Nothing Halo Fourteen
I have recently rediscovered the greatness of Nine Inch Nails and the lyrical genius, Trent Reznor. I only possess The Downward Spiral and The Fragile albums but both are so astounding that they can easily be classified as two of the best albums of the 1990 era.
Although I find it interesting how the changing of one word can totally change the whole concept behind a song. The case I am talking about is Johnny Cash's cover of hurt. Throughout The Downward Spiral album it clearly takes an anti-christian or anti-religious stance with lyrics such as "God is dead, and no one cares" and "Fuck your god, your lord and your christ" and the song Hurt when performed by Nine Inch Nails really has no religious sentiments in the song at all but with the changing of one word Johnny Cash changes the complete meaning behind the song.
In the NIN's version the lyric is "I wear this crown of shit" while Johnny Cash changes the lyric to "I wear this crown of thorns". The simple changing of shit to thorn now totally implies that this song is meant to have a religious aspect to it because the crown of thorns symbolizes Christ, also video contains images of crucification, the last supper and other religious imagery. I'm sure part of the lyric change was because Johnny Cash didn't seem like the type to swear but I don't like the fact that a song which I could listen to without any religious meaning to it is now forever immortalized as a song filled with religious meaning. That didn't come out exactly how I wanted to say it but the words do not seem to flow as smoothly as they do in my head.
I also have realized that some could argue that the pain and suffering that I interpret from the lyrics could be a religious symbol as the suffering of christ but in my opinion judging from the rest of the album that was not its intention, but I guess Trent Reznor would be the one to have final say on that issue. As you can see I have taken issue with a world that puts to much faith into religion.
Although I find it interesting how the changing of one word can totally change the whole concept behind a song. The case I am talking about is Johnny Cash's cover of hurt. Throughout The Downward Spiral album it clearly takes an anti-christian or anti-religious stance with lyrics such as "God is dead, and no one cares" and "Fuck your god, your lord and your christ" and the song Hurt when performed by Nine Inch Nails really has no religious sentiments in the song at all but with the changing of one word Johnny Cash changes the complete meaning behind the song.
In the NIN's version the lyric is "I wear this crown of shit" while Johnny Cash changes the lyric to "I wear this crown of thorns". The simple changing of shit to thorn now totally implies that this song is meant to have a religious aspect to it because the crown of thorns symbolizes Christ, also video contains images of crucification, the last supper and other religious imagery. I'm sure part of the lyric change was because Johnny Cash didn't seem like the type to swear but I don't like the fact that a song which I could listen to without any religious meaning to it is now forever immortalized as a song filled with religious meaning. That didn't come out exactly how I wanted to say it but the words do not seem to flow as smoothly as they do in my head.
I also have realized that some could argue that the pain and suffering that I interpret from the lyrics could be a religious symbol as the suffering of christ but in my opinion judging from the rest of the album that was not its intention, but I guess Trent Reznor would be the one to have final say on that issue. As you can see I have taken issue with a world that puts to much faith into religion.
