A few days ago now, I was sitting up late with iTunes on shuffle, as ever. I was considering the sorry state my poor flesh had led me to: my abysmal (I could even say laughable) history in the married-with kids department; my increasingly anaemic self-image of being a writer; and the little incidental fact that I’m now penniless and starving. I was feeling just a little bit sorry for myself.

Suddenly a familiar series of chords came on – something low and maudlin. As I realised I was listening to Midnight Radio from Hedwig and The Angry Inch, it was suddenly as if I was hearing it for the first time:

Rain falls hard
Burns dry
A dream
Or a song
That hits you so hard
Filling you up
And suddenly gone

Artwork by Elise Tomlinson

Instantly I remembered the film – its simple story laden with heavy and epic subtext about a consuming unrequited love that gave birth only to bittersweet music, and the following unrewarded struggle for recognition. What can one love best about this film? The brilliant one liners, the endearing innocence of the artwork? Surely it’s the songs. Without the songs Hedwig would be nothing. Deny what we are and be doomed to nothing. Thanks iTunes.

And haven’t we all wanted a backing group of Korean housewives at some point in our lives?

If you haven’t seen it, watch it. Watch it at least once every six months in fact, particularly if you’re a terminally single and penniless artist. If you watched it and didn’t like it, watch it again until you do, because there’s clearly something you’re really not getting.

Next week Ben will be taking a misty eyed look at Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

• This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 3:27 am and is filed under words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.