Most people have never heard of the movie, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." This is unfortunate for many reasons. First, it's a great movie, evolving from a ground-breaking NY play. Second, it touches on (in a positive and uplifting (but not cheesy) way) some very complex themes that are of significance to those outside the transgender community. Finally, the soundtrack was written by one of the best songwriter/composers since Cole Porter- Stephen Trask. The man is pure genius.
On of the songs,
Wicked Little Town, is really two different versions of the same song. The first part is sung by Hedwig, and is a soothing poem to her masculine half, here represented by the androgynous Tommy Gnosis, and the second part is a response from Tommy to the feminine side represented by Hedwig.
As I said, the movie has complex themes... the soundtrack is more so. (And I haven't yet talked about the song written based on Plato's Dialogs!)
Anyway, this song faithfully represents to me both halves of myself struggling to make sense of it all, and of my experiences in Muncie (and around the world).
First, Hedwig's version to the young boy she loves who is in the same situation she was in when she was a young boy, and, the situation I find myself in now.
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
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
Oh Lady Luck has lead 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
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
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
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
And then we have Tommy's reply, also a painful realization of my present condition:
Forgive me,
For I did not know.
'Cause I was just a boy
And you were so much more
Than any god could ever plan,
More than a woman or a man.
And 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 can not 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.
So 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.
Oh it's a wicked, little town.
Goodbye, wicked little town.
Musically, the song is not like anything on the radio. Check out the chord progression on the chorus: G7/D, C, Cm, G, G7, C, Cm, G. The Beatles used to experiment with chord progressions going from major to minor of the same chord, but you just don't hear that kind of stuff anymore. Throw in some arpeggiated bass lines with right hand quarters and you've got an idea.
I'm trying to sing and play this song but am having difficulties because of the interplay of rhythmic patterns throughout the voice and right and left hands. Let alone the fact that I don't know how to sing with any known technique! But I'm trying. The song is so beautiful and the effect is so strong when I've only just barely played it, I can't wait until it's second nature and I can simply emote the song instead of actually trying to play it.
By the way, if you watch the movie, don't confuse how a transsexual looks in everyday life versus how she looks on stage... it is after all, a movie about an eastern European punk-rock band! We don't always wear metallic eye-makeup with sculpted blush! (Well, okay, we do, but there are the in-between moments when we are washing it off!) :)
Many of my friends think that I am against bio-fuels because I never say anything positive about them. Typically, when some unsuspecting soul tells me how great it is that Indiana is getting a resurgence from Bush's bio-fuel push, I start down the path of the Earth and Us being a closed environment, just like goldfish in a bowl, with limited Earth resources, and here I'm talking about the nutrients found in our soil that grows plants that feeds Us and everything we eat (except of course, sea-food, but don't get me started on what we're doing to the marine ecology).
