songs about math

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1. Handsome Family - Everything that Rises Must Converge:

"When so-called experts try to tell you/That parallel lines will never intersect/Don't listen to them, man/Don't you believe a word/I'm speaking from experience/Everything that floats is gonna run into something/'Cos everything that rises must converge"

2. Schoolhouse Rock - "Three is a Magic Number"

3. Tony Paxton - "It's Arithmetic baby"

Anyone have any more?

J. Weiss (jweiss), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 03:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Weird Al - Polka Patterns (exclusive to Square One, I believe)

Dan I., Tuesday, 23 September 2003 03:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Pixie - d=rt

Charlie Rose (Charlie Rose), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I meant Pixies, of course. Sorry 'bout that.

Charlie Rose (Charlie Rose), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Miami Sound Machine - "1-2-3"

Jeremy (Jeremy), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Bogdan Raczynski, "Samurai Math Beats"
It's about math AND ninjas!

Sonny A. (Keiko), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Lehrer "New Math"

dlp9001, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Modest Mouse, 'Never Ending Math Equation'... and probably more, come to think of it.

derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Violent Femmes - "Add It Up"

weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Boards of Canada - Music is Math
Mos Def - Mathematics

oops (Oops), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:05 (twenty-two years ago)

U FORGOT KRAFTWERK! OMIGOD U R ALL SO FUCKING GAY!!

(um, "numbers" by kraftwerk)

Little Big Macher (llamasfur), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

sesame street to thread!!

geeta, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:11 (twenty-two years ago)

low "tired" ('i'm tired of history, i'm tired of math, i'm tired of long division, i'm tired of the past...')

the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:12 (twenty-two years ago)

violent femmes "add it up" (heh)

the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Fugazi, "Long Division"?
nomeansno, "0+2=1"
whoever does that "you and me and the bottle makes three tonight" song.

doug (doug), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Haircut 100 - "Love Plus One"

weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:18 (twenty-two years ago)

samurais are not ninjas!! common f canibus - makin a name for ourselves

trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

funky 4 + 1!!!!

trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Supernova, "Math" ("Math is hard, I'm not trying/BEING WITH YOU'S LIKE MATH CLASS/And I always get an F...")

Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:27 (twenty-two years ago)

love - 7 and 7 is

gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

eric b & rakim - chinese arithmetic

gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

nicolette - wicked mathematics

gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:38 (twenty-two years ago)

the hives - metric system to time

lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 04:43 (twenty-two years ago)

2gether -U + Me Us (Calculus)

reo fordecor, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 05:07 (twenty-two years ago)

^ =

reo fordecor, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 05:08 (twenty-two years ago)

That equation track on Aphex Twin's Windowlicker single.

Damian (Damian), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Atom And His Package - Fuck The Metric System

"Shove your fucking foot up your fucking ass"

DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Atom And His Package - Fuck The Metric System
"Shove your fucking foot up your fucking ass"

-- DJ Mencap (lackofinteres...), September 23rd, 2003.

So he wants to down the metric system, then slags the imperial?

mei (mei), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Shellac - new number order

mei (mei), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Monkey Steals The Drum : 5x0
Lynskey : Mathematicians World

Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah yr right... in that case I think it's called Hurrah For The Metric System or summat, like the Troy Maclure educational film...

DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

E=MC² - Big Audio Dynamite

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

"When Two Becomes One" Spice Girls (struggling to come to terms with the concept of dividing a number by two)

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:26 (twenty-two years ago)

HIP2 B² - Huey Lewis & The News (or did I miss the point of that one? I must admit I wasn't concentrating too hard at the time....)

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:29 (twenty-two years ago)

"Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for.

But I do know that one and one is two,
And if this one could be with you,
What a wonderful world this would be."

