i think i've posted this before but cash's version of hurt, coupled with the video and the backstory isnt just a decent cover - its one of the most moving pieces of art i've experienced.
for those uninitiated trent reznor wrote the orginal version of hurt and would close his Nine Inch Nails concerts with it. its a very personal account of addiction, loss, and generally fucking life up. its a raw song personal to him.
so when an aging, dying, ex country star decided he wanted to cover it reznor wasnt sure at all. when he did hear the finished version he said 'i feel like i've lost a girlfriend as that song's not mine anymore'. compliments dont come more heartfelt than that.
the video only adds to the pathos. cash is decrepit, his wife appear in the video - the pain looks very real. the montage sweeps his life before you. its a song and video that you experience as opposed to passively enjoy.
june tabor is a beautiful woman - anyone with a voice like that cant be described in any other way. the oysterband are a fantastic folk band. love will tear us apart is, at heart, a quintessentially english plaintive love song.
put em together and you get this:
picture the scene.
you are a sound engineer / record producer in the early sixties.
most of the artists you record use session musicians, trained in the proper traditional playing techniques of the fifties. the drums and basslines are in synch. the performers look like this:
they sing nice songs that mums and dads can listen to with their children.
its nice and safe.
then 4 scousers come in and record this:
this was recorded as the last song of an album recording session. lennon's voice at this point is red raw and close to breaking. they have been recording a mix of covers and, revolutionary at the time, their own numbers - pop stars then, like today, didnt write their own garb.
they have one, maybe two, shots at this before lennons voice completely gives way.
the lads by this time are sweating, shirtless and slapping and shouting to each other so as to hype each other up for the last take. you have never seen anything like this in your time in a british recording studio.
it is perfect. lennon rides his voice to breaking point [you can hear just how close to the edge he is] and the band push him every inch of the way.
the sound of beatlemania captured on record. listen carefully at the end and you can hear an ecstatic mccarteny shout 'YEAH!' as the last cymbals crash - he knows they have utterly nailed it
you as a sound engineer have never seen or heard anything like it.
you have just witnessed the early stages of a cultural revolution.
wp gg.