"Tear Me Down" is the opening song of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a play written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. Mitchell also stars as the lead character Hedwig Robinson, an East German boy whose botched sex change stands as the root of the story line. Due to a mistake in eir sex change operation, e has no genitals to speak of, simply an Angry Inch.
The opening scene of the movie has Hedwig walking into a Bilgewater's restaurant, then cuts to her on stage, holding out her arms to reveal a cape which states "Yankee Go Home" on one side, and With Me on the other. The Angry Inch, those ambassadors of Eastern Bloc Rock, begin playing, and the song begins.
The bridge of the song is actually spoken word performed by Yitzak, Hedwig's husband, while illustrations play on slides behind em.
Tear Me Down
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask
Performed by John Cameron Mitchell and Miriam Shor
Hedwig:
I was born on the other side
of a town ripped in two
I made it over the great divide
now I'm coming for you
Hedwig and Backup Singers:
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
Hedwig and Backup Singers:
Enemies and adversaries
they try and tear me down
You want me, baby, I dare you
Try and tear me down
Yitzak:
On August 12, 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 Gentlemen,
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 to tear her down,
but before you do,
you must remember one thing.
Hedwig:
Listen
There 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
Hedwig and Backup Singers:
Enemies and adversaries
they try and tear me down
You want me, baby, I dare you
Try and tear me down
Hedwig (Spoken):
From East Berlin to Junction City.
Hello New York Hello Missouri
What?
Try to Tear Me Down?
Yitzak attempts a big ending, only to have eir microphone disconnected by Hedwig, who sings a final "Tear Me Down" as the band stops playing, and the scene fades. |
