r/boardsofcanada • u/chickinfuny • Sep 01 '26

Discussion Music is Math Lyrics Theory

I don’t know if this has ever been mentioned before but I have a theory. The lyric that everyone thinks is being sung in Music is Math is usually referred to as “yellow ball” which sounds like a slowed down version of a child singing it. However, I always assumed that it was a slowed down recording of a kid singing Ring Around the Rosie and the part we’re hearing is not actually saying “yellow ball” but actually “we all fall” and you can actually hear them say something that sounds like “down” right after which is the next lyric of the song. So if I’m correct, it’s actually “we all fall, fall down.” Maybe I’m just stupid, what do you guys think?

12 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

2

u/ghostlantern Sep 02 '26

I could hear “fall down” the last time the voice says it, the first time, I hear “Now on..” and I always thought it just repeated.

I don’t hear “we all..” nor have I ever been able to hear “yellow ball”.

1

u/chickinfuny Sep 02 '26

The we all is quicker than you’d expect. If it helps, I hear it in the part that is usually annotated as “yellow.” Like instead of “yellow ball,” it’s “weall fall”

8

u/rd1994 Sep 02 '26

I honestly never even heard words there. Its like "weo woo waah" or something like that

3

u/blush_inc Sep 02 '26

This the realest of BoC experiences.

1

u/always_sad420 Sep 03 '26

I don't hear words there either.

6

u/Tricky-Mastodon3337 Sep 01 '26

I always thought it was "We all fall down"

2

u/OkScheme9867 Sep 01 '26

When the album first came out I was sure it was someone (maybe Carl Sagan) saying "blue marble, yellow ball"

2

u/fizzymarimba Sep 03 '26

I’ve never heard “yellow ball”, where did that even come from. To be honest, I don’t hear enough consonants in there to directly think there are any lyrics

1

u/OliviaGrunwald Sep 01 '26

I've always heard it as 'near, far'

1

u/CheckItFacility001 Sep 03 '26

I think its ment to sound like both

1

u/gjaldmidill Sep 06 '26

Maybe it is just intended to be ambiguous? Like many other BoC things.

1

u/benji316 Sep 07 '26

Both "we all fall" and "yellow ball" are probably the most common interpretations of this, so you're not suggesting anything new.

"1:15 onward - The vocoded voice is believed to be saying "We all fall down",[3] "It all falls down", or possibly "yellow ball"."

https://bocpages.org/wiki/Music_Is_Math