When the earth was still flat
and clouds made of fire
and mountains stretched up from the sky, sometimes higher
folks roamed the earth like big rolling kegs
they had two sets of arms
they had two sets of hands
they had two faces peearing out of one giant head
so they could watch all around them as they talked while they read
and then never knew nothing of love
it was before, oh
the origin of love
[origin of love]
the origin of love
[origin of love]
Now there were three sexes then
one that looked like two men glued up back to back
they called them children of the sun
and similar in shape and girth
was the children of the earth
they looked like two girls rolled up in one
but the children of the moon was like a fork shoved on a spoon
they was part-sun part-earth part-daughter part-son
oh
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'd better let me
use my lightning like scissors
like i cut the legs off the whales
dinosaurs into lizards"
and then he grabbed up some bolts
and with a deep mighty laugh
said "i'll cut them right down the middle
gonna split 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 they ripped right through the flesh
of the children of the sun and the moon and the earth
and some indian god sewed the wound up to 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
looking through one eye
The last time i saw you
we'd just split in two
you was looking at me
i was looking at you
you had a way so familiar, i could not recognize
'cause you had blood in 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 'round eachother
tried to shove ourselves back together
we was making love, making love
it was a cold dark evening such a long time ago
when by the mighty hand of job
it was a sad story how we became lonely two-legged creatures
the story of the origin of love
that's the origin of love
[oh yeah]
the origin of love
the origin of love
that's the origin of love