![]() ![]() I like the Scorpions best songs (like “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, which would be an uncomfortable weather situation for a hapless boat). The Scorpions of 1980s hair-metal fame are from Germany, so it’s too bad they didn’t find a way to properly channel the spirit of their countryman Sebastian Brant. But it’s hard to tell exactly what the title is supposed to indicate, if anything at all. The tone and tenor of the song morphs from moody to bright to murky, which may describe an experience on a journey with a ship of fools. “Ship of Fools” by the 1970s prog-rock outfit Van Der Graaf Generator is an instrumental, so it’s hard to divine any themes. “Ship of Fools” by Van Der Graaf Generator They are listed here in rough order from my least to most favorite. Here are a few notes on each of the sixteen songs. Indeed, the musical and thematic consistency between the 16 different songs I found called “Ship of Fools” almost indicates some kind of nearly supernatural synchronicity across the deep blue sea of lyrical and musical creativity. I ended up spending ten bucks buying ten more songs, thus creating a playlist that I listened to for several weeks. That situation is also captured several of the songs below.Īfter originally discovering that I owned six songs called “Ship of Fools” by the Doors, Grateful Dead, John Cale, Bob Seger, World Party and Robert Plant, I began searching iTunes for more songs with the same title, and was blown away by the variety I found. They are fools in the most existential sense: they try to navigate their lives with intelligence and wisdom, but cannot seem to sail in a straight line. Instead, they try their hardest to make good decisions. They do not take over the ship as in Plato’s Republic, nor do they rudely debase the ship as in Brant’s satire. In Katherine Anne Porter’s 1962 novel Ship of Fools and the 1965 movie that followed, various characters are unintentionally foolish. The idea of a ship of fools that symbolizes a debased and corrupt world also corresponds to several of the songs below. In Sebastian Brant’s 1494 popular satire Ship of Fools, the fools are disreputable and untrustworthy characters, depicted literally as jesters or clowns who represent various influential clerics, judges and rulers of the era. ![]() This metaphor corresponds to the situation in several of the songs below. In Plato’s original analogy from The Republic, the people on the ship are fools because they have no seamanship skills, and yet are far out at sea in a boat they do not know how to operate. How is it possible that a fairly obscure literary metaphor would inspire so many different songs? What makes the idea of a ship of fools so relevant to modern songwriters, and how do each of their songs imagine the idea? I will examine each song in detail below in search of an answer.Īs I mentioned in my previous blog post, the notion of a ship of fools can describe several different specific situations. This was inspired by my discovery that sixteen different songs with that exact title have been written and performed by major rock, punk, folk and pop artists between 1969 and today, and that several of these songs are remarkably good. It was later than I thought when I first believed you, Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools.A few days ago I began exploring how writers from Plato to Sebastian Brant to Katherine Anne Porter have written about a “Ship of Fools”. It was later than I thought, when I first believed you, Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools. Ship of fools on a cruel sea, ship of fools sail away from me. Though I could not caution all, I still might warn a few: Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools. Time there was and plenty, but from that cup no more. The bottles stand as empty, as they were filled before. It was later than I thought when I first believed you, Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools. ![]() I won't leave you drifting down, but woh it makes me wild, With thirty years upon my head to have you call me child. Saw your first ship sink and drown, from rockin' of the boat, And all that could not sink or swim was just left there to float. I won't slave for beggar's pay, likewise gold and jewels, But I would slave to learn the way to sink your ship of fools. Went to see the captain, strangest I could find, Laid my proposition down, laid it on the line. ![]()
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