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Hedwig and the Angry Inch Soundtrack: 14 song lyrics        28,327 views

From the original soundtrack to the 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Most lyrics adapted from the play script and verified against the soundtrack album. Lyrics for Stephen Trask's other songs (e.g. "Nailed") modified from sources at SongMeanings.net. Note that I've presented the first ten lyrics in the order they appear in the movie - the actual soundtrack album has the order jumbled for some reason.

  1. Tear Me Down
  2. Origin of Love
  3. Sugar Daddy
  4. Angry Inch
  5. Wig In A Box
  6. Wicked Little Town (Hedwig Version)
  7. Hedwig's Lament
  1. Exquisite Corpse
  2. Wicked Little Town (Tommy Gnosis Version)
  3. Midnight Radio
  4. The Long Grift
  5. Nailed
  6. Freaks
  7. In Your Arms Tonight
Hedwig

Don't you know me, Kansas City?
I'm the new Berlin Wall.
Try and tear me down!

I was born on the other side
of a town ripped in two
I made it over the great divide
Well now I'm coming for you

Chorus

Enemies and adversaries
they try and tear me down
You want me, baby, I dare you
Try and tear me down

Hedwig

I rose from off of the doctor's slab
like Lazarus from the pit
Now everyone wants to take a stab
and decorate me
with blood graffiti and spit

Chorus

Enemies and adversaries
they try and tear me down
You want me, baby, I dare you
Try and tear me down

Yitzhak

On August 13th, 1961,
a wall was erected
down the middle of the city of Berlin.
The world was divided by a cold war
and the Berlin wall
was the most hated symbol of that divide
Reviled. Graffitied. Spit upon.
We thought the wall would stand forever,
and now that it's gone,
we don't know who we are anymore.

Ladies and Gentleman,
Hedwig is like that wall,
standing before you in the divide
between East and West,
Slavery and Freedom,
Man and Woman,
Top and Bottom.
And you can try and tear her down,
but before you do,
you must remember one thing! Hey.

Hedwig

Ain't much of a difference
between a bridge and a wall
Without me right in the middle, babe
you would be nothing at all

Chorus

Enemies and adversaries
they try and tear me down
You want me, baby, I dare you
try and tear me down.

Enemies and adversaries
they try and tear me down
You want me, baby, I dare you
try and tear me down.

Hedwig

From East Berlin
to Junction City.
Hello, New York.
Hello, Missouri.
What?
Try and tear me down?

Come on and tear...
Come on and tear...
me down.

Hedwig

When the earth was still flat,
And 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.

(origin of love)
The origin of love
(origin of love)

Now there was three sexes then,
One that looked like two men
Glued up back to back,
They called the children of the sun.
And similar in shape and girth
Was the children of the earth.
They looked like two girls
Rolled up in one.
And the children of the moon
Looked like a fork shoved on a spoon.
They was part sun, part earth,
Part daughter, part son.

Aaahhh... 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."
But Zeus said, "No,
You better let me
Use my lightning, like scissors,
Like I cut the legs off the whales,
Dinosaurs into lizards."
And then he grabbed up some bolts
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 to a hole,
Pulled it round to our belly
To remind us 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,
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 around on one foot,
Looking through one eye.

The last time I saw you
We'd just split in two.
You was 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,
That cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.
We wrapped our arms around each other,
Tried to shove ourselves back together.
We was making love,
Making love.

It was a cold dark evening,
Such a long time ago,
When by the mighty hand of Jove,
It was a sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures,
The story
The origin of love.
That's the origin of love.
Oh yeah.
The origin of love.
The origin of love.
The origin of love.

Hedwig

I've got a sweet tooth
for licorice drops and jelly roll.
Hey sugar daddy, Hansel needs some sugar in his bowl.
I'll lay out fine china on the linen
and polish up the chrome.
If you've got some sugar for me,
Sugar Daddy, bring it home.

Black strap molasses,
you're my orange blossom honey bear.
Bring me Versace blue jeans,
black designer underwear.
We'll dress up like the disco-dancing jet set
in Milan and Rome.
If you've got some sugar for me,
Sugar Daddy, bring it home.

