A TRIBUTE TO JOHNNY

Three years ago next month, marks the date when we all lost the legendary Johnny Cash.

We miss you Johnny!!

JOHN R (JOHNNY) CASH.....February 26, 1932 to September 12, 2003


Here's another fantastic performance, delivered to us by Johnny........









HURT

Originally written and recorded by the music group, Nine Inch Nails......


This song is about realizing consequence and regret. It sends a powerful message that we should all proceed through life wisely, because there is nothing worse than being stuck with a label, a pain, a sickness, or a death, that we know beforehand will leave us only wishing things had been different and that we could change the choices we made.


This song is reportedly Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails, favorite and is always the final song played at Nine Inch Nails concerts. He considers it the most personal song he has ever written.


Reznor recorded the his album at a house where actress Sharon Tate used to live. Tate was one of the victims in the Manson family murders. Reznor didn't know she used to live there when he rented it.


On Cash's 2002 album American IV, The Man Comes Around, Johnny Cash did a stark cover of this with a striking video. In the video, the 71-year old Cash appears very fragile as he sings this from his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.


Cash played the song over 100 times before he recorded it.


Cash wore no makeup, and there was no attempt to make him look younger or more vibrant through lighting or other effects. This was interspersed with footage of Cash in his younger days.


The video appeared to be Cash's obituary, as he was in failing health after a life filled with drug-abuse. The video was very emotional and drew a lot of media attention, including a story on CNN.


Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails, was very impressed by Cash's take on his song and quite moved by the video.


Cash's video was directed by Mark Romanek. He shot some of the video at the House Of Cash Museum, which contained a lot of Cash's memorabilia but had been closed for years and was damaged in a flood. Romanek felt the museum was an honest and powerful reflection of Cash's life.


Cash's wife, June Carter Cash, appeared in the video and died later that year. Romanek had to convince her to be in the video.


Cash's video was nominated for 7 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video Of The Year. Cash wasn't able to attend because of a stomach ailment. Johnny died about 2 weeks later of complications from diabetes, on September 12th, 2003.


The Cash video won a Grammy for Best Short Form Video. June Carter Cash, who died 4 months before the awards, also won for Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Female Country Vocal.


The Johnny Cash cover, of the Nine Inch Nails song, was used by World Wrestling Entertainment for a video tribute to the late Eddie Guerrero. The video tribute was broadcast on the November 14, 2005 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw a day after Guerrero passed away.


Johnny Cash called this song, "The best anti-drug song I ever heard."




I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar's chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way



UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN......GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS FROM PLANET NORWOOD.................Lj

TRANQUILLITY BASE...............................OUT