Johnny Cash: Hurt Meaning

Song Released: 2003

Hurt Lyrics

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...

1. anonymous

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   Apr 2nd 2020 !⃝

   Hurt was released by Johnny Cash on American IV in November, 2002. Six month later, his beloved wife of 35 years, June Carter Cash passed in May 2003. Johnny passed in September 2003.
   Hurt was released by Johnny Cash on American IV in November, 2002. Six month later, his beloved wife of 35 years, June Carter Cash passed in May 2003. Johnny passed in September 2003.
   
   “Hurt” is an elegy recorded by a man facing his own mortality. Every line reveals the depth of Cash’s reflections and his private reckoning.
   
   Diabetes consuming his body. Time running out on his remaining earthly days, his strength dissipated and spent. And his regret for the things he did, and failed to do consuming all his thoughts.
   
   The final stanza reveals forlorn hope that granted one more turn he would be better and make things better for both of them: “If I could start again; A million miles away; I would keep myself; I would find a way.”
   
   
2. anonymous

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   Apr 2nd 2020 !⃝

   Hurt was released by Johnny Cash on American IV in November, 2002. Six month later, his beloved wife of 35 years, June Carter Cash passed in May 2003. Johnny passed in September 2003.
   
   “Hurt” is an elegy recoded by a man facing his own mortality.
   
   Every line reveals the depth of Cash’s reflections and his private reckoning.
   
   Diabeties consuming his body. Time running out on his remaining earthly days, his strength disipated and spent.
   
   And his regret for the things he did, and failed to do consuming all his thoughts.
   
   The final stanza reveals the forlone hope that granted one more turn he would be better and make things better for both of them: “If I could start again; A million miles away; I would keep myself; I would find a way.”
   
3. anonymous

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   Jul 22nd 2019 !⃝

   I sing this song to my baby daughter at least once a week. I totally feel I can relate to it and it makes sense that it may have been written for the writers off spring. Impact of a parent who’s damaged goods! Great lyrics with a Raw vibe!
4. anonymous

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   Feb 4th 2019 !⃝

   im 13 years old and for the first time I listened I understood it.i cried.
   
   I understood everything, his pain and I'm every time thinking at this song.
   
   Maybe trying to don't make the same mistake >?
5. anonymous

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   Jun 15th 2018 !⃝

   It’s not Johnny’s song. It was written by Trent Reznor for the NiN album ‘The downward spiral’ This song is about realising consequence and regret. It sends a powerful message that we should all proceed through life wisely, because there is nothing worse than being stuck with a label, a pain, a sickness, or a death, that we know beforehand will leave us only wishing things had been different and that we could change the choices we made. Explaining the self-loathing nature of the songs on. Trent’s song not Johnny’s song. However, JC does a lovely cover, even Trent was taken aback.
6. anonymous

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   Jan 24th 2018 !⃝

   By the looks of these comments no one has the slightest idea that johnny cash was a drug addict/IV drug user. All the other ideas of what the song meant was great, but if you actually know a thing or two about the artist you'll know it's not about the majority of what you're typing paragraphs about. To keep it simple. The song is about the following;
   1. Drugs/drug addiction
   2. Self worth
   3. Depression
   4. How drugs took a toll on himself and those around him.
   5. Being a "worthless junkie", and the feelings that come with it.
7. anonymous

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   Jan 24th 2018 !⃝

   By the looks of these comments no one has the slightest idea that johnny cash was a drug addict/IV drug user. All the other ideas of what the song meant was great, but if you actually know a thing or two about the artist you'll know it's not about the majority of what you're typing paragraphs about. To keep it simple. The song is about the following;
   1. Drugs/drug addiction
   2. Self worth
   3. Depression
   4. How drugs took a toll on himself and those around him.
   5. Being a "worthless junkie", and the feelings that come with it.
8. anonymous

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   Nov 26th 2017 !⃝

   I assume the last lines "I would keep myself, I would find a way" means he would still make the same choices even if given another chance.
   
