Humor/satire
April Fool “For You”!
New Prince Song Release: One From the Vault.
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No Joke! Today is April Fools Day 2024. It’s got me wondering exactly how did this prankster tradition start? And why do I love it so much?
It turns out the origin of April Fools day is debated. Some believed it was originally a festival for the Roman Goddess of Joy, Hilaria. Others believe it derived from many of the common Pagan celebrations of the vernal (Spring) equinox. My favorite explanation speculates it began in 1582 when the French switched from the Julian Calendar, with the first day of the new Year falling on the spring equinox (April 1st), to the new Gregorian calendar and it’s new year’s day of January 1st. Communication challenges and the disbelief in traveling rumors meant that many continued celebrating the new year on April 1st. Over time those late-adopters were ridiculed as “poisson d’arvil” or “April Fish”.
No matter the origin, April Fools Day, for us natural pranksters, is our version of Christmas. We sometimes plan and scheme for weeks like we were planning a high-stakes bank caper.
A few from my vaults are:
- Hiding my roommate's car late one night then convincing him it had been stolen.
- After moving to Phoenix, driving my already concerned parents straight from the airport to the most run-down, roach-motel apartment complex in the worst neighborhood I could find and announcing, “We’re here” with a serious look. My mom refused to get out of the car.
- Sending a former manager a legal-looking document by courier from an actual local law firm indicating she was being investigated for accusations of jury tampering. I continued that failure to comply would result in a bench warrant! A couple weeks earlier she had been a juror on a murder case. The document had my friend’s phone number. He agreed to change his voicemail to match the law firm and lawyers name. My manager called and left him a few voicemails, each one more desperate. And no: I didn’t get fired for this one!
- Sending my parents a month-long series of photos and letters appearing to come from China saying that I was tired of being alone so I saved up, went abroad, and purchased a wife. My parents, mom especially, was too often the target of my mischief.
- And, the prank I am still most proud of, was when I convinced a friend that he was being stalked by a U.S. Marine with PTSD who mistook him for the man his wife was cheating with, her supervisor at work. Lucky me, this was based on a real situation, one that resulted in a lock-down at his work once when the Marine was spotted lurking around the parking lot. All I had to do was convince him that because he and the supervisor drove the same make, model, and color car, that the Marine thought it was him. This prank went on for hours, resulting in him calling out sick to work, calling his HR rep, and even driving with me to a local Police station to file a report. What I didn’t know was just how paranoid this young friend really had been. In hind-sight, I could have let him off the hook sooner but I was in awe of how far he was taking it. It was EPIC!
So, yes.. pranking is one of my guilty pleasures and April First is an ice-cream sundae with Boston-cream donuts type sweet-treat for me. That said, I’ve not pulled off a big prank in a long time. I’ve semi-retired when I had kids. Now they are getting to the point where I can see their mental gears churning to find a way to prank me. Thank God for genetics! I’m looking forward to what they conjure up.
What about them music. We have Christmas Carols for sure, and plenty of seasonal songs about other holidays but are there any “great” songs about April Fools day or pranking in general?
I suspected it would be incredibly difficult to find one all about this one exact special day. The closest I assumed I would get would be songs about pranking or joking. A short list that came to mind was:
- Original Prankster by Offspring
- Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who
- Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin
- Don’t want to be a Fool by Luther Vandross
- Can’t Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones
Not bad songs but not solely about this Day of fun and foolishness.
As I was scouring the web for April Fool-specific ditties, I wondered upon one by Prince called, “For You”. It was an older track and I am sure I heard it at some point, so, I focused the mouse on the next link when I briefly caught the word, “April” in the description.
Turns out this “For You” is not that original old Prince classic. This is a brand new, never released, track from his vault that he penned one April first years before he passed. The scribbled-down title atop the music sheets , according the the website, was, “April Fool For You”.
For those 4 or 5 people in the World who are not Prince fans, Prince was a prolific creator. Best estimates put the number of unreleased Prince songs around 8,000! They won’t all be Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, or Purple Rain, but I bet there are hundreds of amazing number-ones in that vault.
Today’s track is not great, sorry your royal-ness, but neither are most rough drafts of anything, which is why he never polished it up for full production. It was a “throw-away” song from a man who produced music as fast as a factory churns out Tickle-me-Elmo dolls. The quality is also not great as it was just Prince and a Piano playing into a single microphone. There is no official song cover or artwork so I’ve chosen today to add his old “For You” cover to my ripped copy of this gem (don’t tell I ripped it, it was out of respect for the music. It deserves to be heard).
So, enjoy today’s feature, Prince’s (soon to be classic), “April Fool For You” for what it is, a chance to listen in to that “moment of creation” from a musical genius. We get to hear behind-the-scenes Prince at his rawest while composing and sometimes missing the mark a little. Happy Spring Equinox, let today be the first day of great things to come for all of us.
Robin Sherman spent most of his life entertaining crowds as a DJ, musician, and comedian. Enjoy more of his love for music and writing at “There’s a Song for That!” and Virtual Crate Digger.
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