Oh the thrill of control,
like the rush of rock and roll,
it's the sweetest taste I've known.
Oh yeah.
If you've got some sugar, bring it home.

(Looks like we've got some sugar daddies in the house.)
When honey bees go shopping
it's something to be seen.
(You could give me a cavity, honey.)
They swarm to wild flowers
and get nectar for the queen.
(I bet you could fill that cavity, sweetie.)
And everything you bring me
got me dripping like a honeycomb.
If you've got some sugar for me,
Sugar Daddy, bring it home.
(It's a car wash, ladies and gentleman!)

Oh the thrill of control,
like the Blitzkrieg on the roll,
it's the sweetest taste I've known.
Oh yeah.
If you've got some sugar
bring it home.
Come on, Sugar Daddy bring it home!

Whiskey and French cigarettes,
a motorbike with high-speed jets,
a Waterpik, a Cuisinart
and a hypo-allergenic dog.
Oh I want all the luxuries of the modern age,
and every item on every page
in the Lillian Vernon catalogue.

So you think only a woman can truly love a man.
Well you buy me the dress
I'll be more woman
than a man like you can stand.
I'll be your Venus on a chocolate clam shell
rising on a sea of marshmallow foam
If you've got some sugar for me,
Sugar Daddy, bring it home.

It's our tradition to control,
Like Erich Honecker and Helmut Kohl,
(Remember him?)
From the Ukraine to the Rhone.
Sweet home über alles,
Lord, I'm coming home yeah
Come on, Sugar Daddy, bring me home.
(Yeehaw!)

Hedwig

My sex-change operation got botched
My guardian angel fell asleep on the watch
Now all I got is a Barbie Doll-crotch
I've got an angry inch

Chorus

Six inches forward and five inches back
I got a-
I got an angry inch
Six inches forward and five inches back
I got a-
I got an angry inch

Hedwig

I'm from the land where you still hear the cries
I had to get out, had to sever all ties
I changed my name and assumed a disguise
I've got an angry inch

Chorus

Six inches forward and five inches back
I got a-
I got an angry inch
Six inches forward and five inches back
I got a-
I got an angry inch
Six inches forward and five inches back
The train is coming and I'm tied to the track
I try to get up but I can't get no slack
I've got an
Angry Inch Angry Inch

Hedwig

My mother made my tits out of clay
My boyfriend told me that he'd take me away
They dragged me to the doctor one day
I've got an angry inch

Chorus

Six inches forward and five inches back
I got a-
I got an angry inch
Six inches forward and five inches back
I got a-
I got an angry inch
(Long story short!)

Hedwig

Yeah, long story short
When I woke up from the operation
I was bleeding down there
I was bleeding from the gash between my legs
It's my first day as a woman
Already it's that time of the month
But two days later
the hole closed up.
The wound healed
and I was left with a one inch mound of flesh
where my penis used to be
where my vagina never was.
It was a one inch mound of flesh
with a scar running down it
like a sideways grimace
on an eyeless face
It was just a little bulge
It was an angry inch!

Chorus

Six inches forward and five inches back
The train is coming and I'm tied to the track
I try to get up - I can't get no slack
I've got an
Angry Inch Angry Inch

Six inches forward and five inches back
Stay under cover till the night turns to black
I got my inch - I'm set to attack
I've got an
Angry Inch Angry Inch

Hedwig

On nights like this
when the world's a bit amiss
and the lights go down
across the trailer park
I get down
I feel had
I feel on the verge of going mad
and then it's time to punch the clock
I put on some make-up
Turn on the tape deck
and put the wig back on my head
suddenly I'm Miss Midwest
Midnight Checkout Queen
until I head home
and I put myself to bed

I look back on where I'm from
look at the woman I've become
and the strangest things
seem suddenly routine
I look up from my Vermouth on the rocks
a gift-wrapped wig still in the box
of towering velveteen
I put on some make-up
Some LaVern Baker
I'm pulling the wig down from the shelf
Suddenly I'm Miss Beehive 1963
Until I wake up
and I turn back to myself

Some girls they got natural ease
they wear it any way they please
with their French flip curls
and perfumed magazines
Wear it up
Let it down
This is the best way that I've found
to be the best you've ever seen

