1994). It was released on February 25, 1994 as the album's lead single.
"We're in This Together" is a song by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails released in 1999. It is the 15th official Nine Inch Nails release and is a single for the album The Fragile. It was released as a three-disc single.
"Head Like a Hole" is a song by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as the second single from the group's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. It enjoyed heavy rotation on the radio at the time of its release, eventually reaching number 9 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
With Teeth is the fourth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by Nothing Records and Interscope Records on May 3, 2005. The album was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and long-time collaborator Alan Moulder. It also features contributions from musician Dave Grohl and future band member Atticus Ross.
"I'm Afraid of Americans" is a song by the English musician David Bowie, released as a single from his album Earthling on 14 October 1997 through Virgin Records. The song was co-written by Bowie and Brian Eno and originally recorded during the sessions for Bowie's 1995 album Outside; this version was released on the soundtrack of Showgirls (1995). The song was then remade during the sessions for Earthling, featuring rewritten lyrics, overdubs and transposed verses. An industrial and techno track, it presents a critique of America through the eyes of a stereotypical "Johnny" and is characterised by drum patterns, synthesisers, various loops and vocal distortions.
"Closer" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as the second single on their second studio album, The Downward Spiral (1994). Released in May 1994, it is considered one of Nine Inch Nails' signature songs and remains their most popular song. Most versions of the single are titled "Closer to God", a rare example in music of a single's title differing from the title of its A-side. The single is the ninth official Nine Inch Nails release, making it "Halo 9" in the band's official Halo numbering system.
"Wish" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from their debut EP Broken (1992). It was released in 1992 as a promotional single from the EP. The drumming on the track was performed by Martin Atkins.
American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails have released 11 studio albums, one live album, three remix albums, two compilation albums, six extended plays, 20 singles, 10 promotional singles, four video albums and 31 music videos. Nine Inch Nails has also contributed to numerous film soundtracks as well as the soundtrack to the video game Quake.
American IV: The Man Comes Around is the sixty-seventh and final non-posthumous studio album by Johnny Cash. It was released on November 5, 2002, by American Recordings and Universal Records. It is the fourth in Cash's "American" series of albums, and the last album released during his lifetime, and is considered some of his finest work towards the end of his life. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
"Deep" is a song recorded by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails for the soundtrack to the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Because this is a promotional single, it has never been featured with its own official halo and the song "Deep" has never been released on any Nine Inch Nails album, or on any halo-numbered release, although it has its own video directed by Enda McCallion.
"The Perfect Drug" is a song by Nine Inch Nails written for the David Lynch film Lost Highway. It was released in 1997 on the Lost Highway soundtrack as well as a single from the score. Remixes of the song were released as an EP, "The Perfect Drug" Versions.
"Something I Can Never Have" is the fifth track by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from the 1989 debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. According to Loren Coleman, the song deals with suicidal themes.
Hesitation Marks is the eighth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on August 30, 2013, by The Null Corporation and distributed by Columbia Records in the United States and Polydor Records elsewhere. It was the band's first release in five years, following The Slip (2008), as well as their only release on Columbia. Like previous albums, the album was produced by frontman Trent Reznor alongside longtime collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder. To date, this is the most recent Nine Inch Nails album to be co-produced by Moulder.
"I Can't Give Everything Away" is a song by English musician David Bowie. It is the seventh and final track on his twenty-sixth and final studio album, Blackstar (2016), and was released posthumously as the album's third and final single on 6 April 2016. The track was written by David Bowie and was produced by both him and Tony Visconti.
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