Epic III Lyrics – Hadestown

Song Overview

Personal Review

I still remember the first time I heard “Epic III”: a low-lit bar in New Orleans, the jukebox skipping from brass-band standards to the Hadestown live album like fate tugging a needle. The cut opens with a hush — Reeve Carney’s voice feels fragile, almost uncertain — and then the trombone swells, the rhythm section hits a slow-burn groove, and suddenly the whole room is breathing in 12/8 time. Five minutes later the bar was silent except for someone whispering, “Play it again.” That someone might have been me.

What grabs me most is its fusion of folk storytelling and big-band New Orleans jazz — a “fatty rhythm section” under twin string countermelodies and that now-iconic trombone lead, as composer Anaïs Mitchell once put it . The lyrics read like a parable, but the arrangement aches like a torch song. By the final refrain of “La la la…,” Orpheus isn’t just singing to Hades; he’s singing to every listener afraid of losing the thing they love.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Heavy and hard is the heart of the king… The first line sets up a battle between iron rulership and mortal vulnerability. Orpheus evokes a black-smith’s hammer to hint at industry’s cruelty, then pivots to “a man is a simple one, small and soft.” This tension fuels the entire musical: love versus labor, spring versus endless industry, hope versus rust. In performance the tempo hovers around 60 BPM, giving each image room to settle like coal dust.

Mitchell’s text layers myth with Depression-era imagery — rusty skylines, scarred earth — so Hades becomes equal parts mythic tyrant and robber-baron. The soft shuffle groove underlines Orpheus’ empathy: he is coaxing Hades, not condemning him. When he sings

“But what he doesn’t know is that what he’s defending is already gone.”

Structurally the number echoes a gospel testifying form: verse, refrain, intensification, testimonial break, then communal call-and-response (la la la). That rising arc mirrors the myth’s central dare: can a song soften stone? Many fans argue the 2019 Broadway rewrite feels “less subtle” than the NYTW version, swapping veiled poeticism for direct punches , yet both culminate in the same emotional gut-punch.

“Where is the man with his hat in his hands…?”

Here Orpheus weaponizes nostalgia. He doesn’t attack Hades’ brutality; he reminds him of the day he first tasted Persephone’s nectar, sunlight on her shoulders, pollen sliding from her fingertips. The pastoral image contrasts the ironclad underground, underscoring how progress without compassion curdles into paranoia.

Verse Highlights

Verse 1

The hammer-and-nail metaphor casts Hades’ love as violent inevitability. Orpheus frames labor as a kind of worship — a love that consumes its object.

Chorus

The looping la-la motif is half lullaby, half siren. Mitchell reportedly wrote it to sound “like an old union chant echoing down a mineshaft,” a subtle reminder that the workers are listening too.

Annotations

The pulse of Epic III thrums at the center of Hadestown, charting how the once-adoring King of the Underworld calcified into an iron monarch. Orpheus’ song is half history lesson, half exorcism: each verse chips rust from Hades’ heart, begging it to remember spring. The humanized notes below braid the original annotations into a single-stream meditation so the Epic III Hadestown Lyrics glow with fresh resonance.

Overview

Heavy and hard is the heart of the king.

Orpheus opens with metallurgy; iron and steel echo the “king of diamonds, king of spades” boasts he parried in Epic II. Metal crowns now replace flower crowns, announcing that power has eclipsed passion.

Tools, Nails & Industry

Like the hammer loves the nail.

The simile drips with domination. A hammer “loves” by pounding; likewise Hades “loves” by controlling. The reference loops back to Hadestown’s ceaseless labor beats: clink, clank, rule.

And he comes down heavy and hard on us.

Another swing of that hammer—citizens and wives alike flattened beneath industrial might. The annotation links this to the earlier hammer-&-nail image, underscoring how personal tyranny feeds systemic oppression.

The Man Beneath the Metal

But the heart of a man is a simple one … And all that it loves is a woman.

Orpheus peels away the armor: beneath “king of iron” lies flesh and blood. By flipping the syntax—A woman is all that it loves—he frames Persephone as both sole treasure and final ransom.

Mythic Shadows

And Hades is King of the scythe.

The scythe swings twice: it evokes the Grim Reaper and Cronus, Hades’ father, blending death and inheritance into one lethal emblem. Later lines—scrapes the sky … scars the earth—turn Hadestown into a smoky modern Olympus, its skyscrapers raking heavens while strip mines claw the dirt.

The Garden Flashback

Persephone in her mother’s garden, sun on her shoulders, wind in her hair.

Annotations remind us Demeter’s daughter was handpicked among flowers—a pastoral image that accentuates just how far subterranean rust sits from golden wheat. Orpheus’ tactic is surgical nostalgia: expose the moment Hades ceased to be a tyrant and stood merely, vulnerably, “with a taste of nectar upon his lips.”

