Song
Originally recorded by Nine Inch Nails, the song "Hurt" has been adapted and covered by several artists, including Johnny Cash and Leona Lewis. The song clearly includes references to self-harm and heroin addiction, although the overall meaning of the song is disputed. Some listeners contend that the song acts as a suicide note written by the album's protagonist, as a result of his depression, while others claim that it describes the difficult process of finding a reason to live in spite of depression and pain. Suicide is a major theme of the album, appearing in songs such as "The Downward Spiral" and the unreleased track "Just Do It." The gun violence of "Big Man with a Gun" is occasionally interpreted as an alternative ending to the album – with the protagonist inflicting violence on others, rather than, or possibly in addition to, himself.
Read more about this topic: Hurt (Nine Inch Nails Song)
Famous quotes containing the word song:
“There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist’s relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist’s concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“A song is anything that can walk by itself.”
—Bob Dylan [Robert Allen Zimmerman] (b. 1941)
“Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky—
So this winged hour is dropped to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.”
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)