• solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    3 months ago

    you know you’re old when you’re salty about kids thinking the cover version is the original

    • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      I’m old enough to have bought Downworld Spiral on release day, and I think Reznor wrote that song for Cash. It just took him and the the rest of us 20 years to realize it.

        • GiantRobotTRex@lemmy.sdf.org
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          3 months ago

          People say this a lot and I believe it’s based on this quote:

          I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure.

          Many people seem to interpret “that song isn’t mine anymore” to mean “that song is now Cash’s”. But here’s another quote:

          Then I got a CD in the post. I listened to it and it was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. I’d known where I was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive.

          To me, that doesn’t sound like he’s saying it’s Cash’s song now or that Cash’s version is better. It’s more that Cash proved to him that even though this was a deeply personal song about his own life and struggles that he’s not the only one capable of doing it justice. He realized that other talented artists can take that song about him and transform it into a song about them. The song’s not his anymore because it could be anyone’s song.

    • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Right? Like damn, I know that was a good cover but have we already forgotten it was a NiN song?

    • Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I agree, kind of annoying that the person that wrote the song doesn’t get credited for what was said.

      • str82L @lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        In fairness I do believe Johnny somehow managed to do it better, but credit where credit is due.

        • Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Said this before on this platform, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. It’s your opinion that you think Johnny’s version is better.

          I like both versions of the song. They have a different delivery.

          • Lookorex@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            For what it’s worth, Trent Reznor likes Johnny’s version better

            • Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Not until he saw the video. He originally said after listening

              ive it a cursory listen. It sounded… weird to me. That song in particular was straight from my soul, and it felt very strange hearing the highly identifiable voice of Johnny Cash singing it. It was a good version, and I certainly wasn’t cringing or anything, but it felt like I was watching my girlfriend fuck somebody else.

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_(Nine_Inch_Nails_song)

              • scutiger@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                but it felt like I was watching my girlfriend fuck somebody else.

                Some people are into that. Who’s to say Reznor wasn’t?

          • str82L @lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I too like both versions, and actually writing such a powerful song is something Trent deserves huge credit for. Talent all round.

          • ziggurat@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I don’t know how to speak music, but I’ll try. I think the dissonant notes together with i believe micro tonal pitch bending (maybe I don’t know i have bad pitch) in the original better illustrate the discomfort of Trent very poetically.

            Also Cash sensoring the original lyrics is okay, but it doesn’t deliver has hard.

            Don’t get me wrong, both versions are beautiful, and this is just nit picking

        • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 months ago

          That’s only because the US version of Further Down does not contain the live version, which is the best version.

        • frezik
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          3 months ago

          There’s a lot of those. Patti Smith’s “Because the Night” is better than Bruce Springsteen’s performance of the same. Leonard Cohen has a voice that’s something of an acquired taste, so most people prefer Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah”.

          Patti Smith also had an excellent version of “Teen Spirit”, but it’s more of a different take than better, I’d say.

      • str82L @lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I have been in an all out war with autocorrect over the last 24 hours. Appear to have lost that particular skirmish without even realising it.

  • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Considering how much the Cash version changed the meaning and vibe of the song, yeah this is canon now.