‘La la la’: The Love Theme

La la la la la …

The wordless refrain recurs whenever bliss surfaces in Hadestown. Onstage, Hades’ baritone eventually joins Orpheus’ falsetto, their timbres clashing yet harmonizing. One annotation notes London’s staging: Hades snaps to attention, stunned to hear his own courting song reborn from a mortal throat.

Power, Possession & Paradox

The more he has, the more he holds … afraid to let go.

Ownership becomes burden. References to Atlas and Heracles slip beneath the lyric—worlds on shoulders, endless labors—while workers’ earlier chant “keep your head low” boomerangs: now the king himself stoops under wealth’s weight.

But what he doesn’t know is that what he’s defending is already gone.

The annotation doubles this as prophecy: Hades’ marriage is dead on its feet, and Orpheus, too, will discover his own love already lost the moment he doubts. Tragedy rhymes through time.

Treasure & Chest

Where is the treasure inside your chest?

Wordplay flickers—heart as jewel box, Persephone as gem. Orpheus interrogates the king: Where is your pleasure? Where is your youth? He invites Hades to locate the gardener, hat-in-hand, who once had “nothing to lose.”

Convergence

[BOTH] La la la la la la la…

In the end the voices fuse, momentarily aligning oppressor and liberator. One annotation notes the subsequent instrumental “Lover’s Desire,” underscoring how music—not iron—still holds the key to springtime.

Thus the Epic III Hadestown Lyrics operate as a thesis on corrupted love, industrial greed, and the faint but stubborn possibility of renewal—if the hammer ever learns to unclench from the nail.

Song Credits

• Featured: Patrick Page (Hades), Damon Daunno (Orpheus in 2017 live), Company
• Composer / Lyricist / Book: Anaïs Mitchell
• Producers (Cast Album): Mara Isaacs, David Lai, Todd Sickafoose
• Release Date: October 6 2017
• Genre: Folk-jazz musical theatre
• Instruments: Voice, trombone, twin strings (violin & viola), guitar, upright bass, drums, accordion, piano
• Label: Warner Classics / Sing It Again Records
• Mood: Lament turned rallying-cry
• Length: 5 min 51 sec
• Track #: 25 on Hadestown: The Myth. The Musical.
• Language: English
• Poetic Meter: Mostly trochaic tetrameter with strategic spondees
• Copyrights: © 2017 Anaïs Mitchell / Hadestown Holdings LLC

Songs Exploring Themes of Power, Love & Loss

While “Epic III” interrogates how authority hardens the heart, “If I Can’t Love Her” from Beauty and the Beast questions whether self-loathing can be melted by affection. Meanwhile, Sondheim’s “Finishing the Hat” circles devotion to craft over connection — the opposite dilemma Orpheus faces. And Regina Spektor’s “Samson” dissects mythic romance through a whisper; her quiet defiance feels like the negative space around Orpheus’ crescendo. Each song wrestles with sacrifice, memory, and the price of holding on too tight.

Questions and Answers

Why does Orpheus sing rather than fight?

Because in Hadestown, art is the only weapon that slips past Hades’ walls; melody disarms what muscle cannot.

Is “Epic III” a standalone single?

No. It was released as part of the full live album; the Broadway cast later issued a studio take in 2019.

What key is the song in?

D-minor, modulating to F-major for the final chorus to mirror hope rising.

Did the track chart?

The individual song didn’t chart, but the Broadway cast recording debuted at No. 8 on Billboard’s Top Album chart and topped the Broadway Cast Recording list .

Has it been adapted for film?

A professional live capture of the West End production was filmed in February–March 2025 and is slated for release .

Awards and Chart Positions

The parent album won the 2020 GRAMMY for Best Musical Theater Album and helped Hadestown sweep eight trophies at the 73rd Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score . On the business side, that Broadway recording hit No. 8 on the overall Billboard chart — a rare feat for a cast album .

How to Sing?

Orpheus’ vocal line ranges from A2 up to a bright G4. Keep the larynx relaxed on the sustained “la la la” figure; it sits in mixed voice, so anchor the breath low and let resonance carry the phrase. The trickiest passage is the sudden octave leap on “Suddenly, when he saw her there.” Think of it as a glide rather than a jump, aiming the vowel forward to avoid strain.

Fan and Media Reactions

“Epic III, Hades is crying, Persephone is crying, you’re crying, I’m crying.”@ninasfireescape, Tumblr review 2018

“After listening to Epic III I have concluded that Reeve Carney is ACTUALLY the son of a muse.”@collectionofuselessinformation, Tumblr post

“I saw Hadestown live for the first time on Friday and this moment (ending of Epic III) broke me.”@tahtireki, Tumblr 2025

“There has been a change between the off- and on-Broadway versions … the rewriting of ‘Epic III’ has always bothered me.”Caitlin Myers, Medium essay 2023

“From very early on, the instrumentation had this prominently featured trombone … people identified the music as big-band New Orleans jazz.”Anaïs Mitchell, Education Pack interview