RED IS THE NEW BLACK

Avatarrandom rantings and rabid retorts of a socially-retarded, decidedly high-strung, renewed romantic

arias of the annum - the origin of love

FROM MUSIC AND MADNESS II


One can never be perfect for another, but two can be perfect for each other.





The Origin of Love
John Cameron Mitchell
1999, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Trask, Stephen;
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
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. 

6 redmarks:

January 26, 2011 at 9:25 AM Kane said...

Hi Red, I really love this song. It's been a decade and it still resonates in me.

Kane

January 26, 2011 at 10:48 AM red the mod said...

@Kane It does, doesn't it? Maybe because the philosophy behind it, the one told by Plato in Symposium, as of Aristophanes' speech on the origins of love, is so universal it is resonant through the generations and cultures. And, the movie itself was so memorable. Hey K, it's been a while. Too long, in fact. I miss the dancefloor. :)

January 26, 2011 at 7:41 PM Sean said...

i just downloaded this song a couple of days ago after reading about aristophanes' origin of love in somebody's blog and citybuoy's comment mentioning this song!

January 27, 2011 at 11:21 AM red the mod said...

@Sean That's Désolé Boy's Stories about love (but not love stories) entry. I commented too, on that one. Expounding on the original source of the philosophy, and also on the song mentioned. Great song, right? :)

January 28, 2011 at 12:06 AM Sean said...

it is a great song! thanks red

January 28, 2011 at 12:29 AM red the mod said...

@Sean You're welcome dude.

Post a Comment