"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. 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.
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".
Meaning
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.
Music video
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.
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.
Live performances
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.
Track listing
US promotional CD single
"Hurt" (quiet version) – 5:04
"Hurt" (live version) – 5:15
"Hurt" (album version) – 6:16
"Hurt" (quiet version) – 5:21
"Hurt" (live version) – 5:15
"Hurt" (album version) – 6:13
Personnel
Trent Reznor – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, piano, synthesizers
Chris Vrenna – drums
Charts
In popular culture
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.
Johnny Cash version
In 2002, Johnny Cash covered the song for his album, 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. 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.