Nine Inch Nails - "Hurt" (lyrics) - REACTION - This is so much more vulnerable than I expected!

[@chrismeadows4216]

I've been extremely excited for you to react to this one, honestly. It's not an easy track to listen to, both because of how it was produced and why it was recorded, but it's beautiful, in an incredibly profound way. Explaining its purpose is more of a therapeutic experience than most explanations which I've given for other songs on this channel, somehow. For the sake of having full disclosure, I've wondered for quite some time when you'd cry from listening to one of these songs, because I've cried while listening to a lot of them, and not necessarily only the outright sad ones. 😃😄 First off, I want to talk about the static, because when I'd originally watched this lyric video nearly 10 years ago, I'd been put off in a similar way by it until it had cut out going into the pre-chorus, and it had returned during the second verse. It had seemed like it was either poorly uploaded or that there had been some kind of glitch occurring, but sure enough, I'd listened to the audio for the album version on Nine Inch Nails' KZbin channel, and it was identical. It symbolizes the degradation of a person's mind, and how disquieted their thoughts can become as chemical substances have left them dependent. There's another studio version of this song out there as well, and now is probably an excellent time to mention this additional information, in case you're hoping for less-hazy relistens to the song. A lot of Nine Inch Nails tracks (with Closer and Head Like a Hole being two of them, as well) have got alternate remixes by Trent out there, which have been used as singles and b-sides and film tracks, etc., and this one's particular remix is titled Hurt (Quiet), which had been mixed with significantly less static, cleaner guitar profiles, and a less **ahem** ear-destroying climax. Still, the last line of the song is hard to make out. Trent had most likely intended on it, because it masks the effort which he would've hypothetically made to do better for himself, like in real life, if he'd have lived his life like himself within the context of this song's respective album. The sourness of this song is a massive part of why it's both so tragic and so uplifting. This song's fade-out sets up its album's cycling back around to its first track, Mr. Self Destruct. Hurt is the final track of Nine Inch Nails' 1994 2nd album, The Downward Spiral, and it represents a heroin addict's final effort to look for reasons to survive. Ultimately, the fictional version of Trent Reznor loses that fight. He's telling us that if he could start again, he wouldn't have failed those whom he'd previously lost. It's soul destroying, to say the least. This song was written, recorded, performed, produced, and mixed by Trent Reznor, with Chris Vrenna having played drums, and it was released on Trent's label Nothing Records, with Interscope Records being its parent company. Technically, it was only a promotional single and not actually a main track from the album, but in 1996, it was nominated for a Grammy Award, for Best Rock Song. It's been performed on nearly every tour which Nine Inch Nails have been on since, and it's considered a live staple of their concerts, among other major songs, which you'll listen to in time. Personally, what I love about this recording is that you can hear all of the subtleties of Trent's vocals in it. You can hear that none of them were copied and dragged into place using computer software, you can hear him breathing, and you can hear everything as simple as his lips smacking together. All of his vulnerability is there. While I love the performances of this song which he'd done with David Bowie for his intensity and aggression being delivered, I love this one for how truly exposed he'd been, back then. He'd created something which any person hearing can feel in their soul. Thank goodness that he's alive, and that he's still recording and performing wonderful music for us to experience, rather than making us hurt.

[@BetterEveryDayYouTube]

Chris, thank you so much for the background and analysis. I really loved the sheer rawness of the vocals as well. There didn't seem to be any tweaks or fluff. It felt completely stripped back. It is something rare in music (at least in my experience) and really reemphasized the emotion in the song. ❤

[@deejayturtle]

Nice read. Thanks for taking the time to share this. I love to nerd out on the small details of music I love. Trent does have a lot of remixes out there... but he did most of them, lol. FLOOD produced the album, did he not produce this track?

[@Remmy-iq3bs]

Nothing compares to Trent’s version. It’s his tune and he’s a genius. The whole record is brilliance. Despair, Self loathing… I listen to this song everyday for 20 years.

[@JuninToiro]

This is how it's supposed to sound.

[@jericoba]

Music choices connected to emotions? Oh yeah. I go there often, and I know I speak for others too.

[@jrluciano75]

It sounds haunting….. it’s perfect

[@deejayturtle]

10:55 Thanks for not stopping Trent writes and plays almost everything on this album.Every lil snap, crackle, pop, distortion, or silence... was placed there after careful thought as to how it sounds. Trent worked with a producer named FLOOD on the album this comes from (The Downward Spiral).Check the credits on your favorite rock albums of the 90's chances are FLOOD produced it. This album was written and recorded as "one big chunk of art" as Trent said. No care or consideration was given to make sure there were a cple radio / MTV friendly songs on the album. Most songs were connected to the next with some sort of ambient noise and distortion. It's really very beautiful. More to say on thi album this came from but I will save it for Instagram.

