johnny cash vs. nine inch nails

I enjoyed the song “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, but once the song was covered by Johnny Cash, I fell in love with the cover more than the original.  Johnny Cash recorded his version in 2003, very close to his death.  The original came out almost ten years before in 1994.  Both are great, emotional songs.

The melody in both is pretty much the same, except with a few exceptions.  In the Nine Inch Nails version, Trent Reznor seems to bend the notes of his voice a little bit in order to produce a more intense, angry vocal effect.  In the Johnny Cash version, he sings like normal, just singing with straight notes and no real vibrato or effect.  Other than this slight difference, the overall sound of the melody is the same.  

Their is a difference in pitch between the two pieces, as the Johnny Cash version is song way deeper than the Nine Inch Nails version.  Johnny Cash tends to sing lower, so this may be why the octave was chosen for this song.  The timbre is the most clear and obvious difference, as the Johnny Cash seems to be more folky, with acoustic guitars and pianos.  These traditional instruments are part of Johnny Cash’s sound, unlike Trent Reznor who regularly uses odd instruments and different effects in order to produce a new sound, referred to as industrial music.  His instruments are all out of tune and layered more than Johnny Cash’s and therefore have a completely different timbre.  The effects on his instruments also change the timbre of his version.  The speed is pretty slow in both versions and it adds to the overall sadness of the songs.  The rhythm also stays the same in both versions and is essential to the intro to the songs.  The picked A minor chord lets everyone know what the song is.  The intensity of the Nine Inch Nails song in the second chorus and even in the bridge is much greater than that of the Johnny Cash version, which picks up a little bit in volume as well, but not nearly as much as the Nine Inch Nails version does with distortion and Trent Reznor screaming out the vocals, showing his pain.

Overall, the songs are both very similar and very different.  It all comes down to whatever version the listener finds to have the best musical quality.  The difference in the timbre is so different that each are considered to be completely separate genres, but both are widely known to be great songs. I prefer the Johnny Cash myself.

Nine Inch Nails

Johnny Cash