Steely Dan performing in 2007. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Steely Dan' page; Becker & Fagen of Steely Dan at Pori Jazz 2007, licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0 International via Wikimedia Commons.]
We finished up part 1 of this analysis by interpreting the part of the Only A Fool Would Say That lyrics that go, "A boy with a plan / A natural man / Wearing a white Stetson hat." The next few verses of the song read, "Unhand that gun begone / There's no one to fire upon / If he's holding it high / He's telling a lie." These verses are references to the line "nothing to kill or die for" in Lennon's Imagine (in Imagine's narrator's ideal world, there are no wars or killing).
The next lines in Only A Fool are the chorus: "I heard it was you / Talkin' 'bout a world / Where all is free / It just couldn't be / And only a fool would say that." "You" is used because Donald Fagen (the lead vocalist on Only A Fool) is directly addressing Imagine's narrator here. A "world where all is free" is, of course, another reference to the ideal world suggested in Imagine; and in the last verse is heard another reference to the Beatles' The Fool On The Hill.
The stanza following the first singing of the chorus of Only A Fool begins, "The man in the street / Draggin' his feet / Don't wanna hear the bad news." "Man in the street" refers to the 'average man', i.e., a man who has, for example, a workaday job. The two lines after that are references to the Beatles' hit song A Day In The Life, the final track on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (released in 1967). In specific, "Draggin'" is a reference to the use of the word "dragged" in the part of the Beatles' song that says, "Dragged a comb across my head", and "bad news" corresponds to the part of the A Day In The Life lyrics that say, "I read the news today, oh boy."
Only A Fool Would Say That
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Lyrics (scroll about half way down in the separate window that opens)
Imagine
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Lyrics
A Day In The Life
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Lyrics
All song lyrics in this post are believed to be used in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (Title 17 U.S. Code).
The stanza following the first singing of the chorus of Only A Fool begins, "The man in the street / Draggin' his feet / Don't wanna hear the bad news." "Man in the street" refers to the 'average man', i.e., a man who has, for example, a workaday job. The two lines after that are references to the Beatles' hit song A Day In The Life, the final track on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (released in 1967). In specific, "Draggin'" is a reference to the use of the word "dragged" in the part of the Beatles' song that says, "Dragged a comb across my head", and "bad news" corresponds to the part of the A Day In The Life lyrics that say, "I read the news today, oh boy."
Only A Fool Would Say That
Listen on YouTube
Lyrics (scroll about half way down in the separate window that opens)
Imagine
Listen on YouTube
Lyrics
A Day In The Life
Listen on YouTube
Lyrics
All song lyrics in this post are believed to be used in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (Title 17 U.S. Code).
