Another song about heroin.

Johnny Cash once said "drug abuse runs through this family like turkeys through a cornfield".

Perhaps that's why he was able to produce the second of great songs about drug addiction. The comparison with "just say no" is breathtaking.

The song was in my rotation, and after hearing it a few times, but not actually paying attention, my wife looked up, with a pained expression, and said "that just seems painful". "Of course", I replied.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails actually wrote and popularized the song.

And who put Johnny Cash together with a modern grungy rock song would be an interesting story.

But the masterpiece is Cash's, not Reznor's. Not that I have a beef with Reznor, but, for one, the NIN version of the song is hard to extract the lyrics from. Johnny Cash, as usual, focuses on delivery of the lyrics with precise articulation, with intense emotion.

The song of course is Hurt.

The powerful concept is that addiction drives one away from people. The awesome line:
You are someone else, I am still right here. captures it all. The pain is deep enough from the needle, but even deeper from the lack of socialization, the knowledge that the person here right now trying to help, or offering affection, will eventually leave, tired of abuse.

It's as bleak a vision of drug addiction as could be painted on any canvas, and intensified by the fact that it cannot be rejected as Reefer Madness hysteria.

Google Video Here

Update:
The Wikipedia entry for Hurt answers some of the questions.
A professor of theology at Baylor analyzes Johnny Cash's life during the time he recorded Hurt.
"If I were going to believe in God, it would be the God of Johnny Cash."

Near as I can tell, the internet video has been available for free only recently.