Glen Hansard :: Fools Game

Listen to the full album: http://bit.ly/2KnI6HW
“Fool’s Game” by Glen Hansard from the album ‘This Wild Willing,’ available now
Order at https://glenhansard.ffm.to/thiswildwi…

Ian, hello! I just had the first moment of quiet here at the American Hotel in Amsterdam. I made a cup of tea and read your mail – which I’d been waiting to do, looked forward to even – and I’m knocked out by your sense of perception with this set of images and characters. It’s funny: I see it as characters too, not just as myself singing a song I wrote. There’s a kind of drama running through the shots, although it was all filmed by Myles O’Reilly in his very open style, with the occasional set-up (for example; the man asleep at the table with taxi money).

My idea was to take the camera into a night in Paris, stay up with friends till dawn drinking, eating, talking, and sing the song occasionally as the night went on. The main theme for me was “fraternity”, friends sharing time. It’s almost a continuation of the night that we filmed “I’ll Be You, Be Me”. Maybe this is what happened after the filming? Maybe the band went for drinks? Where did they go? Who did they meet? Every evening in Paris with these guys was a little bit like this, a magical ride through the city’s back side.

But what you saw in it fascinates me; this character apart in a crowd, unmoored in the night but tied to his thoughts. When you describe it, I can feel that narrative very strongly and it must be true to a degree, because when I sat with all the footage and began to carve a story, I somehow knew that I must keep the singing character at some distance, far away in his thoughts. The song is a meditation on the wild ride we go on when we surrender to another; the giving up of control; the vulnerability of loving and being loved. ‘Don’t let anyone advise us,’ it says, ‘because whatever happens, I only answer to you, and you to me’. Anyone who gives love advice is simply not to be trusted.

Maire appears in the clip as a guardian, watching over our character. She’s on the same streets, in the same rooms, the same night, but she’s just watching, staying near. Almost like a Wim Wenders Wings of Desire angel.

With love and gratitude,
Glen x

Filmed by Myles O’Reilly in Paris, France
Edited by Glen Hansard in Dublin, Ireland
Aida Shahghasemi filmed by Arash Nikazad in Tehran, Iran for ArtBox
With special thanks to Francois Lecoq, Olivier Brandicourt, James Thiérrée, Máire Saaritsa, Chloe and all the students from the Ecole Lecoq, Stephen Patrick Allen and Steven O’Connor

Lyrics

It’s a fool’s, fool’s game
Lover, that we have to play
Crashing into each other
No convalescing

It’s a leap of faith
Lover, that we blindly take
I’m taking it with you and no other
No hesitating

And if our minds they go
And our bones they shatter
We’ll put it on nobody
But ourselves

It’s an old refrain
Lover, that we hear again
Urging a cautious measure
Sounding a warning

It’s a thin escape
Lover, that we hope to make
When we’re beaten, broken and battered
Beyond consoling

And the breezes blow
And to the winds we’re scattered
And we’re fending for nobody
But ourselves

It’s a fool’s, fool’s game
When you’ve nothing but a heart to break
Better keep on breaking it, lover
Until it opens

It’s a speeding train
Beating through the pouring rain
With no way to slow or stop it
And the tracks are broken

Like a rising wave
Through the storms we gather
And we’re falling on nobody
But ourselves

Glen Hansard: Keyboards, Vocals, Guitars
Earl Harvin: Drums, Vocals
Joseph Doyle: Bass, Vocals
Ruth O’Mahony Brady: Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
Aida Shahghasemi: Vocals, Percussion
David Cleary: Sounds
Dunk Murphy: Keyboards, Sounds
Michael Buckley: Horns
Pouyã Khoshravesh: Vocals
Mãni Khoshravesh: Vocals
Nimã Khoshravesh: Vocals
Javier Mas: Spanish Guitar, Vocals
Nadia Genet: Vocals
David Odlum: Moog

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