Is JC HURT better than the NIN version

[Supercereal]

Johnny Cash version of Hurt is both better and worse than Nine Inch Nails version of Hurt as it is an impossible question to be answered because peoples opinions differ im sure that somewhere out there Leona Lewis' fans are saying it is the best version as well

 

[Violator[xL]]

Replace 'is' with 'do you think', and we have a discussion.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

To quote Trent Raznor, aka the guy who wrote the song:
I pop the video in, and wow... Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps... Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore... 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. [Somehow] 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

My answer:
I prefer the Cash version, but it can not be described as "better", for that would imply the NIN version is "worse", which it is not, just different and less to my taste.

 

[putowtin]

Johnny Cash,
still makes me cry

(That and Dance with my father by Luther Vandross)

 

[bobmd13]

TBH I have not a baldy how to change the title, but then I am not sober

I agree the title needs changed,but today is not a good day for me to do it.

When I look tomorrow it will be clear but now it's not.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Personally, I think the Johnny Cash version is superior... though that's just me.

 

[Balvale]

I prefer the NIN version. Reznor sings with more inflections and that draws more of an emotional response from me. Though I can definitely see why some people prefer the Cash version: the context, his age, and his voice definitely set a mood.

 

[bobmd13]

As I said somewhere else,

Trant is talking about addiction.

Mr. Cash is talking about the pain he has caused.

If you watch the video his daughter gives him a look of Daddy don't go.

It literally is a matter of semantics.

Both have great meaning,but for me Mr. Cash has a hell of a lot more meaning.

That's my personal opinion at this time of the year, and today I am very maudlin.

But hey,we can remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ADh8Fs3YdU

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Ha! Didn't know Leona Lewis had covered it. The piano is nice but that style of singing is just horrible, to my ears. I feel nothing when I listen to these worbling pop singers.

I think I'm more inclined towards the JC version. I like the way it's produced. The peaks and valleys just feel perfect.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Yeah, even as a NIN fan, I still think Cash's version is superior to Trent's.

And about Leona Lewis's version, just...why?

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Personally, I prefer the NIN version. To me it seems like the NIN version is about a younger man looking back on his life and thinking that he has no future, and the Cash version is an old man looking back on his life but already knowing he has no future. Obviously I find the NIN one easier to relate to. Plus, I like Trent Reznor's emotion in it, not many people can pull that kind of thing off.

 

[DugMachine]

Fan of the Johnny Cash version. But I'm a huge fan of cash and is one of my influences for picking up guitar so I might be a bit biased.

 

[Blunderboy]

They're both amazing. I enjoy them both equally and for different reasons.

 

[GiantRaven]

I prefer the original version by quite some margin. When I listen to Cash's version, to my ears he's merely singing the song. When Reznor sings, you can hear every little twist of pain in his voice as he sings.

I think the NIN version is superior musically as well. It has an elegant simplicity to it, tempered by the subtle dissonance here and there. I'd say the acoustic guitar is probably, to my ears, the wrong instrument to try and replicate that. It's a lot more dynamically static as well, whilst the original just keeps building up and up, becoming more intense. Also, Cash's version doesn't have that fucking awesome distorted end to the song.

 

[Loonyyy]

To quote Trant Tazner,

Is it just a mispelling of Trent Reznor, or does it mean something else. It seems deliberate, not sure if it's an in joke I'm not getting.

Me, I prefer Cash's version. Cash could cover almost any song and make a version which was "Better" than the original.

Reznor's is good, but it just doesn't quite hit it for me. I think you're onto something Bob, it's the semantics-when Cash sings it, it's an admission of guilt and defeat. When Reznor does, it's that he doesn't know where he's going forward.

I think that for me, Cash's style matches the emotion I get from him more than Reznor's.

Funnily enough, I'd never heard the NIN version before now. I listen to the Cash version every now and then, but I didn't realise it was a cover. I think Cash and Manson are the two best artists at doing covers-you wouldn't realise it isn't theirs orignally until someone let you know, and when you hear the original, they're worlds apart.

I leave you with the worst cover conceived: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySsbkLVuYOs

(Slightly Off-Topic Rant)

Thankyou. Your disney-musician life gives a new sincerity to the song Miley. The fact that you act more inebriated than the heroin addict who wrote the song brings new meaning to it. The way you mistake grunge screams for country twang is such a compliment to both genres. In fact, the way you can't sing past clean (Heck, even the guitars aren't distorted. Are they even overdriven?), and have no interest at all in recreating a song which Cobain himself grew to dislike due to it's popularity, except to utilise it's popularity to imply a reinvention of yourself is truly a compliment.

If only it was Miley Cyrus who killed herself, instead of Kurt Cobain.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

To quote Trant Tazner,

Is it just a mispelling of Trent Reznor, or does it mean something else. It seems deliberate, not sure if it's an in joke I'm not getting.

Me, I prefer Cash's version. Cash could cover almost any song and make a version which was "Better" than the original.

Reznor's is good, but it just doesn't quite hit it for me. I think you're onto something Bob, it's the semantics-when Cash sings it, it's an admission of guilt and defeat. When Reznor does, it's that he doesn't know where he's going forward.

I think that for me, Cash's style matches the emotion I get from him more than Reznor's.

Funnily enough, I'd never heard the NIN version before now. I listen to the Cash version every now and then, but I didn't realise it was a cover. I think Cash and Manson are the two best artists at doing covers-you wouldn't realise it isn't theirs orignally until someone let you know, and when you hear the original, they're worlds apart.

I leave you with the worst cover conceived: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySsbkLVuYOs

(Slightly Off-Topic Rant)

Thankyou. Your disney-musician life gives a new sincerity to the song Miley. The fact that you act more inebriated than the heroin addict who wrote the song brings new meaning to it. The way you mistake grunge screams for country twang is such a compliment to both genres. In fact, the way you can't sing past clean (Heck, even the guitars aren't distorted. Are they even overdriven?), and have no interest at all in recreating a song which Cobain himself grew to dislike due to it's popularity, except to utilise it's popularity to imply a reinvention of yourself is truly a compliment.

If only it was Miley Cyrus who killed herself, instead of Kurt Cobain.

No, that was my phone's stupid autocorrect.
Sometimes I wonder what the f*ck is up with that, I meant Trent Raznor, no jokes too be found there.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

Since Cash's version came out, I had been going back and forth on this. I have to land on Cash. I can really feel his sadness.

Leona Lewis has a good voice, and I credit her for trying something outside the box for her, but the song just does not work for her.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Reznor himself prefers Cash's version, which is a pretty significant statement.

So Cash has probably issued the definitive version of the song, but it's still Reznor's song.

So...they're tied? Sure, let's go with that.