World Party, "Ship of Fools"

I suspect he meant it as an insult, but a guy back in college once yelled at me that I looked exactly like "that faggot" from World Party.

I took it as a compliment, and I had absolutely no beef with him. He didn't know what to do when I smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

I tend to forget how old this song is now, and how forgotten the music of my youth is now. No matter. It still speaks to me, and perhaps it can still speak to others.

I won't dare to speak for Karl Wallinger, but this tune makes a very clever reference to the old Medieval image of the Ship of Fools, those swept away by their vanities and illusions, in turn a reference to an allegory from Plato's Republic.

It is a timeless picture, precisely because human failures never really change.

Written in 3/2014

World Party, "Ship of Fools" from Private Revolution (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2nCugGQZO

We're setting sail
To the place on the map from which no one has ever returned
Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool
By the light of the crosses that burn

Drawn by the promise of the women and the lace
And the gold and the cotton and pearls
It's the place where they keep all the darkness you need
You sail away from the light of the world on this trip baby

Pay, you will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
You will pay tomorrow

Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no no
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no no
I want to run and hide
Right now

Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
Drowning in the oceans of history
Travellin' the world, you're in search of no good
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like I knew you would
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
As your little boat struggles through the the warning waves

But you will pay, you will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
You gonna pay tomorrow

Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no

Where's it comin' from or where's it goin' to?
It's just a, it's just a ship of fools

All aboard