Hurt - A Gothic anthem?

 Written by GottVykyng "GothViking" Pasclato
DGM Editor-in-Chief

Trent Reznor wrote "Hurt" in the '90's.  While it was truthful when it came from his lips, it would wait for another to become transcendent. 
(Image via Wikipedia)

If there's an anthem for DarkestGoth Magazine, the song "Hurt" would have to be it.  Written in the '90's by Trent Reznor for his band, Nine Inch Nails, the song deals with the pain of addiction, most often associated with heroine addiction.  While it had power coming from someone in their late '20's-early '30's, it wouldn't truly come to fruition as a song until it had been re-recorded by someone much older.

It wasn't that the song wasn't ready or correct in its original release, but, it wasn't able to ferment until it had some age on it.  And like the winemaking process, it was largely transformed when it was recorded by Johnny Cash just a year before he died. However, had it stopped there, it might've remained a hidden gem--like really amazing brandy that's delivered in out of the way speakeasy joints in moonshine jars. When music video director, Mark Romanek, heard the song, however, he made it his mission to get the contract and shoot it with the elderly Cash at his home.  At the same time, a flood had badly damaged the official Johnny Cash museum in Tenessee, so Romanek had thought to just put images of the damaged museum alongside the footage from Cash' home.  However, they were granted access to Cash' archives of films and, even though Romanek didn't think they needed any of the footage, they decided to just put in one clip and see if it worked.  The results gave them both chills, as the justaposition of an old Cash at the end of his life with the young hellraiser he had been shined a light on the human condition in a way that nothing else could.  They quickly pieced in many more visual parts of his life and the final video is arguably the most incredibly poignant music video we at DGM have ever seen.

While Cash manages to make you realize that the "Hurt" spoken of in the song is about any form of addictive coping mechanisms that hurt us and our family, we as Goths often understand what it is to see the world as painful.  As we see the disconnect between truth and the way much of the external society leads their lives.  For us, sometimes our addictions are about wanting to deaden the hyper-awareness of the pain in the world.  For this reason, it's got to be one that we will always consider an amazing Gothic anthem!

If you've never seen this amazing video, check it out.  Because the lyrics are so awesome, they're included beneath the player.

"Hurt" Lyrics
(as performed by Johnny Cash;
Original Lyrics by Trent Reznor)

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

[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And 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