Midnight Radio Lyrics
Burns dry
A dream
Or a song
That hits you so hard
Filling you up
And suddenly gone
Give Free
Know in your soul
Like your blood knows the way
From your heart to your brain
Know that you're whole
Like the brightest star
A transmission
From a midnight radio
And you're spinning
Like a 45
Ballerina
Dancing to your rock and roll
And Tina
And Yoko
Aretha
And Nona
And Nico
And me
You know you're doing alright
So hold on to each other
You gotta hold on tonight
Like the brightest stars
A transmission
On a midnight radio
And you're spinning
Your new 45's
All the misfits
And the losers
Well you know you're rock and rollers
Spinning to your rock and roll
This song serves as something of an Aria in Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." It helps explain Hedwig/Hansel's appeal to music as the lifeline that can keep one afloat through any hardship. But it also brilliantly generalizes to any and all of us who "get it." Young people are disdained, condescended, and "enfringed" routinely for their musical and lifestyle explorations, as expressed in Stephen's references to "misfits and losers." Yet there is an often uspoken solidarity in our collective appreciation of music that others consider noise. That music permeates us, identifies us, and binds us. "Midnight Radio" serves as an appreciation of those of us who could no more forsake our music than we could forsake our breathing. We love it so much we could be found listening, playing or dancing deep into the night. We live individually, yet our individual muses are evidenced collectively. And so the song is a "hang in there!" kind of advocacy message that we should never slip into feeling too alone, that we "misfits" need to honor our musical selves, and each others'.