Playing The Fool Spotify Playlist

This week’s installment of Saturday Stream examines the use of atonality by late-19th and early-20th century composers. The works of Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók and several others are explored through a set of 100 orchestral and chamber pieces collected in the Spotify Playlist below.

April Fools.

No offense to Claude, Igor or Béla, but this week’s actual Spotify Playlist is absent any classical compositions and instead features 75-songs with foolish themes. Aretha Franklin kicks off the playlist with “April Fools” and she is also featured on classics “Chain Of Fools” and “Maybe I’m A Fool.” Live renditions of “Foolish Heart” and “Ship Of Fools” by the Grateful Dead are featured along with a live “Heaven Help The Fool” by Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman. Frank Zappa’s live “Dancin’ Fool” and an early Mothers Of Invention recording of “How Could I Be Such A Fool” made the cut, and there are multiple songs by Gov’t Mule, Levon Helm, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.

Phish’s rocker “Olivia’s Pool” and its subsequent morphing into “Shafty” can be heard as well as drummer Jon Fishman’s cover of “Fooled Around And Fell In Love.” The playlist also presents songs by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Doors, The Who, Neil Young, Patti Smith, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Queen, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, James Taylor, Jimi Hendrix with Curtis Knight and others.

Dig in to hear April Fools’ Day inspired selections by Tedeschi Trucks Band, Anders Osborne, The Black Crowes, Ben Harper, Lotus, Lake Street Dive, Phosphorescent, The Shins, The Strokes, Yo La Tengo and many more.