Hurt (Quiet)
Hurt (And All That Could Have Been)
Hurt (Besside You In Time)
"Hurt" is the final track on The Downward Spiral.
Contents
Meaning
The meaning of this song is entirely debatable. Some may interpret this as a depressing suicide note, while others may find it to describe someone finding a new lease on life.
Covers
Hurt has been covered by a variety of artists, such as Tori Amos, Matthew Good, Peter Murphy, and Sevendust. The song gained a new wave of popularity in 2002 when it was famously covered by Johnny Cash, at the recommendation of producer Rick Rubin. This caused a lot of confusion for the audiences of Cash, who generally weren't familiar with the work of Nine Inch Nails, often resulting in miscrediting the song to Cash. In Cash's version, the line "crown of shit" is changed to "crown of thorns," but is otherwise unchanged.
Song Credits
- Production and Mix: Trent Reznor
- Drums: Chris Vrenna
Appearances
Halos
- The Downward Spiral
- Further Down The Spiral
- Closure
- And All That Could Have Been (CD/DVD/VHS)
- Beside You In Time
Versions
Hurt
On the original album version, the guitars contain distortion, adding a ragged aesthetic. The song suddenly climaxes towards the end, while the final lyrics are whispered over the noise. A drone follows, and ends the song and the record.
Hurt (Quiet)
The only real difference between this remix and the original is that the guitar sound is much cleaner and the climax towards the end is less drastic.
Hurt (Live)
This live version is found on the UK edition of Further Down The Spiral. In this version the guitar is replaced with a piano.
Hurt (And All That Could Have Been)
The guitar sound is replaced by piano, and a vocal harmony is added to the chorus.
Hurt (Beside You In Time)
This live version starts with Reznor singing the vocal part and playing the piano melody solo on a keyboard. Jeordie White joins in on bass for the first chorus, and the rest of the band joins during the second chorus.
Music Video
The video is simply tour footage of Trent Reznor singing behind the projection screen, with the image in the screen being featured prominently. This was released after a fully produced music video was scrapped. Both the scrapped studio video and the final live video were directed by Simon Maxwell. The live video can be found in the Dualdisc edition of The Downward Spiral.
Live
In most live performances of the song (including the ones featured in And All That Could Have Been, Beside You In Time and the live video mentioned above), Reznor says "I wear this crown of shit" instead of "I wear my crown of shit".
Lyrics
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I,focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear my crown of shit
Upon my liar’s chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way