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.
Comment on My Empire of Podsols
solsangraal@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
you know you’re old when you’re salty about kids thinking the cover version is the original
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
huf@hexbear.net 4 weeks ago
it happens like that sometimes. see also jimi’s all along the watchtower.
solsangraal@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
there are tons of covers that i love better than the original (if i like the original at all). just one example is lacuna coil’s enjoy the silence
Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Don’t look up something like all along the watch tower…
Written by Dylan and performed by Hendrix.
scaramobo@lemmynsfw.com 4 weeks ago
Narrator: it was not.
the_post_of_tom_joad@hexbear.net 4 weeks ago
Reznor is on record saying it’s cash’s song now so op is only mostly wrong :)
GiantRobotTRex@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks 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.
the_post_of_tom_joad@hexbear.net 4 weeks ago
Thank you for this context.
gazter@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
I’ve witnessed a lot of talk about this song- I love me a good cover- and this is the first time I’ve read this quote. Thanks for that, it gives some great context.
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 4 weeks ago
Reznor wrote that song
That’s the important part.
xantoxis@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Right? Like damn, I know that was a good cover but have we already forgotten it was a NiN song?
MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
I love Fallen Kingdom. Who the fuck is Coldplay?
Anticorp@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
That said, Cash absolutely fuckin nailed that cover. I think it’s way more emotional than the original. I’m sure Trent was proud as fuck at what Cash did to his song.
GunValkyrie@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I know it’s not a popular opinion but I don’t think Johnny cash understood Trents original meaning of the song and turned it into a self aggrandizing song. Especially the change from “I wear this crown of shit” to “I wear this crown of thorns”.
It just doesn’t hit like the NIN version which clearly came from a very personal place.
aphlamingphoenix@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Exactly this. It also lacks the gravity of an entire concept album preceding it and two minutes of static death sounds at the end. It’s a sanitized cover of a song that shouldn’t be sanitized.
Asafum@feddit.nl 4 weeks ago
I think it’s similar, I think the thorns are the pain of regret that he wears for all that he has done. The crown of shit is similar in that it’s worthless, he’s a king of nothing.
mriormro@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
He absolutely did and it’s an unpopular opinion because you’re positing that a song man who’d been in the business for 50 years couldn’t understand the meaning.
He changed the line because of his faith, mostly.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
If his faith was in conflict with the song, he should’ve left it tf alone.
Diddlydee@feddit.uk 4 weeks ago
Johnny Cash always nailed covers. He makes songs I thought were average sound great, and you believe every word he sings.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
As a bonus, his version is way easier to play on guitar.
Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
He’s out and said it’s Johnny’s song now.
OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Unpopular opinion: His versions of One and Rusted Cage are better than the originals.