the greatest story ever…
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
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
the origin of love
now 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
was 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”
but Zeus said, “no-
you better let me
use my lightning like scissors
like i cut the legs off the whales
dinosaurs into lizards”
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 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
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
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 one down in mine
that’s the pain
that cuts a straight line down through the heart
we call it love
we wrapped our arms around each other
tried to shove ourselves back together
we were making love
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
the origin of love
the origin of love
the origin of love