Johnny Cash Covers Nine Inch Nails

I love Johnny Cash and he’s done some great covers over the years, most notable for me were Beck’s “Rowboat” and Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage.” When I heard he was doing “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails I got really excited. Cash and Reznor seemed a perfect fit, but sadly I don’t think Cash’s cover lives up to expectations. The key riff in the song has a dissonant note that Cash decided to omit and that bugs me a lot. Throw it in and the song is 3 times better.

The freaking video however, is unreal. Talk about depressing. I expected to see 1932 – 2003 in the final frame. Cash looks about 150 years old and the video shows clips from his life spent touring the country, but ends with him looking frail, lonely, and sad. It seriously makes you want to send the guy a birthday card or rake his leaves. Please, someone make a Johnny Cash tribute video, because he’s got to be the most respected country/folk singer in history. I must have heard 8 of his tunes just last night at Tom Drinker’s Pub and Brownies in Old City.

I made a few changes to the layout to fix the annoying spacing issues that crept up. Unfortunately, this probably means the site is now wedged in the center of your browser window. It’s not ideal, but its ok for now.

I hope you like the new topic icon for music related posts. Viva victrola!