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The Origin of Love 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
And they could watch all around them
And 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 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 rip 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.

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 pain 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,
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
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Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

Wow.

What an amazing song. I mean the story is so great. Really beautiful.

My Opinion

Actually, it's not from the Myth of Er. The Myth of Er deals with souls and the afterlife.

This is taken from Plato's Symposium, and it's from the part when the poet Alcibiades gives his take on the origin of love. Hence the title.

Also, I JUST read the comment that essentially said what I said. Haha.

Sorry. I didn't mean to reply to only YOU. Haha.

It was Aristophanes, not Alcibiades.

Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

I already commented on this song under some other artist, but I just wanted to say this is probably one of the best covers ever done. =P

Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

who sang the original?

Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

The original was from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and in the movie I believe it was John Cameron Mitchell who sang it.

This song makes me cry everytime I hear it, especially when he Rufus says:

"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."

If that's not the perfect description of love, I'll rip out my own heart and eat it.

Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

This follows along with the 'Myth of Er'-- that people were once joined to one another (some homosexual, some hetrosexual) and that Zeus got angry and split them all apart and we spend our entire lives looking for each other.

It's so beautiful...

Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

god, i don't even know why this makes me cry!

i've never seen this theory before...that we were all joined together...

i love it. I've always been a fan of Greek Mythology, but...agh.

Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

This is by far my favorite cover that Rufus has done and he's done some amazing covers. This song just gives me chills.

Cover art for The Origin of Love lyrics by Rufus Wainwright

This song is absolutely beautiful. Rufus's voice is amazing and I think his talent really shines in this song. Especially the verses "The last time I saw you..." you can hear the pain and longing in his voice and it makes me cry. It's so deep and moving. And I know he didn't write the song himself, nor did he sing it originally, but I think this was a wonderful song for him to cover. The song itself is beautiful, and I love the meanings and ideas and symbolism behind it. It's actually based off of Plato's "Symposium" I believe. Regardless, this is by far the best cover he has ever done and it so beautiful. He is a truly gifted man! :]

 
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