Johnny Cash: Hurt Meaning
Song Released: 2003
Hurt Lyrics
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...
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Thank you for helping me understand the song. He lived a tragic life, but he also was beloved by everyone. I'm 13 and he's my favorite singer and I mainly listen to his music
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The song HURT was recorded in 1995 by the group 9" nails. The lyrics as well Mr. Cash's rendition make the song fee like a retrospective on his life. We all know Johnny Cash was a great performer. He recorded over eighty albums to wit.
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To me:
"And you could have it all.
My Empire of Dirt".
Means: all the material possessions of the world are meaningless unless you have people to share your life with. Also all material possessions are worthless when offering them to God- it really touched me -
I think "my sweetest friend" is neither drugs, nor the loved ones, nor Jesus; it's himself (or maybe his physical body).
I could have a better life with "My empire of dirt", but instead I'm injecting myself on this liar's chair. I might have promised and will promise to myself ("my sweetest friend") to turn my life around, but I haven't changed and I won't. (And that's why it's the LIAR's chair.)
This desperation is implied in the last two lines of this verse: "I will let you down / I will make you hurt" meaning:
I know I will let myself down and I will make myself hurt (back to the beginning of the circle).
"You are someone else" meaning he has grown up/matured/changed, but "I am still right here" meaning the core/instincts/habits are still right there. In his case "the drug addiction is still right there".
I like this interpretation a lot, because I'm sure many people (maybe every adult) had these feelings at some point in their lives: you want to make changes in your life, but you can't, you are desperate. You are who your are and you are stuck with it.
In any case: GREAT LYRICS! And thanks to everybody who wrote their own interpretations. I was at a loss understanding the lyrics, before I visited this page. Now, I have an idea I like. :) -
I don't know why everybody keep trying to find a meaning for this song, when the only person who could do it is the author,Trent Reznor. Of course, anyone can have your own interpretation, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be the same as the author's song.
Only the author can explain the real meaning of the song, 'cause he's the only one who knows what he was feeling or trying to express when he wrote the song, all the rest is pure especulation. -
I love that song but I feel bad for Johnny cash I know him when my dad worked with Johnny
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There seems to be a note of regret through
the whole song. We have to deal with painful memories and not repress them with
drugs. We must find a way to deal with the
pain. When we are young we tend to disregard the consequences of emotional pain we tend to be busy projecting our issues onto the outside world. But when we become old it seems too much to deal with anyway. I like the end when he sings "I will keep myself"... I take it as self-acceptance. I wish I had the ability to start all over again... I will still keep myself as I am... but I will also be able to heal the pain... and
healing is all about aelf-acceptance anyway all abou love. -
To me its about his addiction, the pain he caused two wives, and children. All the bad things he did tore apart his friends and family. His regrets on the choices he made in life. Nearing his death he wishes he could of done it better with his life choices. Love this song, and Cash. I think the lyrics are pretty straight forward.
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This song is a meaningful, sad, beautiful song that describes his life in only a few minutes.
Johnny tells the story of his life, getting to the point that hes upset over the fact that he feels alone in the world. he looks back in his past and he thinks how he could've changed everything. Drugs, Relationhips, Career.
"A million miles away" Meaning that if he had the chance to start again he would be away from the distractions of his life that he has at the time of his career. -
This is probably the most eerie song that I think Johnny Cash has written, but undoubtably one of his best besides his classics. This song was not originally written by Mr. Cash, so whatever way people want to interpret it you can, it is all how it is sung. The Nine Inch Nails version definitely is about drugs, Johnny Cash's is different. The original and first verzion was written by Trent Reznor. Trent never could make it big time like Johnny, but regardless Johnny loved the lyrics because like any artist, he connected with it.
The way Johnny Cash sings is eerie because while making the music video, he passed away shortly before he could finish it completely. Hurt is a way that he strikes and connects with his audience, his addictions and his mistakes as a person. He destroyed his life by all that he had done. He felt as if he literally lost everything because of his stardom, and through the stardom he lost himself especially.
In otherwords if Johnny Cash had to start all over again, he would have never become who he was. His passion and love was music, and he is always going to be known as one of the cornerstones of blues and country music, but it is almost a catch 22. He died a legend and with one of the biggest legacies. The Man in Black will always reign through music, but he traded in a simple life for stardom, and similar to a drug addiction, he couldn't kick the habit. RIP Johnny. -
The way i understood it is quit weird, his words were the typical words of borderline personality disorder patient, drugs self mutilation people leaving pushing loved one away being aggressive to them. And then realizing the problem and just wanted a fresh page away from the past and from the memories!
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It is with mixed emotions. No interpretation needed. Mr Cash, an obvious creative artist, intensively deep-thinker. Who reflects not on the sadness of his life only, but of the sadness itself.
The sadness of a lifetime of memories, that will vanish. It is the intensity and thought, of these thoughts, itself which make it heavy.
It is deeper than deep. I get these very emotions watching classic black and white movies, feeling their very thoughts and existence, once.
Not death, the pain of pain or the pain of sadness, the greatest pain. To have been a part of of the Universe from a private perspective, then taken away. -
I hurt myself today,
To see if I still feel,
I focus on the pain,
The only thing that's real,(today as a lifetime, how we hurt ourselves over and over and as we get older we tend to focus on that pain that we inflicted on others, but is really our pain)
The needle tears a hole,
The old familiar sting,
Try to kill it all away,
But I remember everything,(regret is a burden that we all carry, that continues till we die)
[Chorus]
What have I become,
My sweetest friend,(Jesus and those we love the most, what is the sum total of who I am, what I have become. A question that is asked to validate our lifes.)
Everyone I know,
Goes away in the end,(we all die, no matter how great or small, good or bad, the sad reality of it hits home as we draw closer to that day)
And you could have it all,
My empire of dirt,
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt,(what we are, what are life entails, what we have gathered, what we have given(good or bad)what are we really offering to God? We have hurt him and caused him pain, we cannot escape what we have done and who we have hurt)
I wear this crown of thorns,
Upon my liars chair,
Full of broken thoughts,
I cannot repair,(Our own good deeds are not enough, thus the cross of Christ. Our throne is of self kingship, that is of a liar,cheater,hater,and all sins, what can we do to fix this? Nothing in our own power, but Christs, Johnny Cash understood this)
Beneath the stains of time,
The feelings disappear,
You are someone else,
I am still right here,(we have stained our time on this earth with sin, and even if we forget for a moment, we are brought to the edge that we are not god, we cannot escape who we are)
[Chorus]
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 will keep myself,
I would find a way,(the wish to do it all over, the regret, the coming to our senses at the end brings us to god and what he has done for us. Johnny Cash sees life through Jesus and he is now with his sweetest friend -
You can hear the pain in his voice as this is the perfect song for him, he lived his life rough when he was younger and had a lot of regret of the people he wronged or never became close to because of his individualism. Johnny had reassurance in his faith and said that a lot of his regret came from him not doing more about it and the opportunities he had to share his faith with others and didn't take.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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