Exploration of Cover Songs

I have heard many great cover songs throughout my short time on this earth so far, as well as many bad ones.  I have also heard some very bad ones like William Shatners version of Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds or this gem we got from Hillary Duff who if your reading this in the future was a product of the corporate machine known as Disney.  Hillary and her sister were both equally unimpressive as singers and actors.  But this post isn’t about the Duff girls, as much as that pains you to read, and me to write.  No this post is about great cover songs

The song that I am talking about specifically is a Nine Inch Nails song called Hurt

The Lyrics are the main thing that stands out for me.  The lyrics are the main driving force behind the song.  It also has a very slow Speed throughout the song for the most part he its speeds up a little in some spots to help build the Tension and Release, but lets not get ahead of ourselves I will talk about that in a later sentence.  Another way the singer adds depth to the song is by going from soft to loud which helps build the songs Intensity.  The song is sung in a low Pitch for the most part but the singer switches the pitch throughout the song.  The lyrics, speed, intensity, and pitch all help build the tension and release, in the song and does this very well.  The song builds tension by speeding up a little bit getting louder and singing at a higher pitch and then releases the tension by slowing down getting quieter and singing softer.  The song uses Conscious and Sub-Conscious.  The lyrics of the song affect your conscious and play on your sub-consious.

The cover of Hurt was done in 2007 by the one and only Johnny Cash.

The main difference between the two songs is the Pitch.  Johnny Cash sings the song in a lower pitch then Nine Inch Nails.  The Lyrics didn’t change at all when Mr. Cash did the remake and they remain a driving force behind the song.  I think Johnny Cash’s voice fits the song.  It is a perfect song for him to remake.  Johnny Cash also uses Speed to build the tension, as well as the Intensity that comes through in his voice.  Johnny Cash also the pitch, lyrics, speed, and intensity to create Tension and Release in the song, and he does this in the same way going from soft to loud and so on.  I think that Johnny Cash does a better job at this just because of the way his voice sounds.  Once again the song uses Conscious and Sub-Conscious with the lyrics by affecting your conscious and playing on your sub-conscious.

I like both the songs a lot, but I would probably say I like Johnny Cashes version a little bit better.  I herd his version first and I thought that it was one of his own songs.  The song was meant for him, and when he sings it you can hear the hurt in his voice.