"Find Another Fool" by Quarterflash

1982 / #16

Rate Your Music score: 3.27 out of 5!

When discussing popular music of the 1970s and 1980s, the conversation almost inevitably lands on one particular act: Little River Band.

Little River Band has had a couple songs profiled on this blog, but some of their softer hits have never truly become lost, as radio prefers light music. Take "Cool Change", for example. Q-102 still had this record in occasional rotation about a decade after it was a hit. By that time, I was in high school, and it prompted an obvious parody. I was forced to attend bad school after bad school. So, while lamenting how bad the school was, I would start singing, "Time for...A school change..."

This continued even after I started attending a school that was less bad. Not unbearably bad like the previous one, but still bad. As I sang my Little River Band parody, my mom got mad! But there was never any real reason why I had to keep attending such terrible schools. I didn't fare too well in the zip code lottery.

The "Cool Change" spirit also applies to the lost hit that serves as the main topic of this entry: "Find Another Fool" by the Portland band Quarterflash.

"Find Another Fool" had long since become a lost hit by the time I even started high school. But it was evoked during the 3 years I attended the world's worst school. One day, my parents received an angry letter from the principal of this Catholic school. I don't think it was because of a single big disciplinary breach. It was probably just because of a buildup of small violations. The letter concluded, "Tim must cooperate or find another school."

Find another - find another! - find another school to love you.

The funniest part is how the letter acted like I would be the one responsible for finding another school. Wasn't that my parents' responsibility? Nobody really should have had to go out and find one, because I should have been able to transfer to the public school just by default. But that school probably would have had its own problems. I went on to be invited to the 25-year reunion for that school, even though I never attended that school, and folks at this event said I never would have had any trouble at that school. I'm skeptical though.

To "find another school" makes it sound like I could just walk down the street and unexpectedly stumble upon a school: "Hey! A school!" Actually, over 20 years after I moved to Bellevue as an adult, I was surprised to find that the main high school building was all the way across town from the gym. But I had never noticed before, because I wasn't in high school anymore.

I have a feeling that if I was, it would have been time for a school change regardless of what school I attended, because the past decade has not been a happy chapter in American education.