Quote: Franta said: both versions are awesome kampy!
aye, i didn't mean to sound too harsh on depeche mode's version -- i actually quite liked that song, and the whole albulm. i was just never a huge fan of it, or cash. they were both simply things i knew and appreciated, but i'd never consider either a fav.
Quote: the G-man said: With all due respect, I'm not sure Johnny Cash was sad or beaten when he recorded these songs. He had been ill. However, he was still in the midst of his big comeback with Rick Rubin and they were all recorded before his wife June died.
true. the video of "hurt" (the most popular from his albulm) even featured his wife.
but it was the tone of "hurt" and even the video itself that helped form my opinion. the song, itself, is somewhat depressing with an early 30s, drug-related twinge. but the words take on new depth from cash, as the pace slows, the accoustic strums, the voice wavers, and a lifetime gone-by flashes before his eyes.
"hurt," specifically, is quite touching, with an "i'm old, and soon to go" vibe. the emotion is very curt and very somber, but works on sucha beautiful level. "what have i become" and, more prominantly, "everyone i know goes away in the end" are lines especially meaningful from cash's perspective.
having heard that first, i guess i just sorta carried the mentality over "desperado," which already carries a haunting tune, before cash added his mystiqe. "personal jesus" is clearly the 'lighter' of the three, and i'd even speculate it contains a fun, or upbeat tempo -- moreso than the original. seemingly a "devil maycare" take on life, however ironically titled the song may be. a lifetime of mistakes and humanly desires erased by the willpower of his own, personal mesia. "reach out and touch faith"
