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Grounds for Divorce Lyrics
You said you hate the sound
Of the busses on the ground
You said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town
I said pretend it's whales
Keeping their voices down
Such were the grounds for divorce I know
On the radio
And the bouncing bodies' drone
Found eighteen reasons I can't pick up on the phone
I said look at the clouds
It's a show all on its own
Such were the grounds for divorce I know
But the darling is dead
We hit her on the head
It looked like a wedding cake
Though the darling is dead
We hit it on the head
It looked like a newlywed
But look at the lovers
And they way they stand
And the way they move and the way move their hands
And look at their babies
And their tiny little hands
And the way they get loved and the way they get loved oh
Oh look at the lovers
And they way they stand
And the way they move and the way move and the way move their hands
Said you hate the sound
Of the busses on the ground
Said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town
Said pretend it's wales
And keeping their voices down
Such were the grounds for divorce i know
Looked like a newlywed
On the radio
And the bouncing bodies' drone
Found eighteen reasons I can't pick up on the phone
Said look at the clouds
It's a show all on its own
Such were the grounds, such were the grounds, for divorce I know
Of the busses on the ground
You said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town
I said pretend it's whales
Keeping their voices down
Such were the grounds for divorce I know
And the bouncing bodies' drone
Found eighteen reasons I can't pick up on the phone
I said look at the clouds
It's a show all on its own
Such were the grounds for divorce I know
We hit her on the head
It looked like a wedding cake
Though the darling is dead
We hit it on the head
It looked like a newlywed
And they way they stand
And the way they move and the way move their hands
And look at their babies
And their tiny little hands
And the way they get loved and the way they get loved oh
And they way they stand
And the way they move and the way move and the way move their hands
Of the busses on the ground
Said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town
Said pretend it's wales
And keeping their voices down
Such were the grounds for divorce i know
And the bouncing bodies' drone
Found eighteen reasons I can't pick up on the phone
Said look at the clouds
It's a show all on its own
Such were the grounds, such were the grounds, for divorce I know
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
FuneralCatering, he was not embarassed, he was frustrated that she doesn't understand and it was the end. Anyways, the whole article is here http://www.cokemachineglow.com/feature/interview/wolfparade.html
Such were the grounds for divorce (I know)=my love
Found eighteen reasons I can't pick up on the phone I said look at the (clouds)=sky
But look at the lovers (And they way they stand)=in the telephone stands
And look at their babies (And their tiny little hands)=playing in the sand
"Spencer discussed that lyric in an interview recently. Apparently, he was with a girl who was complaining about the screeching sound buses make, and he told her to pretend they're just big singing whales floating around the city. She told him it was stupid, and I guess he was pretty embarassed about it or something, because he didn't want to elaborate on it to the interviewer. "
haha, this confirms what i was going to write. The song is about an eccentric guy with a girl always telling him his thoughts and ideas are dumb. So the grounds for divorce are his strange thoughts and eccentricities. This is obviously your typical unartistic, girly-girl who can't appreciate a good random thought. Good riddance. Maybe he dumped her anyway :)
I am pretty sure he sings:
"but the darling is dead, we hit her on the head, etc etc"
this is an amazing song, good job on the lyrics.
Good call, that makes a lot more sense
Dude, you got the most important lyric wrong. He sings:
"So pretend it WHALES, keeping thier voices down"
Whales not wheels. This changes the entire meaning of the song. It juxtaposes nature agaisnt technology, and this is the main theme of the song.
j-rob, i would have to disagree
it's talking about a bus anf the different features (brakes, WHEELS), how would "whales" fit into that concept? sorry, but i think you're completely wrong
i think i agree with j-rob. it clearly sounds like "whales" even though it would be easy to say "wheels" (on both the ep and the album). i think the parallel is drawn between buses and whales (which are of similar sizes, at least).
J-Rob is absolutely right... imagine the "scraping" of bus brakes on a shoddy city bus. It's easy to draw a comparison with the "voices" of a whale, because whales use high frequency vocal emissions to communicate. How would pretending the squealing of breaks is the squealing of wheels console someone who was feeling disdain for technology? Escape from the real world is in the abstract, and escape from the manmade world lies in nature, is what that portion of the song is trying to say, I guess. But sometimes I think Wolf Parade lyrics are partially improvised or just random.
J-Rob is right, Spencer discussed that lyric in an interview recently. Apparently, he was with a girl who was complaining about the screeching sound buses make, and he told her to pretend they're just big singing whales floating around the city. She told him it was stupid, and I guess he was pretty embarassed about it or something, because he didn't want to elaborate on it to the interviewer. Anyway, I also changed "but the darling is dead" back to "over the dialing he said", as much as that suggestion made sense during the second repetition, it didn't really during the first.