Hedwig and the Angry Inch-Origin of Love

Written by Stephen Trask
Inspired by Aristophane's speech in Plato's Symposium
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/sym.htm

::Lyrics::
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
Were 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."
And Zeus said, "No,
You better let me
Use my lightening, like scissors,
Like I cut the legs off the whales
And dinosaurs into lizards."
Then he grabbed up some bolts
And 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 wound 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,
And 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,
Cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.
So we wrapped our arms around each other,
Trying 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.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• hedwig
• and
• the
• angry
• inch
• john
• cameron
• mitchell
• origin
• of
• love
• plato
• stephen
• trask
• symposium
• aristophanes
• mythology

[headalphafemale]

To be one known sex, but to crave the other has to be confusing and painful. Even finding someone to love feels and seems impossible.Happiness isn't easy for everyone, even though most people expect and demand that we all should act the same, but we are all different. Who said we would all get the same share of genes, and develope the same way. Too be imperfect is to be perfect if you can except it as it is, if you aren't hurting anyone else.

[Wateenlangenaamhea]

i love aristophanes theorie about globular spheres cut in half looking for their other half :-P

[YourLittleAmpersand]

My favorite film ever.

[BloodyKisses04]

I love this song so much and movie <3 <3 <3

[rainbowroosters]

@brokensongbrokensoul

it's difficult for people to separate their biological urges from their emotions. your lucky that your love isn't a product of your reproductive programming. everyone else claims to love their significant others, but universally end up with someone of a predetermined sex. whomever you wind up loving should feel honored. i know i'd give up sex for someone who loved me for just me, and i'm sure their are others out there who feel the same.

(p.s. asexuality is HOT!! lol)

[brokensongbrokensoul]

As an asexual, I like to think that there is someone out there who will love me for who I am and stay with me forever. However, it's hard to imagine any guy being okay with a mostly platonic relationship. Almost everyone expects a relationship to include sex. Mine won't, and I'm afraid that I'm going to die alone, unable to find someone who loves me doesn't care about the lack of sex.

[rastrier1]

This is totally brilliant -- in context (in the film), and out (as a presentation of the myth). And great performance.

[orsonlikesgayporn]

Jesus Said the darnest,,,,so did hitler bahahah

[shanwillbriajenn]

dude your a pretty woman

[TheCrazyPeach]

That was beautifully said. Preach it!

[AniMerrill]

That is possibly one of the most heart breaking songs I have ever heard.