Sam Cooke has the right attitude

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Minutemen - God Bows to Math

"Everything that Rises Must Converge" - I checked to see if that was the same song as the Shriekback song .. (it wasn't.) Surprised to see that there are 4 songs with that title.

dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"Ink Mathematics" - Captain Beefheart
"Two Sevens Clash" - Culture
"Take Five...." - Dave Brubeck
"Five To One" - The Doors
"Nine To Five" - Dolly Parton
"OO7" - Desmond Dekker
Anything by Add N To (X)

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Soul Coughing "4 Out of 5"
Soul Coughing "5% Nation of Casiotone"

nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 12:23 (twenty-two years ago)

1. Handsome Family - Everything that Rises Must Converge:

There's a Shriekback track by the same name.

Also,
"Mathematics of Chaos" by Killing Joke
"Bourbon & Division" by Firewater (har har)

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

"Algie´s Simply Good at Algebra" by Malcolm McLaren & The Botzilla Orchestra

Vincent Vern, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

don't know if anybody's listed these or not:

Bob Seger -- "2+2=?"
Pet Shop Boys -- "Two Divided by Zero"
Laurie Anderson -- Let X = X"
Jimi Hendrix - "If 6 Was 9"
Wire -- "12xU," "A Question of Degree," "Map Ref. 41@N 93@W except
with degree signs instead of at signs"
Billy Preston - "Nothin From Nothin (Leaves Nothin)"
pretty every song from *Multiplication Rock*

chuck, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"Everything that Rises Must Converge" - I checked to see if that was the same song as the Shriekback song .. (it wasn't.) Surprised to see that there are 4 songs with that title.

presumably they're all based on, or at least named for, the flannery o'connor story of the same title.

also:

radiohead, "2+2=5" (how on earth has that gone unmentioned so far?)
scrawl, "1=1"
three dog night, "one"

fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Sleater-Kinney-"The Remainder"

Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

that "ooh baby i know my calculus, you+me=us" song

Felcher (Felcher), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)

The New Year, "One Plus One Minus One Equals One"
Drive Like Jehu, "New Math"
White Stripes, "Black Math"
Mos Def, "Mathematics"
Ladytron, "True Mathematics"
Built To Spill, "Carry The Zero"

Nick Mirov (nick), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

map ref is about geography chuck!!!

geeta 'wins'.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

What's that Jarcrew one?

mei (mei), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Bands about math: The Fibonaccis.

nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 05:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus Jones, "Two and Two"

Jeremy (Jeremy), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 05:16 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd100/d155/d15541g97n7.jpg

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd200/d248/d24887ryj86.jpg

weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 05:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Mathematical words that would make good band names:

The Euclids
H K Lemma

Robin Goad (rgoad), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 11:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Wire "Three Girl Rhumba" -

Think of a number,
divide it by two,
something is nothing,
nothing is nothing.
Open a box,
tear off the lid,
then think of a number,
don't think of an answer.
Open your eyes,
think of a number,
don't get swept under,
a number's a number
A chance encounter you want to avoid,
the inevitable, so you do, oh yes you do the impossible
Now you ain't got a number,
you just want to rhumba,
and there ain't no way you're gonna go under
Go under!

It's math enough for me.

Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

sun city girls 'x + y = fuck you'
linda perhacs - 'parallelograms'

summerslastsound, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Five Per Cent For Nothing YES

David Gates of Delirium, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I forget the exact title of it, but wasn't there a Gary Wilson song called "6.3 = Make Out" or something like that?

Adam Bruneau, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

momus' "minus 5" is not about math.

A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 22:55 (twenty-two years ago)

"Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
’cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman

Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
’cause I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman"

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 25 September 2003 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Sacre Charlemagne - France Gall

Jez (Jez), Thursday, 25 September 2003 07:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Todd Rundgren - No. 1 Lowest Common Denominator

Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 25 September 2003 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)

That equation track on Aphex Twin's Windowlicker single.
-- Damian (spacela...), September 23rd, 2003.

Post a jpeg and I can probably translate it into english!

mei (mei), Thursday, 25 September 2003 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sacre Charlemagne - France Gall"

what does that translate to?

