Cripple and the Starfish
| "Cripple and the Starfish" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Antony and the Johnsons from the album Antony and the Johnsons | ||||
| Released | 1998 | |||
| Genre | Baroque pop | |||
| Length | 4:11 | |||
| Label | Durtro, Secretly Canadian | |||
| Writer(s) | Antony Hegarty | |||
| Antony and the Johnsons track listing | ||||
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"Cripple and the Starfish" is a song written by Antony Hegarty and performed by Antony and the Johnsons, a Mercury Prize-winning music act from New York City. It was initially released on the compilation CD God Shave the Queen! in 1996. A different recording subsequently appeared on Antony and the Johnsons, the self-titled first album from Antony and the Johnsons recorded in 1998. In 2003, a live version of this song appeared on the split album Live at St. Olave's.
According to an article in Magnet magazine:
As a student at UC Santa Cruz, Antony began writing, directing, producing and starring in musical plays. One of his first efforts was a John Waters-influenced melodrama called Sylvie And Meg. A more original production, staged a few years later in New York City, was titled Cripple And The Starfish. It’s set on a styrofoam island at the end of the world, after the land has been washed away by the greenhouse floods. At this point in the far future, humans have evolved into robotic beings, and the plot concerns the only two people left alive who still have hearts. “And they’re dysfunctional and co-dependent,” says Antony.
While the song may have been featured in the above-mentioned stage production, the precise relationship between the two works—and whether they were created together or if one is derivative of the other—is not indicated.
The lyrics center around the narrator's willingness to accept, and even encourage, abuse from a romantic interest. The chorus says, in part, "It's true I always wanted love to be full of pain...I am so very, very happy, so come on and hurt me I am so very, very happy, so please hit me..." One critic wrote that "Cripple and the Starfish" is an example of how Hegarty informs "emotions with their opposites" and cited the lyrics "I always wanted love to be / filled with pain and bruises" as a way in which the writer-singer "transforms his songs into deliciously painful pleasures."
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Wikipedia