[Intro]
[Muted Electric Guitar, Walking Bass Line, Light Snare Brush]
It starts as nothing, just a word
Something half remembered, half heard
Then it grows without a sound
Spreading outward, all around
[Verse 1]
A glance, a joke, a passing line
Gets rewritten every time
What was said becomes what’s claimed
Truth gets stretched and slightly maimed
Every mouth becomes a wire
Passing sparks that climb up higher
No one checks, no one knows
How the story twists and grows
[Pre-Chorus]
One becomes a dozen more
Changing what it was before
Every retelling bends the frame
Until no two are quite the same
[Refrain]
Do you suppose it’s true
(Comin’ all this way from you)
Whisper down the lane
(Will never be the same)
Spoken half in doubt and clue
(Lost in what we think we knew)
Carried fast, but never plain
(Through the grapevine’s chain)
[Chorus]
Time after time
(Caught up in the grapevine)
‘Nother victim, ‘nother crime
(Caught up in the grapevine)
Truth gets redefined
(Through the tangled line)
Facts begin to unwind
(Caught up in the grapevine)
[Verse 2]
Rumor dressed in borrowed clothes
Nobody knows where it goes
Every step it multiplies
Hidden under casual lies
What begins as simple talk
Turns to something you can’t block
By the time it reaches ears
It’s been shaped by hopes and fears
[Pre-Chorus]
No beginning you can trace
No original face
Only echoes of a claim
Carried on without a name
[Refrain]
Do you suppose it’s true
(Comin’ all this way from you)
Whisper down the lane
(Will never be the same)
Every turn it gets renewed
(Twisted, bent, and misconstrued)
What was fact is now in pain
(Inside the grapevine chain)
[Chorus]
Time after time
(Caught up in the grapevine)
‘Nother victim, ‘nother crime
(Caught up in the grapevine)
Lines begin to intertwine
(Bound up in the design)
Lost between yours and mine
(Caught up in the grapevine)
[Bridge – Breakdown, Whispered Vocals, Echoed Claps]
It said this…
(What?)
No, it said that…
(What?)
Wait—who told you that?
It spreads so fast…
You can’t go back…
Once it’s off the track…
[Breakdown – Minimal Instrumentation, Bass Pulse]
Grapevine…
Grapevine…
Nothing stays defined…
[Final Chorus – Full Arrangement, Driving Rhythm, Layered Harmonies]
Time after time
(Caught up in the grapevine)
‘Nother victim, ‘nother crime
(Caught up in the grapevine)
Truth gets redefined
(Through the fractured line)
Nothing left to realign
(Caught up in the grapevine)
[Outro – Fading Guitar Harmonics, Tape-Style Degradation]
What was said…
What is heard…
Never match…
Not a word…
(So absurd)
From the album “Stranger Than Fiction“