“I hurt myself today,” Johnny Cash sings in one of the last recordings he made, his poignant cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, “Hurt.” The song couldn’t be more appropriate now, during this week of confusion and heartache and regret. Cash chose to release it towards the end of his life, perhaps as a kind of capstone statement. His tremulous, aged voice takes on a well-deserved dignity that is only fitting for the song’s message. We can only hope that listening to the pain provides a modicum of redemption. Cash sings:
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
