thisengland | Very Important Question about Henry IV, Part I (Reply)

Hi, all! I've been a lurker on this community for a while and enjoy the discussion here. But only tonight did I have an experience that compelled me to turn to this community for advice. For context, I saw a performance of Henry IV, Part I at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia. This was my first time seeing a live performance of this play. As always at ASC, it was a lively fast-paced production -- the venue is a reproduction of Blackfriars Theatre, and I highly recommend seeing one of their shows if you're in the area -- but one particular moment stuck out at me. One of the things ASC includes with their program is music during the intros and intermissions. Specifically, the ensemble plays guitar and sings acoustic versions of various rock and pop songs which, as often as not, reflect some kind of (possibly irreverent and even inappropriate) reference to the events of the play. For instance, when I saw Lear there, the songs included the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" and U2's "Love is Blindness".

During the interlude for this production of H4.1, one of the songs chosen was "Kiss Off" by the Violent Femmes. I think that some explanation was given of how the song related to the play, but I came in too late to hear it. So, members of

thisengland! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell me which character(s) in this play the song "Kiss Off" could apply to. Which character is saying this to whom, and bonus points for alternate universe scenarios in which one of the characters would actually have an opportunity to play it for the other(s). I'd say bonus points for subtext (or, well, for the realization of existing subtext), but that goes without saying.

In case you don't know the song, here's a live performance video from YouTube.

I need someone, a person to talk to
Someone who'd care to love
Could it be you
Could it be you
Situation gets rough
Then I start to panic
It's not enough
It's just a habit
Hey kid you're sick
Darling this is it
You can all just kiss off into the air
Behind my back I can see them stare
They'll hurt me bad but I won't mind
They'll hurt me bad they do it all the time
Yeah yeah, they do it all the time
I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record
Oh yeah well don't get so distressed
Did I happen to mention that I'm impressed
I take one one one 'cause you left me
And two two two for my family
And 3 3 3 for my heartache
And 4 4 4 for my headaches
And 5 5 5 for my lonely
And 6 6 6 for my sorrow
And 7 7 7 for no tomorrow
And 8 8 8 I forget what 8 was for
And 9 9 9 for a lost god
And 10 10 10 for everything everything everything everything

Incidentally, I'm asking this question because I think it's implausible that the song could apply to the play; it's more that there are so many possibilities.

Really, I'd just take an AU with an excuse for Hotspur to wear the T-shirt the lead singer has on in that video.

A couple more notes on the production: (1) During the scene where Poins and Hal are role-playing as Hotspur and Kate, Poins pretended to grab Hal's breast, and Hal smacked his hand; (2) One of the things that I never assigned particular significance to before seeing a live production of this play is that Poins and Hal role-play as Hotspur and Kate. I love the histories, you guys.