“Tear Me Down,” the opening song from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, came up on the iPod this morning, so I decided to listen to the whole soundtrack. This is a movie I’ve seen at least five or six times, and a CD that I’ve listened to five or six hundred times, maybe more.
So I’m happily singing along (no doubt confusing the folks in the neighboring cubicles), when along comes a song I have never, ever heard before, “The Long Grift.” It must have been on the CD, because I ripped the CD onto the computer to load this to iTunes – but why had I never heard it on the CD?
I’m not sure why you never heard it on the CD, but it’s not in the movie, which explains a little. Actually the first two chords are in the movie, as he’s in the hotel (I think) playing the acoustic guitar alone. He starts to play the song but then stops, and we never hear it again. It’s a shame because I think it’s one of the best songs in the show (which is probably why they included it on the soundtrack).
Yeah, I know the soundtrack isn’t actually the soundtrack – I’m always disoriented for the first ten minutes of the film because they’re not exactly the same versions of the songs – but I could swear I’ve never heard this song before.
Maybe I have, though.
Are you listening to the movie soundtrack, or the earlier off-Broadway show soundtrack (the better version, IMO)? The latter album has a black-and-white cover with pink lettering. The movie soundtrack has the close-up, full-color shot of Hedwig’s face.