"Ship of Fools" by World Party

Welcome back, Dialophiles! Put on your captain’s hats, and hoist the anchor. We’re preparing to set sail with Karl Wallinger and World Party aboard his “Ship of Fools”!

“We’re setting sail to the place on the map, from which no one has ever returned...”

World Party began purely as a solo project for Wallinger, formerly of the UK-based alternative-pop group The Waterboys, which were best known here in the states for their poetic 1985 track “The Whole of the Moon”.

Kurt draws clear inspiration from the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Motown, and elements of all of these inspirations can be clearly heard in this track. For example… the “woo-who-who” backing harmonies in the chorus are reminiscent of Motown vocal groups like The Supremes, and the Temptations in particular.

“Torn by the promise of the women and the lace… and the gold and the cotton and pearls…”

Peaking in 1987 at US #5 hot mainstream rock, and settling at #27 on the Hot 100, “Ship…” was the most successful single extracted from World Party’s debut ’86 LP Private Revolution. While the album featured assistance from some prominent session musicians, including Waterboys member Anthony Thistlethwaite, and vocalist Sinead O’Connor, the overwhelming bulk of the work was written, performed, and arranged by Kurt himself, a true musical genius in every sense of the word. Later World Party LPs added permanent members to the band such as ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock of the 1984 new wave classic “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)”, but World Party as a whole always remained Wallinger’s outlet for his clever, inspired pop songcraft.

“Listen baby, you will pay tomorrow… you’re gonna pay tomorrow… you will pay tomorrow.”

Throughout the years since it’s initial release, I’ve heard “Ship…” used several times to illustrate dissatisfaction with which ever political party happened to be in power at the time, usually in response to an unpopular or controversial government action. Given that its sarcastic lyrics do not align itself with one side or the other, it is the perfect song to punctuate criticism of any political action, and group. Essentially Kurt is commenting that the policies of government often create more problems than they are intended to solve… hence, not wanting to sail on the ship of fools.

So, whether Kurt personally wants to or not, we here at the Dial invite all of our loyal Dialophiles to take a sail on this Ship of Fools, and apply its commentary however you see fit.

“Save me... save me from tomorrow. I don’t want to sail with this ship of fools...”