I put on some make-up
Turn on the eight-track
I'm pulling the wig down from the shelf
Suddenly I'm Miss Farrah Fawcett
from TV
until I wake up
and I turn back to myself

Shag, bi-level, bob
Dorothy Hamill do,
Sausage curls, chicken wings
It's all because of you
With your blow dried, feather back,
Toni home wave, too
flip, fro, frizz, flop

It's all because of you
It's all because of you
It's all because of you

(OK, everybody!)
I put on some make-up
Turn on the eight-track
I'm pulling the wig down from the shelf
Suddenly I'm this punk rock star
of stage and screen
and I ain't never
I'm never turning back

Hedwig

You know, the sun is in your eyes
And hurricanes and rains
and black and cloudy skies.

You're running up and down that hill.
You turn it on and off at will.
There's nothing here to thrill
or bring you down.

Chorus

And if you've got no other choice
You know you can follow my voice
through the dark turns and noise
of this wicked little town.

Hedwig

Oh Lady, luck has led you here
and they're so twisted up
they'll twist you up. I fear

the pious, hateful and devout,
you're turning tricks til you're turned out,
the wind so cold it burns,
you're burning out and blowing round.

Chorus

And if you've got no other choice
you know you can follow my voice
through the dark turns and noise
of this wicked little town.

Hedwig

The fates are vicious and they're cruel.
You learn too late you've used two wishes
like a fool

and then you're someone you are not,
and Junction City ain't the spot, remember Mrs. Lot
and when she turned around.

Chorus

And if you got no other choice
you know you can follow my voice
through the dark turns and noise
of this wicked little town.

Hedwig

I was born on the other side
of a town ripped in two
And no matter how hard I try
I end up black and blue

I rose from off of the doctor's slab
I lost a piece of my heart
Now everyone gets to take a stab
They cut me up into parts

I gave a piece to my mother
I gave a piece to my man
I gave a piece to the rock star
He took the good stuff and ran

Hedwig

Oh God
I'm all sewn up
A hardened razor-cut
Scar map across my body
And you can trace the lines
Through Misery's designs
That map across my body

Chorus

A collage
I'm all sewn up
A montage
I'm all sewn up

Yitzhak

A random pattern with a needle and thread
The overlapping way diseases are spread
Through a tornado body
With a hand grenade head
And the legs are two lovers entwined

Hedwig

Inside I'm hollowed out
Outside's a paper shroud
And all the rest's illusion
That there's a will and soul
That we can wrest control
From chaos and confusion

Chorus

A collage
I'm all sewn up
A montage
I'm all sewn up

Hedwig

The automatist's undoing
The whole world starts unscrewing
As time collapses and space warps, yeah
You see decay and ruin
I tell you "No, no, no, no
You make such an exquisite corpse"

I've got it all sewn up
A hardened razor cut
Scar map across my body
And you can trace the lines
Through Misery's designs
That map across my body

Chorus

A collage
I'm all sewn up
A montage
I'm all sewn up

Tommy
Gnosis

Forgive me,
For I did not know.
'Cause I was just a boy
You were so much more

Than any god could ever plan,
More than a woman or a man.
Now I understand
How much I took from you:
That, when everything starts breaking down,
You take the pieces off the ground
And show this wicked town
something beautiful and new.

You think that Luck
Has left you there.
But maybe there's nothing
Up in the sky but air.

And there's no mystical design,
No cosmic lover preassigned.
There's nothing you can find
that cannot be found.
'Cause, with all the changes
you've been through,
It seems the stranger's always you,
Alone again in some new
Wicked little town.

When you've got no other choice
You know you can follow my voice
Through the dark turns and noise
Of this wicked little town.
It's a wicked little town.
Goodbye, wicked little town.

Hedwig

Rain falls hard
Burns dry
A dream
Or a song
That hits you so hard
Filling you up
And suddenly gone

Breathe Feel Love
Give Free
Know in your soul
Like your blood knows the way
From your heart to your brain
Knows that you're whole

And you're shining
Like the brightest star
A transmission
On the midnight radio
And you're spinning
Like a 45
Ballerina
Dancing to your rock and roll

Here's to Patti
...and Tina
...and Yoko
...Aretha
...and Nona
...and Nico
...and me

And all the strange rock and rollers
You know you're doing all right
So hold on to each other
You gotta hold on tonight
And you're shining
Like the brightest stars
A transmission
On the midnight radio

And you're spinning
Your new 45s
All the misfits and the losers
Well, you know you're rock and rollers
Spinning to your rock and roll

Lift up your hands
Lift up your hands
Lift up your hands
(...repeated to fade...)

Tommy
Gnosis

Look what you've done,
you gigolo.
You know that I loved you, hon,
and I didn't want to know
that your cool,
seductive serenade
was a tool
of your trade,
you gigolo.

Of all the riches you've surveyed,
and all that you can lift,
I'm just another dollar that you made
in your long, long grift

Look what you've done,
you gigolo.
Another hustle has been run,
but now you ought to know
that this fool
can no longer be swayed
by the tools
of your trade,
you gigolo.

I'm just another john you gypped,
another sucker stiffed,
a walk-on role in the script
to your long, long grift.
The love that had me in your grip
was just a long, long grift.

By the gold light of your halo I wanna nail ya
Give you lovin' and devotion that won't ever fail ya'
Wanna run my mouth over your wounds
And you'll fall on the ground
And the holes in your hands and your feet they help to nail you down

Nail ya down
Nailed
Nailed
Nailed
They made you Christ to get ya nailed

When you hover in the night like a holy vision
With the crimson and the purple of your incision
Wanna run my fingers through your hair and over your pale skin
On the fringe, shit, Jesus Christ man, you sure wanna nail him

Get ya nailed
Nailed
Nailed
Nailed
They made you Christ to get ya nailed

He died for me
Died for no one else
He died for no one
And he'd see and complain
Oh the sweet and the sigh, to pain

And your heart is left out naked and exposed
I wish that you had left more to the eye, yeah
And I can't find the words to say I love you
And why and why and why and why and why... ha!

Nailed
Nailed
Nailed
It's just a fight to get ya nailed
They sent you Christ to get ya nailed

We are freaks
We follow the code of freaks
We are freaks
Stand back and that's that
We are freaks
We fuck who we please and do what we choose
We're not bad, we're not diseased or confused

We are freaks
We are butch, we are femme
We are freaks
Look at him, look at them
We are freaks
I know this guy who can suck his own dick
And my mother has a friend who has three tits
T-t-t-true story

We are freaks
We follow the code of freaks
We are freaks
Stand back and that's that
We are freaks
We fuck who we please and do what we choose
We're not bad, we're not diseased or confused

One of us, one of us
One of us, one of us
One of us, one of us
One of us, one of us
One of us, one of us
One of us, one of us

Then I thought I was a freak when I shaved my head and I pierced my dick
Walks like a lumberjack and talks like a lady
With the flannel shirt, steel toe boots, Levi's faded

All hail
She's the king, she's the queen
All hail of the freaks, all the freaks on the scene
From the Bows of the Bowery to the bustle of Bombay
She's the bearded lady of Avenue A
That's the way God planned it
That's the way
That's the way God planned it
That's the way
That's the way God planned it
That's the way
That's the way God planned it
That the way

All hail
She's the king, she's the queen
All hail of the freaks, all the freaks on the scene
From the Bows of the Bowery to the bustle of Bombay
She's the bearded lady of Avenue A
That's the way God planned it
That's the way
That's the way God planned it
That's the way
That's the way God planned it
That's the way
That's the way God planned it
That the way

Running head on
To things that knock me down
Over again
He picked me off the ground
And I wasn't strong enough to fight
Anymore, but in your arms tonight

Hold me close and tight
In your arms tonight
In your arms tonight
In your arms tonight
Oh my love

God only knows
Why I don't just retreat
'Stead of riding the rails
Back to the place of my worst defeat
'Cause I'm not fooling anyone, not quite
Convincing you
But when your arms are in mine

Try not to be strong
Cry 'til it's all gone
If you hold me tight
In your arms tonight
Oh my love

For years you've seen in me
The one who'd be there for you
The way I need you, here tonight
Yeah yeah yeah

In your arms tonight
In your arms tonight
In your arms tonight
In your arms tonight, oh my love, oh yeah

My love...