April Fool's Weekend found me in a fool's paradise, LaLaLand. So I'm seven days late and several dollars short, but here for your auditory amusement are some tunes in celebration or bemoanment of human folly the chief instance of which is romantic love. Who has never been played for a fool by a charming member of the opposite sex?
Old age is the sovereign cure for romantic folly and I sincerely recommend it to the young and foolish. Take care to get there. Philosophers especially should want to live long so as to study life from all temporal angles.
We have it on good authority that the unexamined life is not worth living. To which I add that the examination ought to be of every age from every age.
Elvis Presley, A Fool Such as I
Ricky Nelson, Poor Little Fool. Those "carefree devil eyes" will do it every time.
Brenda Lee, Fool #1
The Shirelles, Foolish Little Girl
Ricky Nelson, Fools Rush In. "Fools rush in/Where wise men never go/But wise men never fall in love/So how are they to know?"
Sam Cooke, Fool's Paradise. Sage advice. Heed it well, my young friends. A version by Mose Allison. I heard Mose live a number of times back in the '70s, most memorably at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California. Sadly, he died last November. But he made it to 89.
Elvin Bishop, Fooled Around and Fell in Love
The Who, Won't Get Fooled Again
Kingston Trio, Some Fool Made a Soldier of Me
Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Fool
Bill Evans, Foolish Heart
Lesley Gore, She's a Fool
Paul McCartney, The Fool on the Hill
Aretha Franklin, Chain of Fools
Connie Francis, Everybody's Somebody's Fool
Grateful Dead, Ship of Fools
Ketty Lester, I'm a Fool to Want You
"The fool who persists in his folly becomes wise" (William Blake)