Two Divided By Zero

'Two Divided By Zero' is the opening track of the band's first studio album, Please.

Production and Recording Edit

Originally, this track was recorded with Bobby Orlando, before Pet Shop Boys signed with Parlophone Records. That version was not released, but the Stephen Hague-produced version which appears on the album is reportedly a fuller version of the original arrangement from 1983 .

The electronic voice reciting the name of the song throughout is a talking calculator which Neil bought for his father. Bobby Orlando apparently loved this sound and wanted to base a whole album around it. The combination of the calculator voice and one of Bobby's unused backing tracks resulted in this song, therefore Orlando is credited as co-writer on this track.

The story of the song is the idea of two people not being separated by anything.

"In the song, maybe there's trouble at home, so the two people are going to run away. In this instance, to New York. The 'when the postman calls…' part of the song comes from the way, when I was a teenager, people were always having pregnancy scares, most of them totally manufactured, I think, for the sheer value of the drama. The suggestion is that one of them is pregnant...you know that there's no way the people in the song are really going to end up in New York."

LyricsEdit

(Two divided by zero, zero)
(Two divided by zero, zero, zero)

Let's not go home
We'll catch the late train
I've got enough money
to pay on the way
When the postman calls
he'll deliver the letter
I've explained everything
It's better that way

(Divided by, divided by)
I think they heard a rumour
(Divided by, divided by)
or someone tipped them off
(Divided by, divided by)
It's better to go sooner
(Divided by, divided by)
than call it all off

We'll catch a plane to New York
and a cab going down
cross the bridges and tunnels
straight into town
Tomorrow morning
we'll be miles away
on another continent
and another day

(Divided by, divided by)
Let's not go home
(Divided by, divided by)
or call it a day
(Divided by, divided by)
You won't be alone
(Divided by, divided by)
Let's run away

(Two divided by zero, zero)
(Two divided by zero, zero, zero)
(Zero)
(Divided by, divided by)
Someone spread a rumour
(Divided by, divided by zero, zero)
(Divided by, divided by)
Better to go sooner
(Divided by, divided by)
Let's run away

So why hang around
for the deed to be done?
You can give it all up
for a place in the sun
When the postman calls
we'll be miles away
on a plane to New York
and another day

(Divided by, divided by)
I think they heard a rumour
(Divided by, divided by)
or someone tipped them off
(Divided by, divided by)
Better to go sooner
(Divided by, divided by)
than call it all off

(Divided by, divided by)
Someone spread a rumour
(Divided by, divided by)
and someone has to pay
(Divided by, divided by)
Let's not go home
(Divided by, divided by)
Let's run away
(Divided by, divided by)
Let's not go home
(Divided by, divided by)
Let's run away
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written by Tennant/Lowe/Orlando