This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
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.
Lyrics submitted by lovechild
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this song gives me chills every time... absolutely brilliant, melancholic and mystical, altogether beautiful.
"the 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,"
...that hits me so damn hard, because it's so damn true... anyone who has ever loved someone knows how this feels...
Incredible song with many possible interpretations. For the longest time I thought it stated the main thesis of Hedwig and the Angry Inch as being about being split from your soulmate -- another person somewhere out there in the world. But last night I saw a stage version of the story and it dawned on me that Hedwig is confused. The thing he's been separated from is not his soulmate, but the other half of his own soul.
The lyrics say:
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.
We think that hasn't happened yet, but as the story unfolds, we realize that indeed has happened metaphorically to Hedwig. He's been cleaved in two by his traumatic past.
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.
His other looks familiar because he IS HIMSELF. But he can't recognize him because he is so filled with self-hate. Half of him hates his other half. The story isn't about him reconciling with Tommy or Yitzhak, but with himself.
One of the most powerful songs i've ever heard...
First, anything done by any artists is always left to the individuals interpretation. However, Trask didn't make up the stuff in this song. It's from Symposium by Plato and was written around 400 BC. Read Aristophanes speech in the book and you'll see the explanation of the three sexes, etc. Plato's view on love was vey deep and never superficial. Stephen Trask did an awesome job of making this piece of literature accesible to us all. Anytime an artist can make you full of emotion from examining something they created its worth talking about.
by Kalligraphos on 05-25-2002 @ 05:52:19 PM
to "Bite Me", Usually it's me who is playing the grumbling curmudgeon on lists, ranting at the innane, insipid, content-less posts of others. It's refreshing to see that there are others out there, somewhat younger than me, taking up the banner of meaningful discourse on the Net...
Keep up the good work, kid...
by Bite Me on 05-27-2002 @ 05:54:37 PM
Thank you very much, Kalligraphos.
....now there's some "meaningful discourse"
This song hits my heart, whenever I listen to it. I got the meaning of with love comes pain. Just a brilliant song, it leaves me speechless at the of it.
on a rainy day with headphones and a comfy room, its a beautiful story just for me
This song is wonderful a theory mixed with a song mixed with love the best verse is "last time I saw you...." Powerful stuff.
First of all, I'd like to say to the first five people who contributed comments about this song: WOW, HOW ENLIGHTENING! I guess the meaning of this song is kinda obvious, though. But anyway, for the dopes who actually didn't get it, HERE IS THE MEANING OF THE SONG: It's about trying to get reunited with your soulmate. Children of the sun are gay couples ( like the star/director and songwriter), children of the moon are lesbian couples and children of the earth are straight couples. I think this song also compares the different religions of the past, like they're all just silly myths (The film itself speaks of Christianity, an ancient collection of silly myths that still persists). Now stop posting a bunch of meaningless shit on this site about how "neat" you think these songs are, goddamn it!
If only more contributors were as intelligent as you, turpentine...