April Fools Songs Top 15: The Fools Paradise (#5)

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Happy Monday, such as it is. I never said “good morning” on a Monday at work, just “Monday morning to you.” To complicate the issue, it’s “country music warning” day here in the list of my favorites with “fool” in the title. I’ll add a bonus to compensate. Oh, look who’s here..... #5: The Fool’s Paradise - Jim Reeves I used to run trivia games in AOL chat, and one of the games I ran I called “The Fool’s Paradise,” after this song. The game was a true/false game, which, as a professor of mine once said, is a “fool’s paradise,” because the students who didn’t study think they have a 50/50 chance. I had more than a few people tell me it was one of the more difficult games in trivia. Anyway, here we have a couple of Hall of Famers: Gentleman Jim, who you all know is my all-time favorite singer; and Johnny Bond, the song’s writer. I can explain Reeves to you better than Bond. Bond’s best-known “recent” song was the novelty tune “Ten Little Bottles,” about the guy who pours all his alcohol down the drain, except for “one little sip.” Bond’s career started in the 40s (as did Reeves’), and his heyday was in the 40s and 50s when country and western were two different kinds of music. In this tune we have the old “code of the west,” where, as a Bugs Bunny cartoon said, “men were men and women were women (a darn good arrangement).” The narrator has to defend his girl, his honor, and his manhood with a duel that he knows he’s going to lose. It makes no sense to us, but that’s the way they were. It’s a wonder the Wild West ever got settled!! The Fool’s Paradise Written by Johnny Bond Recorded by Jim Reeves From Tall Tales and Short Tempers, 1961 The men were playing cards and dice: