Hedwig and the Angry Inch (soundtrack)
This article possibly contains original research. (February 2015) |
Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Original Cast Recording | |
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Cast recording by | |
Released | 1999 (Broadway cast recording) 2001 (motion picture soundtrack) |
Studio | The Magic Shop (1999) Bearsville (2001) |
Genre | Rock |
Label | Atlantic (1999) Hybrid/Atlantic (2001) |
Producer | Brad Wood (1999) Stephen Trask (2001) |
The cast recording was released in 1999 on Atlantic Records, featuring the original cast (John Cameron Mitchell, Stephen Trask, Miriam Shor, Scott Bilbrey, David McKinley, and Chris Weilding) performing all the tracks written for the stage musical. Hedwig's songs were also recorded for the 2001 film soundtrack by John Cameron Mitchell (lead vocals), Stephen Trask, Miriam Shor, Bob Mould (formerly of Hüsker Dü), Ted Liscinski, Perry L. James, Alexis Fleisig, and Eli Janney. Tommy Gnosis's songs were recorded by Stephen Trask (lead vocals), Miriam Shor, Bob Mould, Ted Liscinski, Perry L. James, Scott McCloud, Eli Janney, Alexis Fleisig, and Johnny Temple.
Track listings
Off-Broadway soundtrack
- "Tear Me Down"
- "The Origin of Love"
- "Random Number Generation" †
- "Sugar Daddy"
- "Angry Inch"
- "Wig in a Box"
- "Wicked Little Town"
- "The Long Grift"
- "Hedwig's Lament"
- "Exquisite Corpse"
- "Wicked Little Town (Reprise)"
- "Midnight Radio"
Film soundtrack (This Soundtrack is not in Film-Performance Order)
- "Tear Me Down"
- "Origin of Love"
- "Angry Inch"
- "Wicked Little Town" (Tommy Gnosis Version) ‡
- "Wig in a Box"
- "The Long Grift"
- "Hedwig's Lament"
- "Exquisite Corpse"
- "Midnight Radio"
- "Nailed" †
- "Sugar Daddy"
- "Freaks" †
- "In Your Arms Tonight" †
- "Wicked Little Town" (Hedwig Version) ‡
Broadway revival soundtrack
- "America the Beautiful" ៛
- "Tear Me Down"
- "The Origin of Love"
- "Deutschlandlied" §
- "Sugar Daddy"
- "When Love Explodes (Love Theme from Hurt Locker: The Musical)"
- "Angry Inch"
- "Wig in a Box"
- "Wicked Little Town"
- "The Long Grift"
- "Hedwig's Lament"
- "Exquisite Corpse"
- "Wicked Little Town (Reprise)"
- "Midnight Radio"
- † = Not a part of the show's score.
- ‡ = Also known as "Wicked Little Town" and "Wicked Little Town (Reprise)".
- ៛ = Usually included as an intro to "Tear Me Down", but here is an individual track.
- § = Usually included as an intro to "Sugar Daddy", but here is an individual track.
Songs
Most of these songs were covered by major artists on the charity album Wig in a Box.
Tear Me Down
"Tear Me Down" is performed by the characters Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) and Yitzhak (Miriam Shor). It is the show's opening number. It contains a spoken section alluding to the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, and its fall on November 9, 1989.
Meaning
"Tear Me Down" introduces Hedwig as a person who has been, just like her home town of Berlin, "split in two". Most obviously she is part-male and part-female, but as the song progresses, we see that she is also a cross between conqueror and victim ("Enemies and adversaries, they try and tear me down"); spirituality and repugnance ("I rose ... like Lazarus" and "decorate/degrade me with blood, graffiti and spit"); accessibility and imprisonment ("Ain't much of a difference between a bridge and a wall").
Notably, Hedwig is compared to the divide between Communist East Germany and capitalist West Germany. Her personal crisis stems from the disparity between these two states and her inability to reconcile them, much as she cannot reconcile her new body ("I rose from off the doctor's slab").
Other versions
- The song was covered by the rock artist Meat Loaf on his 2003 album Couldn't Have Said It Better, adapting some of the lyrics (notably the spoken section about the Berlin Wall) so that the song is instead about Texas and Meat Loaf's own life. (Trask, who composed the music for Hedwig, was much influenced by Meat Loaf's albums when he was growing up. A deleted scene on the Hedwig DVD acknowledges the debt in a roundabout way, as we overhear Hedwig's manager Phyllis Stein (Andrea Martin) arguing about the band's sound on the phone: "MEAT LOAF..?! Bowie!")
- In the same year, the band Spoon covered the song, with Stephen Colbert reciting the spoken part originally performed by Miriam Shor, for a charity tribute album called Wig in a Box, released by Off Records.
Sugar Daddy
"Sugar Daddy" is performed in the musical by the characters Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) and Sgt. Luther Robinson (Maurice Dean Wint in the film).
The divide between
The song was performed by Neil Patrick Harris at the 2014 Tony Awards.
Covers
- Frank Black (Engineered by Joel Hamilton, Produced by Reid Paley, who also appears on guitar) on the charity tribute album Wig in a Box: Songs from & Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Angry Inch
"The Angry Inch" is performed by
The song was covered by
In the film, the song was performed at the fictional Bilgewater's and the song started a fight.
Wig in a Box
"Wig in a Box" is performed in the musical by the character Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) and her band The Angry Inch.
The titular wig in the box is the last present that Hedwig's husband Luther bought her, and the song concerns Hedwig listening to music and trying on wigs, which enables her to escape her present troubles and become whomever she wants. The part of the story in which this song appears is set in 1989, but the song contains references to sound recording (and playing) devices already outdated in 1989; they reflect the time period of each wig style and the character Hedwig assigns to it ("Miss Farah Fawcett on TV," "Miss Beehive 1963,").
Covers
- The Polyphonic Spree on the charity tribute album Wig in a Box: Songs from & Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch
- Lord of the Lost included a version on their 2023 cover album Weapons of Mass Seduction
The Origin of Love
"The Origin of Love" is based on a story from
According to the speech, long ago, humans were composed of two people stuck back-to-back, with two faces and eight limbs. Male-male humans came from the Sun, female-female humans from the Earth and male-female humans from the Moon. The gods, out of jealousy, split them in half. Now, throughout our lives, we are always trying to find our "other half", and sexual intercourse is the only means we have to put the two halves back together; this desire to be one person again is what we call "love". However, it is impossible to fully rejoin two people because it is our souls and not our bodies that most desire to be reunited.
Trask says of the song's form: "When I started writing that song, the only way I could think to write it was as a picture book. So I wrote it, all the images in it, and the way the story gets told, as the language of, like, a Dr. Seuss picture book. If you read the lyrics out loud, they read like a picture book."[1]
While taken from the story within the story in the Symposium, the song deliberately jumbles
According to the
The animation that accompanies the song in the film version was drawn by Emily Hubley.
Covers
- On the album Wig in a Box (a charity cover of the Hedwig soundtrack), "The Origin of Love" is covered separately by Rufus Wainwright and Jonathan Richman.
- Bonnie Pink included a version on her cover album Reminiscence
Wicked Little Town
"Wicked Little Town" is a poetic reflection on the doomed love between two of the characters, Hedwig and
It is notable that a line in the song, "If you've got no other choice, you know you can follow my voice" is literally played out in the story, as Hedwig stalks Tommy around the country from concert to concert, "following his voice." It could also be said that Tommy followed Hedwig's voice, given his hero worship of her, his taking on of the Tommy Gnosis persona she devised, and his theft of her songs. When Tommy sings the reprise, he stops singing at "voice" while the song continues to play, and Hedwig smiles in a reaction shot.
Covers
- The Tommy Gnosis Version
- Ben Jelen on his album Give It All Away
- The Bens on the charity tribute album Wig in a Box: Songs from & Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch
- Bright Light Bright Light on his EP Cinematography
- The Hedwig Version
- The Breeders on the charity tribute album Wig in a Box: Songs from & Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch
- Soft Charisma on the album Life Inside The Robot Man[3]
The Long Grift
"The Long Grift", in the film version, was cut except for the line "Look what you've done." In the stage version, the song is sung by Hedwig's husband Yitzhak, when Hedwig becomes overwhelmed with emotion and is unable to perform the song. The lyrics accuse Hedwig's former lover (Tommy Gnosis) of
Covers
- They Might Be Giants on the charity tribute album Wig in a Box: Songs from & Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Midnight Radio
"Midnight Radio'" is performed by John Cameron Mitchell in both the original off-Broadway play and the 2001 feature film. The song contains a number of references to the inspiring women of rock 'n roll, including Aretha Franklin, Yoko Ono, Nico, Patti Smith, Tina Turner, and Nona Hendryx.
Covers
- "Midnight Radio" was covered by Minus 5 (featuring Peter Buck of REM) on the 2003 charity album Wig in a Box.
- "Midnight Radio" was covered by Dar Williams on her 2008 release, Promised Land.
References
- ^ "Agent Orange: Stephen Trask On Hedwig & The Angry Inch!". Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
- ^ "Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) - Trivia - IMDb" – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ "Wicked Little Town (Hedwig And The Angry Inch Cover), by Soft Charisma". Soft Charisma.