# Einstein on the Beach

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-on-the-beach/964111>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** theater-stage-dance, music\
**Created:** [May 7, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-on-the-beach/964111 "2022-05-07T12:57:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-on-the-beach/964111/1 "2022-05-07T12:57:12Z")

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At the end of _Einstein on the Beach_, the bus driver tells a “soothing story” about two lovers sitting on a park bench &c.

This one at 4:05:

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/afW7RGY-CQw/hqdefault.jpg "Knee Play 5 (live) - Philip Glass, "Einstein on the Beach"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afW7RGY-CQw)

Does anybody know anything about it, like who wrote those lyrics, and what, if anything, it refers to?

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**Author:** ![kwintenstraler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kwintenstraler/32/10698_2.png) [@kwintenstraler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kwintenstraler)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-on-the-beach/964111/2 "2022-05-07T14:25:07Z")

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Well, these lyrics were written by Mr. Samuel M. Johnson (Two lovers). Different parts were written by different people, Christopher Knowles and Lucinda Childs wrote also different parts of the opera

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2022, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-on-the-beach/964111/3 "2022-05-08T13:42:46Z")

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I found [this link](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/17/slow-man), which states that “Wilson rarely writes his own texts; the first drafts of his shows are drawings, not words. He prefers to take other people’s texts and rearrange them in a way that he thinks will interact effectively with the space,” and that Robert Wilson “invited Samuel M. Johnson, a seventy-seven-year-old black performer, to write two texts, including the final speech about love.”

As for what it “really” means, even the reviewer could not resist speculating in his article.

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**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-on-the-beach/964111/4 "2022-05-08T15:45:38Z")

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Well, that wasn’t what I expected, which was a story about an eggman falling off the wall.