https://sandmanjazz.wordpress.com/2020/09/22/30-day-album-challenge-day-22/

Album with a really cool sleeve… hmmm I’m going with Johnny Cash, ‘American IV: The Man Comes Around’ (2002). The album cover was all black which was so perfect for the man in black. Sadly, it was the last album he released before he died.

The cover was a perfect tribute to a great man.

I remember reading it’s the perfect way for the Man in Black to fade to black.

My favorite song on this album is Hurt…Johnny did a cover of the song by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. They’re both good but I do prefer Johnny’s version because it sounds more poignant to me than Trent Reznor’s version.

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 hurtI

f I could start again
A million miles away
I will keep myself
I would find a way

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Trent Reznor

Hurt lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

This song has inspired some interesting writing for me. I’ve hurt myself too, to see if I still feel pain. There are times, I feel so numb I’m not sure I do feel anything.