| The Doobie Brothers – What A Fool Believes Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This is the same conclusion I came to from reading the lyrics and listening to different versions of the song after I got it stuck in my head. The crucial part of the song is the comparison: "She had a place in his life; he never made her think twice." This verse is comparing their points of view. First his point of view, that she was an important part of his life. Then her point of view, that she never thought about him more than once since they separated. That line had me confused for quite a while because I initially interpreted the "never made her think twice" line as meaning that she was certain about her feelings for him, or that he never challenged her and made her rethink herself. But now I believe it is meant to be taken literally: she did not think about him more than once. It's also interesting to note that in Aretha Franklin's cover of this song she switches around some of the pronouns in ways that really mess with this narrative. There's also a concert video of Kenny Loggins singing it where he switches around the pronouns in yet another way. So to some extent you can build a different narrative of unrequited love from these lyrics (and according to most songwriters, that's a good thing, if lyrics are vague enough that listeners can come up with their own story that's personally evocative to them). But if you take the Michael McDonald studio version as canonical, this is the story that makes the most sense. |
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