Lyrics for Bend to Squares as interpreted by weezerific:cutlery

Bend to Squares Lyrics
Gravitated towards a taste
For foreign films and modern plays
But that machine could only
Bend to squares five to six times
Before your fingers came unwired

Weights down so that you could move forwards
Forwards
So you could move forwards
Forwards

Pinch to snub that restless nerve
And knock the wind from one last urge
With two fingers in a rock glass
Time passed and that was that
Quite a slip, a loosened grasp

Weights down so that you could move forwards
Forwards
So you could move forwards
Forwards

What a way to cut lengthwise
What a way to cut lengthwise
What a way to cut lengthwise
What a way to cut lengthwise

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  • 57 Comments
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massaar
07-04-2002

Rated 0 
this is such a good song.

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constellation
09-07-2002

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death cab for cutie is so amazing. this is a great song.

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strykerchick
03-21-2003

Rated 0 
"Ooh, ooh, what a way to cut lenghtwise"

I love this song for that sentence alone.

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thisboyistocotronic
03-21-2003

Rated 0 
it's just too beautiful for this world...

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Title_Track
03-25-2003

Rated 0 
what the kid above me said.

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Cheesepickle
04-11-2003

Rated 0 
what is this song about? it confuses me.

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fraeulein
06-13-2003

Rated 0 
the line "oooh oooh what a way to cut lengthwise" makes the entire cd for me...

i don't really understand what it means but there is just something about it that is beautiful

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the green eyes
04-10-2004

Rated 0 
"oooh what a way to cut lengthwise"

you cut lengthwise to slit your wrists.

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the green eyes
04-10-2004

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"ooh what a way to cut lengthwise"

you cut lengthwise to slit your wrists.

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fish eat steel
04-29-2004

Rated 0 
i love the voilen in it. :D

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fish eat steel
04-29-2004

Rated 0 
you are correct, this song is about someone killing themselves.

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j.acob
05-12-2004

Rated 0 
my song, mother fuckers

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integrity
05-19-2004

Rated 0 
"Before your fingers came unwired..." slitting your wrist (cutting the wires)

"Quite a slip (a loosened grasp)" losing the grasp on life and passing on.

"Weights down so that you could move forwards " lost the weight of burdens in life to move on to death


its suicide.

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music_man122
06-09-2004

Rated 0 
i really didn't think this song was about suicide but you guys bring out good points.

consider this instead:
i always thought this song was about the "rat race." conforming to a nine to five. "bend to squares" means to fit your life around a calendar. "bend to squares five to six times" is a work week. "what a way to cut lengthwise" is describing how a time-crunching school/work can take the life out of living.

any thoughts on "With two fingers a rock glass,
Time passed and that was that" ? i'm not even sure those are the right lyrics.

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fish eat steel
09-20-2004

Rated 0 
he cut his wrists with a peice of glass maybe?

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Been24
10-24-2004

Rated 0 
I think that to me it seems like selling into a trashy lifestyle. i could be wrong tho, cuz when i saw death cab, they were all drinking so they might not be condemning it. who knows. here goes. "Gravitated towards a taste
For foreign films and modern plays " kind of seems like maybe the social drinker, like a glass of wine. classy.
"But that machine could only
Bend to squares five to six times
Before your fingers came unwired..." that system can only last so long. it's like what they teach u in DARE - at first u get a sensation, then after a while it takes longer and longer to reach that same "high" and then u have to drink/do drugs to be urself.
"Weights down so that you could move forwards
Pinch to snub that restless nerve" u need it to function, and like those people (i have some friends like this, sadly, and im only 16) who have to drink like alone in their rooms cuz they r depressed.
"And knock the wind from one last urge" or like those ones that drink so they can be wild and like hook up with random people at parties, cuz they have low self esteem.
"With two fingers IN a rock glass," like a drink, on the rocks. ? maybe.
"Time passed and that was that
Quite a slip (a loosened grasp) " like, time goes on and u lose control over it.
"... what a way to cut lengthwise..." ur ultimately killing urself with such a habit. if these songs are biographical at all, it makes sense bc of styrofoam plates - about an alcoholic father. i wanna hear what u guys think tho. im rly curious.

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Samuel_8:11
11-08-2004

Rated 0 
Yeah I think you definately on the right track Been24. The other posts I read about it being solely about suicide didnt really seem to fit, but what you said seems to ring true.

It seems like its about being attracted to that "classy, social" lifestyle, but turns out to be a very empty, lifeless existence which ultimately leads to you getting deeper and deeper into the death of it.

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airstrike
11-11-2004

Rated 0 
i agree with been24, specially with the relation between 'two fingers in a rock glass' and drinking/alcohol. 'pinch to snub that restless nerve' also gives a feeling of some sort of drug abuse.

as for the suicidal approach, i don't think ben gibbard is interested in writing that kind of lyrics. i don't have anything against it, i just think they're not into that kind of mood.

i really don't know, it could mean a lot of things. as usual, great lyrics from dcfc that can have lots of different interpretations.

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gun left behind
11-26-2004

Rated 0 
This song seems to be about trying to move on after a relationship. He doesn't know how to do it, so he looks around at all the happy people around him and decides to try and be like them. He gravitates towards a taste for culture and class, and drink casually and socially because that's what everyone seems to do.

But the whole time he's hinting at how you can only "bend to squares five or six times before your fingers came unwired." I think this means you can only do it for so long before you realize it isn't you, that's not the kind of person you are, and it's almost killing you to live like that. The reference someone made to slitting their wrists - and unwiring their fingers - is accurate here.

The part that ends in "...time passed and that was that," seems to reinforce my theory, how after a while time passes and that's that. No gain, no satisfaction. Time's just passed and you're the same person and you're not any happier by living this new lifestyle.

Then he repeats the line, "weights down so that you can move forwards" to bring back to mind what you're doing; dropping the weight and stop living so deeply and emotionally, so you can move on.

The "cut lengthwise" connection between slitting your wrists someone else here made I think is correct, and he's saying that all of this is a fine way to kill yourself. Because you're abandoning the real you. What a way to cut lengthwise.

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vlcmaap
12-03-2004

Rated 0 
I think the "but that machine..." part draws a parallel to how people are machines, or slaves when it comes to their jobs.

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nonnycries
01-06-2005

Rated 0 
I definatley agree with strykerchick. I love that line and the way he sings it.

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Mewtaila
01-08-2005

Rated 0 
Weird... I thought this was a song by the Postal Service for a bit. They're very similar. Ah well.
This is an awesome song. Sad, suicidal, but awesome.

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CanIBeUrStar
01-14-2005

Rated 0 
that's because the singer for postal service (ben gibbard) is also the singer for Death Cab, silly :-P

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Mewtaila
01-22-2005

Rated 0 
Ah. That makes sense then. ^__^

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raydeeyohed
01-22-2005

Rated 0 
fuck j.acob. this song is MINE, sluts.

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