The Fool - 1968 (full album)

The Fool were a Dutch quartet transplanted to London in the middle ’60s, whose original impact on the rock world was visual rather than musical. They were two women, Marijke Kooer and Josje Leeger – who designed clothes for people like Patti Boyd Harrison (George Harrison’s first wife) – and with Marijke’s husband, Seemon (Simon) and their friend, Barry Finch they became collectively known as “the Fool,” exemplifying the hippie ethic of the mid-’60s.
They had a shop off London’s Montague Square, where John Lennon was an early visitor. Brian Hogg’s CD liner notes quote Seemon from the Granada TV documentary, It Was Twenty Years Ago Today: “He walked into our place, and saw our stuff – furniture and posters as well as clothes – and he said ‘This is where I want to live.’” That established the Fool. They did concert posters for Brian Epstein’s Saville Theatre, decorated Lennon’s piano and his Rolls Royce and painted the exterior of the Apple building. They flourished at the height of “flower power” and their distinctive images helped define the era.
As artists they did several album covers, starting with the Hollies’ 1966 Evolution and the Move’s debut album, and perhaps culminating in 5000 Spirits On The Layers Of The Onion by the Incredible String Band – all in an instantly identifiable style. In 1968 they recorded their only album, for Mercury Records.
I remember that while my friends were getting excited about the Incredible String Band, I – never very fond of folk music – kept telling them, “Yeah, sure, but have you heard the Fool?” When I played the album for them I made a lot of converts for it.
The Fool is an album with some of the same English folk elements – including bagpipes! – but it is not a folk music album. So what is it? Good question. In an odd way it reminds me of George Harrison’s very under-appreciated Wonderwall Music: both are early precursors of “World music.” But The Fool is much more.
The album opens with spacey psychedelic effects that lead us directly into “Fly,” which has a naοve folksy quality but in turn leads (in a direct segue) to a rippling piano, banjos, and a deep organ accompaniment to the second track, “Voice On The Wind.” Hogg states that Graham Nash, whom they’d met when he was in the Hollies, “acted as producer and he doubtlessly helped sculpt the textured opening two tracks … which served as an atmospheric introduction to the album. The use of bagpipes and other exotic instruments signaled a wish to create something both adventurous and folksy.” (I might add that I rarely enjoy the sound of bagpipes – as they are traditionally played – but they work well for me on this album. Seemon is pictured playing bagpipes on the album’s cover.)

The Fool
*Simon Posthuma
*Marijke Koger
*Barry Finch
*Josje Leeger

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