Fools

It’s nighttime in the big city
A businessman kisses his secretary under a street light
A drunken security guard drops his flashlight “James Thurber once said, ’you can fool too many of the people too much of the time’ and for the next hour we’re gonna try and do just that…for the next hour we‘re gonna play the greatest records about our favorite half-wits, the fools.”

The Singers and Songs

  • Aretha Franklin
    Chain of Fools
  • Hank Snow
    Now And Then There’s A Fool Such As I
  • Otis Rush
    Three Times a Fool
    (Or as Bob calls it, three times a Frenchman) “Among the most atmospheric and unusual sounding of all the Chicago blues.”
  • Sanford Clark
    The Fool
    “I always thought it was one of the best Elvis Presley records that Elvis never made”
  • The Clovers
    Fool, Fool, Fool
    “The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
  • Eddie Hope and the Mannish Boys
    A Fool No More
    “If you want to be a fool no more, you might wan’t to try some Ginkgo Biloba. It’s the extract of the Ginkgo plant. Some people say that it’s a memory enhancer. I read that somewhere but I just can’t remember where.”
  • Sonny Stitt
    Fools Rush in (Where Angels Fear to Tread) (background)
    “I always liked songs with parentheses in the title.”
  • Ike and Tina Turner
    A Fool In Love
  • The Crickets
    Love’s Made a Fool of You
  • The Drifters
    Fools Fall in Love
  • The Drifters
    Fools Fall in Love
  • Bobby Blue Bland
    I Pity The Fool
  • Little Walter
    Just Your Fool
  • Buddy and Ella Johnson
    Just your fool (clip)
  • James Carr and Bettie Harris
    I’m a Fool For You
  • Teddy Humphries
    Guitar Pickin’ Fool
    “The kings of the chord and the sires of the solo”
  • Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
    Why Do Fools Fall in Love

The Other People and Players

  • Bobby Fuller
  • Bill Harris
  • Jerome Windley
  • Matthew McCarter
  • Al Casey
  • Lee Hazelwood
  • Bob Mongomery
  • Pop and Mavis Staples
  • Jim Marshall
    MN Vikings “And I was there that day. (chuckles) Strange but true.”
  • Rpy Riegels
  • Waldo Peirce
  • Mohammed Ali
  • Mr. T
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    “Sir, I admit your general rule that every poet is a fool, but you yourself may serve to show it, every fool is not a poet."
  • William S Burroughs
  • Gene Brown
    Foolproof systems
  • Henry The 8th
  • Anne Bolin
  • Sam Patch
    "Yankee Leaper"
  • Evon Kruger
  • Don Covey
  • Nancy Sinatra
  • Johnny Paycheck
  • Gene Brown
    “Fool-proof systems don’t take into account the ingenuity of fools”
  • Mark Twain
    “The first day of April is the day that we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” “What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? A taxidermist takes only your skin.”
  • Cliff Edwards
  • Ray Charles
  • Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Little Walter
  • William Shakespeare
    From Jail: "Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
    Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
    Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
    But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
    Never lacks power to dismiss itself." From Time: "It's better 3 hours too soon, than 1 minute too late." From Fools: "Helluva cat"
  • Willie Dixon
  • Buddy Holly
  • Elvis Presley
    "Cleaned up that naughty 'One Night' and hit big with it" “the swivel hipped rockabilly cat”

The Other Songs and Albums

  • The Music of Disney: A Legacy in Song
  • I Fought the Law
  • You’re Gonna Make it After All

The Guests

The Poets

  • Stephen Crane
    "Foolish Poet" (Bob Reads:) Why do you strive for greatness, fool?
    Go pluck a bough and wear it.
    It is as sufficing. My Lord, there are certain barbarians
    Who tilt their noses
    As if the stars were flowers,
    And Thy servant is lost among their shoe-buckles.
    Fain would I have mine eyes even with their eyes. Fool, go pluck a bough and wear it.
  • T.S. Eliot

The Books and Poems

The Movies and TV Shows

The Plays and Musicals

The Places

  • Niagara Falls
  • New Jersey
  • East St. Louis
  • Paris
  • Memphis

Record Labels

  • RCA Records
  • Marlin Records
  • Gold Wax Records
  • Cobra Records
  • Chess Records
  • Atlantic Record
  • Duke Records

Other Topics Covered


“The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies than the fool from his friends.”