“Forty To One” was co-written by Peter Wolf and Aimee Mann (of Til Tuesday) in 1992, four years before the release of Long Line. It was written about “the odds that sometimes apply to relationships”.
I'm no fool
I knew from the start
There are some who mend
Some who tear apart
I'm no child
I can read a map
You'd have to be dumb
To lose yourself like that
Forty to one
I bet you forty to one
From your fingertips
To your Freudian slips
You're the first to leave any sinking ship
But don't think I
Have been remiss
I know the length of the odds
To a bet like this
Forty to one
I bet you forty to one
Playing it safe it ain't true to my code
So I'll double the odds
And take the riskier road
Deuces are wild
And I'm betting it all
With nothing to count on
To break my fall
Now I'm not saying
That I can tell
There's a hope in hell
Of a second throught
And all I know is a girl who runs
Pretty soon becomes
One who can be caught
Forty to one
I bet you forty to one