Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

the video for johnny cash's "hurt" is truly, honestly, literally breathtaking. mark romanek constructed a clip that largely cuts between shots of the man in black in his prime and clips of him now, performing pieces of the song in the now-closed house of cash museum. the contrast is intentionally jarring. cash now looks frail, making "hurt" an even more appropriate choice of song for him to sing. his wife, june carter cash, appears in a handful of scenes watching her husband. she appears to nearly be in tears; watching june watch johnny is heartbreaking. she knows that his degenerative condition isn't getting any better - which adds to the punch. and johnny couldn't have sung this song 10, 20, 30 years ago; it's as if trent reznor knew that this wasn't a young man's song and gave it over to cash to take and make his own, which he's done. cash said in a recent interview that "hurt" is a song he would've written in the '60s, were he a better writer. his reinvention of the song is a testament to two things: the fact that reznor is an appallingly underrated songwriter, and the fact of cash's simple brilliance. as chet flippo wrote in a review of american iv: the man comes around last year,
"His voice is ravaged by time, but he has never sounded more like the eloquent voice of the ages."
fortunately, cash's voice will be with us throughout ages to come, even as the man himself stops coming around.