Only A Fool . . .
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here I’ve taken another stab at creating one of my quirky “pop-culture” tarot tableaux, this time marrying Brian Williams’ sly PoMo Tarot to Steely Dan’s equally sly lyrics in “Only A Fool Would Say That” from their first album. It looks like a “match made in heaven” to me because the PoMo Tarot is my favorite deck for sociopolitical commentary. The deck shows its vintage with the likeness of Ronald Reagan in the 6 of Guns.
It would be best to ignore the standard meanings for the selected cards and just go with the images as I did when choosing them. It’s more fun that way. I didn’t conceive of this bit of drollery with April Fool’s Day in mind, it just happened yesterday while I was listening to this tune on my iPod during my morning treadmill walk and needed to figure out which deck would work best with the lyrics. But, as the saying (sort of) goes, “If the Fool fits, grin and bear it.”
Only A Fool Would Say That
(Donald Fagen / Ewart Dewgarde)
A world become one of salads and sun
Only a fool would say that
A boy with a plan, a natural man
Wearing a white Stetson hat
Unhand that gun begone
There’s no one to fire upon
If he’s holding it high
He’s telling a lie
I heard it was you
Talking ‘bout a world where all is free
It just couldn’t be
And only a fool would say that
The man in the street dragging his feet
Don’t wanna hear the bad news
Imagine your face there in his place
Standing inside his brown shoes
You do his nine to five
Drag yourself home half alive
And there on the screen
A man with a dream
I heard it was you
Talking ‘bout a world where all is free
It just couldn’t be
And only a fool would say that
Anybody on the street
Has murder in his eyes
You feel no pain
And you’re younger than you realize
Only a fool would say that
Only a fool (it’s actually “foo-oo-oo-oo-ool” as they go into a brief instrumental break)
I heard it was you
Talking ‘bout a world where all is free
It just couldn’t be
And only a fool would say that
Only a fool would say that
Only a fool would say that
(Solamente un tonto diría eso)
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on April 1, 2023.