[@jericoba]

Wait, Nine Inch Nails played on the radio?! Huh. Not where I live. :-)

[@Martonesdef]

Closer sometimes played in Detroit about 12 years ago.

[@carlgibson285]

Great reaction! Trent Reznor is a genius when it comes to engineering and sound design, and this song is a perfect example of just how good he is.

[@WesWsly]

The live 1995 version of this song is really beautiful..and yeah the weird crumbling, breaking sound is intentional :)

[@6Haunted-Days]

I thought it sucked….he is not a great live performer at ALL imo his voice his pretty weak on a good day. And I’ve loved him since 1989 so I’m defo a fan

[@Billy.gen-X]

First concert I ever went to, downward spiral tour

[@christopherbowen4665]

And now I hate you out of jealousy 😊

[@-Heavy-]

...and thats how one of the best albums ever made ends.Such a masterpiece!!!!

[@nolop408]

Its supposed to sound like that, the album version it's called "dirty" version but there are different types, you should try to listen the "quiet" version, the sound is crisper.

[@jsghetler]

This is the way the song is. He’s hurt.

[@tambert3897]

To understand Hurt you have to understand the whole album. The protagonist in the album has reached his end. He is stuck in a deep dark depression and is reflecting on his life and what led up to it. He shows remorse and regret for what he has done. The breaking in the audio is supposed to represent depressed brain fog. He is not thinking clearly and his mind is darkened. He is contemplating suicide.

[@douglab222]

He was sturggling with Herion addicion during this recording process. A side note to everything else you mentioned.

[@6Haunted-Days]

Ummmm if someone needs the whole album to grasp this song? Yea they must be 10 and not too intelligent……what TF are you on about? No YOU DO NOT need the entire damn album to understand this song. You serious? LMFAO maybe if you an IQ of 70 😂🤣🙄🤡

[@Skegfromcraigslist]

@@douglab222 I don't believe he was ever actually addicted to heroin. He acidentally overdosed on it once, mistaking it for cocaine, but aside from that he didn't partake.

[@nathanornsby2080]

this is why johnny cash covered it, what a track

[@joseph2024]

Trent’s production of this song was made to be intentionally uncomfortable. From the out of time guitar to the static in the background…it’s all purposeful. He explained it on some Netflix documentary, I can’t recall the name of it, it’s pretty recent.

[@wyattjohnson3714]

song exploder!

[@christophergibson6621]

Between the modified suspended Bm chord, the whispered lyrics, brown noise during the verses, and the extended ending, it was all meant to make you feel very uncomfortable and alienated. That's why the original is so much better than live or covered versions. The song is meant to make you feel how his drug-riddled depression felt, if even for a few moments. As a kid I didn't get what it meant, I just thought it was such a different/cool sounding song. Growing up and being acquainted with drug addicts and seeing how painful it is for them to survive high to high just unlocks how well this song personifies the grip they succumb to when they need another hit. This song remains in my top 5 All Time best composed songs.

[@AltCTRLF8]

not just the radio, but this was on MTV at least every 2 hours (‘member when they used to play music?)

[@BetterEveryDayYouTube]

MTV was awesome years ago.

[@AltCTRLF8]

@@BetterEveryDayKZbin smh they came up with “The Real World” and it was downhill from there.

[@brainofjtd]

I’m pretty sure it was Closer that they played every two hours lol

[@AltCTRLF8]

@@brainofjtd i think they played both quite often…i mean those videos came out months apart, so…both are probably true!

[@laudanum669]

I got to see NIN from the front row, it was an amazing show and this song live is fantastic.

[@yorcarniel5889]

Brilliant...

[@1jake2ful]

The song is intended to feel a distorted pain

[@chrismeadows4216]

I believe that you're going to love the next Nine Inch Nails song which will cross your path, for entirely different reasons from this song! It's heavy, it's more within your typical style, and it had won Trent many accolades while containing within it the absolute most sensational word options possible! It's going to be awesome, soon enough!!! 😃😄

[@robertromero8452]

You should react to the 2017 version from Panorama in NYC. It’s such an amazing blend of emotion from NIN’s and Cash’s version now that Trent is much older

[@markbennett2196]

loved

[@grahamnash9794]

It's not easy to place any particular emotion, or feeling to match this song. But I can identify with the self loathing aspect of the lyrics. Laced with regret that being life's unclean toilet, and how it left the state of my mind. There's a kind of "here it is, this is what there is of me, take it. You're welcome to it" meaning, that reflects great loss. Like Job in the Bible who lost everything, wife, kids, livestock, land, and health. It's very much a soul searching song that makes me want to seek out all the dirt within me, and get rid of it. (And I know there's a lot of it). I had a powerful urge to put an arm around you during you reaction. And a true reaction will include the shedding of a tear now and then. Music can be written to do just that, and I'm often falling into it's emotional clutches. Especially when music is performed to absolute perfection. Garry Moore, and David Glamour are among the most likely to draw tears from me. They play those guitars with so much powerful emotion, I can't stop tears from emerging. TTFN.

