What do you think Fool means?

Cat Power: Fool Meaning

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Album cover for Fool album cover

Fool Lyrics

Apartment in New York, London and Paris
Where will we rest, we’re all living on top of it
It’s all that we have the USA is our daily bread
And no one is willing to share it

Why can’t we see our fortunancy
Living as legends have...

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  1. anonymous
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     Oct 13th 2012 !⃝

    I think it's about society. The realisation of what society (more specifically Americans but not necessarily) is about. About what we have, and what we do to get that(and that most of the times we don't realise). In our society it seems like the only good is wealth and this song breaks with that idea. It criticises that we'd do anything to have money. Rich countries getting richer while others are dying (no crime and no presence) and we don't see it. Something normal to us, something nobody questions (and you're so silent). And we just don't realise, we keep living like robots and when there's "a direct hit of the senses" (a call of atention) we ignore it and disconnect. It's not that it's bad it's not that it's death, that's anybody's point of view "What's wrong about money? It's not like a murder". We decide to ignore it.
    I love this song, and this is my opinion about it

  2. anonymous
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     Jan 20th 2011 !⃝

    i think it's about her

  3. jumbomingus
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     Oct 18th 2008 !⃝

    A very haunting, touching song. Hard to interpret much of it --- very cryptic. It seems to be very much about SOMETHING, though, as opposed to songs that sound like people reading off vanity plates to a beat. VU influence grabs you by the hand immediately. Reminds me of After Hours, partly from the stripped down sound, and partly from the deathly feel.

    Title: Her attitude toward the "fool" is as ambiguous as the way in which she sings the word. Is it affectionate or condescending?

    1st verse:
    "Apartment in New York, London and Paris
    Where will we rest, we’re all living on top of it
    It’s all that we have the USA is our daily bread
    And no one is willing to share it

    Why can’t we see our fortunancy
    Living as legends have lived.
    Bane and dismannered
    We coax all the time
    Knowing that nothing is left when we die"

    wealth, materialism, american hegemony and greed

    Fortunancy and dismannered are not dictionary words, but both words have been used in literature before.

    Fortunancy seems to be a portmanteau of fortunate and something that I can't place... dismannered seems to be more common and means unmannerly, it looks like. Unmannerly is a good word to apply to America, the whole.

    The verse ends with what seems to be the thread of the song: mortality. "You can't take it with you."

    Chorus:
    Come along Fool
    "A direct hit of the senses you are disconnected
    It’s not that it’s bad…it’s not that it’s death
    It’s just that it is on the tip of your tongue, and you're so silent"

    Emotionally pregnant. Seems to be directed at some real individual, somehow. Someone isn't spitting out what is on their mind. (And it seems to be annoying her.) The death theme is in there too. Is the person dying? "you are disconnected" --- literally? If the person IS dead, that would also explain the silence. In that case it's like the internal struggle of desperately wanting to hear words, answers from what oe recognizes to be a dead body, before total acceptance of their departure.

    Jesus, I didn't expect this to be a full blown essay...

    :P

    2nd verse:
    "Wanting to live and laugh all the time
    Sitting alone with you tea and your crime
    Children with kids, and people with parents
    Anywhich way there’s no past and no presence
    When the day comes and all of them bums
    Will reveal enchanting persons"

    "sitting alone, tea, crime, children with kids, people w parents" all seem to be ABOUT something which the listener has no hope of understanding. Personal events, perhaps.

    "no presence" sounds like a dead body, and she seems to believe that everything ends with death (nothing is left when we die) so no "presence" of a soul, or remnant of the deceased.

    "when the day comes ... persons" seems to be about an afterworld, however. (Who says it has to be coherent? It's a great song) of course, this is all clutching at straws.

    In fact, maybe the internal struggle of someone dealing with a loss could be the point of the song: they aren't letting go completely, and are somewhat mixed up.

    Last verse:
    "When it's a rut and baby's no luck
    Half of it's misunderstanding love
    The war we have won we're winning again
    Within ourselves and within our friends"

    A resolution, acceptance, or the beginning thereof, with a positive feel to it. When we're in a rut and baby isn't working out, or no baby in sight, maybe we are missing the point. Maybe the passing of someone can make you appreciate the relationship with them in spite of its flaws and hard luck.

    I have definitely listened to this song 20 times tonight, and it still fascinates me.

    I'd love to see other interpretation on this one. There appears to be nothing online yet, according to the mighty G.

    J


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