A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 25 September 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Argh, I can't believe someone beat me to the Peechees! That's a great album.

NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 25 September 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sacre Charlemagne - France Gall"

Erm, Sacred Charlie...although the song is all about school work.

Jez (Jez), Friday, 26 September 2003 05:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Jawbox - "FF = 66" Don't ask me what it reveals.

Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 26 September 2003 16:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Broken Social Scene - "Cause=Time"

Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 26 September 2003 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...
your so great. ang gagaling nyo!................................................ADIOS, ASTALAVISTA

DANIEL OCAMPO, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

1% of 1, Steve-o mack

David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

"5-4=Unity"- Pavement

and if you count "Cause=Time" then "Flux=Rad"

Will (will), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

The afforementioned "Numbers" (actually "Nummern") isn't about math, however, "Pocket Calculator" is:

I am adding and subtracting
I'm controlling and composing
I'm the operator with my pocket calculator

christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

eleven years pass...

Uhhhh most of these are just normal songs that have a math-related song title. Come on ILM you can do better than this. I'm trying to make a mix to teach my son some math.

Something like "Got Two Again" by Roger Miller (sample lyric: "21, take away nine. / 12 little children standing in a line. / From that take two, that leaves you ten. / Take away eight and you got two again.")

Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 31 January 2016 21:56 (ten years ago)

XTC senses working overtime

Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 1 February 2016 22:49 (ten years ago)

"Four out of Five" by Soul Coughing

"Her knees thrust in one direction
Like a symbol of math, a symbol meaning Greater Than.

I come recommended by four out of five,
I'm a factor in the whole plan.

Four and five therefore nine,
Nine and nine therefore eighteen,
Eighteen and eighteen therefore thirty-six,
Four and five therefore nine."

frogbs, Monday, 1 February 2016 22:52 (ten years ago)

kate bush - pi obvz

ZESTY O'PRIDE (imago), Monday, 1 February 2016 22:56 (ten years ago)

seven years pass...

"I Can't Do the Sum" from Babes in Toyland (1903):


If a steamship weighed 10,000 tons and sailed 5,000 miles
With a cargo large of overshoes and carving knives and files
If the mates were almost six feet high and the bos'n near the same
Would you subtract or multiply to find the captain's name?
Oh, oh, oh!

(Chorus)
Put down six and carry two
Gee, but this is hard to do
You can think and think and think till your brains are numb
I don't care what teacher says, I can't do the sum

If Clarence took fair Gwendoline out for an auto ride
And if at 60 miles an hour one kiss to capture tried
And quite forgot the steering gear on her honeyed lips to sup
How soon could 20 men with brooms sweep Clare and Gwennie up?
Oh, oh, oh!

(Chorus)

If Harold took sweet Imogene with him one eve to dine
And ordered half the bill of fare with cataracts of wine
If the bill of fare were $13.95 and poor Harold had but four
How many things would Harold strike before he found the floor?
Oh, oh, oh!

(Chorus)

If a woman had an English pug, ten children, and a cat
And tried in seven hours to find a 40-dollar flat
With naught but sunny outside rooms in a neighborhood of tone
How old would those ten children be before they found a home?
Oh, oh, oh!

(Chorus)

If a pound of prunes cost 13 cents at half past one today
And the grocer is so bald he wears a dollar five toupee
And if with every pound of tea he will give two cut glass plates
How soon would Willie break his face on his new roller skates?
Oh, oh, oh!

(Chorus)

Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 20 April 2023 19:13 (three years ago)

Uhhhh most of these are just normal songs that have a math-related song title. Come on ILM you can do better than this. I'm trying to make a mix to teach my son some math.

Something like "Got Two Again" by Roger Miller (sample lyric: "21, take away nine. / 12 little children standing in a line. / From that take two, that leaves you ten. / Take away eight and you got two again.")

― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, January 31, 2016 9:56 PM (seven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This totally worked, btw. Junior Snrub's a goddamn math whiz.

Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 20 April 2023 19:14 (three years ago)


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