Origin of Love - Hedwig

The first time I heard this song, I was at a bar with Andy who proclaimed that he loved this song.  At the time, I had never heard of it but thought it was okay.  Then he explained the song to me and later forced me to listen to it while actually hearing all of the lyrics and the pain in the voice singing it.  I instantly fell in love with the song.  I'm posting this because I know many people who haven't seen the movie or heard the song and I think it's one of those songs that many should not only hear, but listen to and understand.  The lyrics are simple, but effective.  I especially love the line:  

"We wrapped our arms around each other
Tried to shove ourselves back together
We were making love"

For those of you who have seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch, you know of what I speak.  For those who haven't seen it, watch this video...there's even a little animated storyboard to help you follow along.  I'm also posting the lyrics below. Now go rent the movie.

ORIGIN OF LOVE

When the earth was still flat

And the clouds made of fire

And mountains stretched up to the sky

Sometimes higher

Folks roamed the earth

Like big rolling kegs

They had two sets of arms

They had two sets of legs

They had two faces peering

Out of one giant head

So they could watch all around them

As they talked while they read

And they never knew nothing of love

It was before...

The origin of love

The origin of love

And there were three sexes then

One that looked like two men

Glued up back to back

Called the children of the sun

And similar in shape and girth

Were the children of the earth

They looked like

Two girls rolled up in one

And the children of the moon

Was like a fork shoved on a spoon

They were part sun, part earth

Part daughter, part son

The origin of love

Now the gods grew quite scared

Of our strength and defiance

And Thor said,

"I'm gonna kill them all with my hammer,

Like I killed the giants"

But Zeus said, "No-

You better let me

Use my lightning like scissors

Like I cut the legs off the whales

Dinosaurs into lizards"

Then he grabbed up some bolts

He let out a laugh

Said, "I'll split them right down the middle

Gonna cut them right up in half"

And then storm clouds gathered above

Into great balls of fire

And then fire shot down

From the sky in bolts

Like shining blades of a knife

And it ripped right through the flesh

Of the children of the sun and the moon and the earth

And some Indian god

Sewed the up into a hole

Pulled it round to our belly

To remind us of the price we pay

And Osiris and the gods of the Nile

Gathered up a big storm

To blow a hurricane

To scatter us away

In a flood of wind and rain

A sea of tidal waves

To wash us all away

And if we don't behave

They'll cut us down again

And we'll be hopping 'round on one foot

And looking through one eye

Last time I saw you

We had just split in two

You were looking at me

I was looking at you

You had a way so familiar

But I could not recognize

'Cause you had blood on your face

I had blood in my eyes

But I could swear by your expression

That the pain down in your soul

Was the same as the one down in mine

That's the pain

That cuts a straight line down through the heart

We call it love

We wrapped our arms around each other

Tried to shove ourselves back together

We were making love

Making love

It was a cold, dark evening

Such a long time ago

When by the mighty hand of Jove

It was the sad story how we became

Lonely two-legged creatures

It's the story of the origin of love

That's the origin of love

The origin of love

Comments

[Cali]

Oh Jeremy...my love afair with Hedwig began about 7 years ago and it's still goin strong. He had me at "I'm the new Berlin Wall."

ATC just had a run of the show - I hope you had a chance to go see it live - Nick Garrison played Hedwig and was by akl accounts a treat to watch in the role (he guested at Diva Brunch and was so good I couldn't watch cause it's unseemly for the stage manager to cry).