[@chrismeadows4216]

This song brings me back to a place within my early life, between my childhood and my teen years. I'd been medicated for having Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and I'd been prescribed larger and larger doses of SSRIs by my two doctors until I'd been switched to different ones entirely from the ones which I'd initially been started on. It hadn't been caught early enough that I'd also been suffering from recurring depression, and that I'd been experiencing having a lot of invasive thoughts as a result of having severe internal conflicts between my mind and my medications. I'd tried to overstep my boundaries as those medications had left me feeling hollow, because I'd had no idea what was going on with my emotions and I'd thought that those medications would help me if I'd take more of them, and before I'd known it, I'd been flushing them out of my system and telling my mom that I need to live my life without taking them, ever again. I've been doing a lot better since, through finding passions which fulfill me, through expressing myself whenever and however I feel the need to, and through having a positive support system among those around me who care deeply about me. It makes a large difference, when you've got songs like this which help you to find common ground with other people. The Downward Spiral is truly a record which the world had needed to hear, during the exact time in which it was first released.

[@grahamnash9794]

One part of what I failed to mention, was collective feelings of emptiness, nakedness, and like being left in a cold damp featureless cell without even clothes for comfort. From time to time, mental insecurities leave me feeling that way, and sometimes wanting to be in that cell to try and escape the battle between my ears. After over 20 years of depression control meds, I've come to realise that not only are they very addictive, an a way that insane things happen in my head when I try to go without them, but also they make zombies out of anyone lumbered with using them. Taking away all bet extreme emotions, making us cold hearted in many respects. (Like someone I truly care for suffers a tragedy. I feel nothing for them. But I make sympathy noises, and offer comfort. But it's really hard to be genuine about it). Yet, this is the weird bit, I also live with empathy, when that kicks in, it's all feelings. Ever identify with Jekyll and Hyde? I'm so glad that you have the right people around you. There's not a lot worse than feeling alone within yourself, surrounded by people that couldn't understand is you paid them to. I'm still misunderstood a lot of the time, but I've been given good friends in unlikely places that are just great. You keep taking care of yourself my friend. Catch you again soon.

[@wearenotamused6455]

This is from the album... the original. Bowie and Trent duo came later, then Cash covered it seven months before his passing. I've been a NIN fan since 1992 and had every album up to halo 20(this is the indicator Trent Reznor used on the CDs to number the releases, i.e. halo 1, halo 2, halo 3, etc.) which is The Fragile I believe. All that background noise is very intentional, it is used to impose a feeling of uneasiness or chaos or other emotions. Most of the sounds he uses are samples of noises he hears and manipulates such as him blowing through a straw at the mic, then digitizing the hell out of the sample. Or a audio clip from a classic movie set on repeat and distorted with analog.

[@GothDuck]

I wish more reactors would do more NIN and industrial music in general.

[@mustangtravis7489]

They used to close every show with this song! Another great song is "gave up" it's recorded in Sharon Tates house when he lived there and you see Marilyn Manson in the video without makeup for a change!

[@modernlife1321]

Should do the unplugged version where it's just Trent and a piano

[@tylermoseley935]

The left ear is fuzzy because the protagonist shot himself in the left side of the head.

[@omocat4944]

At least was good at one thing.

[@skumflum3768]

I think the noises that almost sounds wrong is the sound of blood in the vanes

[@DanielFleischman-lj5rb]

Listen to "Something I can never have"

[@fuzzydelay7281]

Every version is sad. One is of a struggling drug addict johhy cashes is a man who he he is at deaths door. Both sad as fuck in in different ways

[@xp7575]

One of the greatest songs ever made that no cover will ever be able to come close to, and don't get me wrong cause I love Johnny Cash but his version has nowhere near the power that the original here does

[@wearenotamused6455]

Every cover of this song is a personal one, each person has hurt another in specific ways and this song is your story to yourself, admitting how shitty we all are. Cashes cover was his contemplation of his lifelong battle with drugs and anger and loss, knowing his time was near.

[@elischultes6587]

No argument on the power being conveyed. But I love the tenderness conveyed by Johnny

[@repentbro2938]

Thats your opinion buddy and it wrong johnny cash gave it justice and nade it his own look at the views on youtube and the streams on spotify

[@shaunodonnell5146]

Hurt was originally done by cash. Nine Inch Nails covered it. Cash passed not long after he wrote this. He lost his will when June passed.

[@brainofjtd]

Stop trollin lmao

[@soakedbearrd]

No, just no