Nine Inch Nails: Hurt Meaning

Hurt Lyrics

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...

1. anonymous

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   Jun 17th 2020 !⃝

   Being a recovering heroin addict I fully understand what trent was saying in the lyrics of the song. I understand full well about the hurt that heroin addiction brings to ones life. Trent couldn't have written anything more true about the horrors of addiction.
2. anonymous

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   Feb 17th 2012 !⃝

   This song is at the end of The Downward Spiral, a guy has just committed suicide and its kind of the guy who committed suicide telling about it
3. anonymous

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   Aug 19th 2011 !⃝

   The guy that this is a Johnny Cash original is a moron.
   
   This song was written by Trent Reznor
   
   This song is about drug addiction and the Hurt that is has caused.
4. georgie1984

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   Feb 11th 2011 !⃝

   Song lyrics are open completely to anyone's own personal circumstances at the time, this song is about someone who has experienced a huge upheaval in their life and is trying their best in retrospect to start again with the people that they have hurt or pushed away after confronting their problems. Whoever wrote the song knows they have made a huge mistake and they can feel it most, hurt my self today is like reminding yourself everyday of the fuckups you've made in life, and the unrepairable thoughts show that they do care.
   the final verse I think is the key because you don't set out to intentionally hurt anyone your crown of shit helps you do it though. "i will keep myself, I would find a way" is the person knows they are good and no matter what will find away not to cause this hurt again. But that's just my interpretation.
5. anonymous

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   Aug 25th 2010 !⃝

   Johnny cash covered Trent's version of this song. Trent made this originally, FYI.
6. yoursecrtlvur

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   May 31st 2010 !⃝

   Trent Reznor redid the Johnny Cash song. Maybe Trent was going through and feeling the same way Johnny was but really its that deep and sincere because its a Johnny Cash song originally.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Oct 17th 2008 !⃝

   This song is unbelievably deep. I mean, Most NIN songs I listen to seem to be angry at the world. This one is just so full of self loathing.
   It is sad, and one of my favorites.
8. anonymous

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   Jun 17th 2008 !⃝

   This is a monolog.
   he's talking to himself with splitted personality.
   his ego, with his real dreams and his real longings.
   and the ego that was never strong enough to aspire.
   
   the beginning describes when he still makes decissions not for himself but for what others expect for example. and he is used to do so.
   everyone knows the feeling when having made a mistake and totally regret it and want to change it but you can't and your helpless you just want this fucked up feeling to go away.
   
   what have I become my sweetest friend? everyone I know, goes away in the end.
   still he regrets that he made his decisions for the expectations of others he became what others wanted him to become and not what he himself wanted to.
   and he realizes that the others have no REAL importance in his life because sooner or later they will just disappear.
   
   you could have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down, I will make you hurt.
   im not pretty sure about this but somehow I feel it still fits to my interpretation.
   
   I wear this crown of shit, 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
   This describes what he has become, he went the wrong way and what he achieved means shit to him he lied to himself his whole life. The stains of time the unerasable mistakes he made I don't find the right words again.
   you are someone else, talking to his fake ego, I am still right here, his ego, with his real dreams and his real longings.
   
   if I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself, I would find a way
   now that he realizes this, ofcourse he would love to get second chance and if he would get it, he would definitely not lie to himself ever again!
   
   i don't claim this to be the truth. but I think everyone can feel with me.
   my icqnr 115774390
   t0nno (=
9. anonymous

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   Jul 17th 2007 !⃝

   I completely understand what Trent Reznor was going through in this song of addiction and regret.This song is about a dark atmosphere of personal demons Trent Reznor carried through drug addiction and depression etc.This is a personal song that I will love for years to come.
10. anonymous

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    Mar 6th 2007 !⃝

    From the concept album The Doward Spiral, Hurt is the final track, following on from the previous title track (the actual 'the downward spiral' song) which tells the story of a suicide, Hurt follows on as if looking back, after the suicide has taken place...
    
    Many references are enforced by this interpretation; following the events with 'the protanganist' (inwhich the album tells the story of) being involved with drugs "the needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting", deceit "my liar's chair", he realises that he had nothing in life "this crown of s**t", "my empire of dirt"...
11. anonymous

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    Jul 19th 2006 !⃝

    Johnny cash did a cover of this song. Somebody quoted this posting on folsom prison blues, and so it probably deserves it's own entry.
    
    Johnny cash only covers this song, but it covers a subject he was pretty familiar with- addiction. It's about being in emotional pain and trying to use drugs to make it go away, only to build a "kingdom full of dirt" that collapses, leaving the user and everyone else "hurt", and making everything worse in the end.

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