How to make your mental train jump the tracks

[chipotle]

Watch the video for the Johnny Cash cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt":

http://www.losthighwayrecords.com/johnnycash/video/440063339_02_100k.asx

(Or if you're using Mac OS X's Windows Media Player, try cutting and pasting the pseudo-URL: mms://windowsmedia.umusic.com/losthighway/440063339_02_100k.wmv -- it'll work. Change the "100" to "250" in either URL if you want the higher bitrate version.)

The disturbing thing about it is that it's a good cover, in a peculiar way--and a very good video. Cash looks like a tired old man now--and the video ties that directly into the song's theme.

Comments

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

This is true, and in an odd way he's still out there--in more recent years he was considered "too country" for country radio. I'm guessing a few albums ago he realized he was going to get more play on independent stations that dealt with roots rock, Americana and other "alternative country," and has been doing very stripped-to-the-bone covers of contemporary songs. A couple other country stalwarts have also gone off in their own directions when they fell off the charts--Willie Nelson's worked with Daniel Lanois, and Dolly Parton has taken the other direction, going off into pure bluegrass. (Her bluegrass cover of "Stairway to Heaven" is just about the weirdest cover I've heard that still works.)

I don't think I'd call the video "jarring," either--more melancholy.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

What I did find jarring was the substitution of 'crown of thorns' for 'crown of shit.' One the one hand, it comes across as being a cheesy concession to propriety; on the other hand, 'crown of shit' is a very Trent Reznor phrase, and Cash wouldn't really be able to make the song entirely his own if it had been left in there. On the third hand, the meaning the substitution conveys, the Jesus imagery... I'm not sure that's really what Cash means to say about himself. Is he saying he's some sort of scorned Messiah? I can conceive of this, but it's a rather heavy bit of allegory to pull off, kind of presumptuous in a way I wouldn't have expected of him... but to be honest I know little about the man and his work, so maybe it's not out of line. On the fourth hand, I don't know what I would have him put in place of 'thorns.'

I found the whole "O Brother" debacle amusing, that this great album had gotten no airplay on country radio because it was actual country music instead of country rock, which is evidently what 'country' has become. There's this undercurrent, this suggestion among those who listen to 'country' music that it's more genuine and pure than rock or pop, more American, and to find out that it basically *is* rock with some steel guitars and cowboy hats... well, you know me. I love watching something cave in when the rot within overwhelms it.