   He is who he is and can't change himself. He knows that no matter what he would have still hurt the people in his life. All he can do lament the sort of person he is.
9. anonymous

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   Jul 31st 2017 !⃝

   Its all about life and what your fans want (you) to be. Performers are people with a life and fans just dont understand this unless they have been there and lived this way. So much pain and problems and if someone starts suffering from this its so easy to just quit suffering with whatever they choose to stop suffering with, Look at all the musicians who have died at the age of 27, if that isnt the weirdest thing, , what is with this age of dying at 27, Is there a real place called (The Crossroads) and the quote the (devil) takes your soul at age 27? Then the hurting stops, But Johnny Cash really nails this song.R.I.P Johnny. j.
10. anonymous

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    May 28th 2017 !⃝

    I think when people in the music industry get so high up they are too far gone to come back to the truth being lost.searching for the answer they know they can no longer receive because it was traded for fortune and fame.drugs seems to be the only relief for their mortal bodies while their souls are lost.what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world in exchange for his soul.HASATAN himself wanted the SON to bow down to him and worship him for the world.so HASATAN is in the entertainment business. he hates us all and when we follow him death is the end.i believe thats what mr cash is saying in this song.the more HASATAN gives you the more of yourself he wants.until there is nothing left or until you get tired of him.how can anyone believe or trust HASATAN he is a liar and has been one from the beginning.he tricks people and when ask to give it all up or blasphemed against the FATHER we all know rather we believe in the FATHER or not you blaspheme thats it.HASATAN is not stupid he has to have it in blood.
11. anonymous

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    Jan 15th 2017 !⃝

    "If I could start again
    a million miles away
    I would keep myself
    I would find a way"
    
    If he could start his life over he would stay far away from people that he loved so that he could not make them hurt.
    
    Something that I wish my boyfriend would've done for me.
12. anonymous

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    Nov 28th 2016 !⃝

    Johnny Cash is a legend for creating something very few people could understand. That feeling of being nothing and a nobody. I used to feel like that. Hint that is what the song hurt is about.
13. anonymous

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    Jun 21st 2016 !⃝

    And you could have it all,
    My empire of dirt,
    I will let you down,
    I will make you hurt,
    ________________
    
    I find this part particularly poignant and here is 'my' interpretation:
    
    At this point in the video Cash starts pouring the wine out as if handing over his "empire of dirt" [all he has] to Christ.
    
    It then goes on to show Christ taking a hit with a hammer between different points of Cash's care-free life as if Christ takes the pain for each of Cash's missteps.
    
    Cash goes on to say if he could do it all again, a million miles from where he walked, he would find a way to be better.
14. anonymous

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    Apr 5th 2016 !⃝

    This cover and Carl Sagan's "Pale blue dot" are, in my opinion, two of the greatest recordings ever produced by mankind,I feel that we don't have the right words or definitions gravitas can't even begin to describe the emotional power behind this cover. The only word that keeps coming to mind is "fuck."
15. anonymous

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    Jun 16th 2015 !⃝

    Johnny Cash was person who probably suffered from childhood trauma/abuse.
    
    he therefore had a very low self esteem, he tried to escape the pain through drugs, and he developed a false self who was charismatic, and very much full of positive feelings for himself.
    
    But deep down inside he felt he was nothing, despite his huge success and all his fame and fortune.
    
    His reality of his true self image was one of a low down nobody. With no real self.
    
    He created a new self with fame and fortune and his narcissistic self took over , he was king and everyone loved him.
    
    But he could not love himself for real. He was without a true identity which he felt was worthy of love.
    
    His fans were his redemption, but in the end he still feels worthless, and understands his whole life was based on a gale ideal of who he wanted to believe he could be ie famous, loving and successful.
    
    His life was a confabulation , because , in the end he still had to deal with his feeling of low self worth and his true nature was not loving and good and honourable.
    
    He hurt all those who loved him, he was dirt, his empire turned to dirt.
    
    In the end he had to face the terrible life of destruction he created for himself and those he loved, or tried to love.
    
    "What have I become" he says, "everyone goes away" ,"goes away."

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