Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash died yesterday of complications from diabetes. This brought to mind the first time I had heard "Hurt," his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, and how haunted I was by this version. It was sometime last year, I think, and I tried to download it from Kazaa, and all I could find was the NIN version. This summer, in the last class of American History, a bunch of us went to the pub and I asked my professor if he knew whether Johnny Cash covered "Hurt" or if NIN covered Johnny Cash, and he said he didn't know. But he and some others went on to describe how influential Cash had become, and to every genre of music, not just country or western. Ever since early exposure to his music – my dad was a fan – I'd always put Johnny Cash in his own music category. He didn't seem, even when I was young, to have a "slot."

"Hurt" is my kind of song... very dark, simple, brooding lyrics. Maybe some wouldn't ascribe these characteristics to me, but it's a part of my personality that manifests itself in my musical tastes.