Foolish Games Lyrics
You took your coat off and stood in the rain
You're always crazy like that
And I watched from my window
Always felt I was outside looking in on you
You're always the mysterious one with
Dark eyes and careless hair
You were fashionably sensitive, but too cool to care
You stood in my doorway, with nothing to say
Besides some comment on the weather
[Pre-Chorus 1]
Well, in case you failed to notice
In case you failed to see
This is my heart bleeding before you
This is me down on my knees
[Chorus]
These foolish games are tearing me apart
And your thoughtless words are breaking my heart
You're breaking my heart
[Verse 2]
You're always brilliant in the morning
Smoking your cigarettes, and talking over coffee
Your philosophies on art, Baroque moved you
You loved Mozart, and you'd speak of your loved ones
As I clumsily strummed my guitar
You'd teach me of honest things
Things that were daring, things that were clean
Things that knew what an honest dollar did mean
I hid my soiled hands behind my back
Somewhere along the line, I must've gone off track with you
Excuse me
Think I've mistaken you for somebody else
Somebody who gave a damn
Somebody more like myself
[Chorus]
These foolish games are tearing me, you're tearing me
You're tearing me apart
And your thoughtless words are breaking my heart
You're breaking my heart
[Outro]
You took your coat off
Stood in the rain
You're always crazy like that
About
“Foolish Games” was based on a guy that Jewel fell for when she was 16 years old and wrote about in her journal—the journal entires became a poem. A year later, the poem became a song that Jewel would perform at coffee houses and other venues.
The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and topped Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 & Adult Top 40 charts.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
When I listen to that song, it’s so intense. I’d never lived through that, had never been in love. I can definitely see my influences: I didn’t listen to a lot of music, but I read a lot, and I’d written a lot of short stories, fiction, and poetry. I got ahold of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ when I was in eighth grade. I would listen to that over and over and over, and was really struck by what a little movie it was, and how it created this real sense of angst and nostalgia and color. ‘Foolish Games’ was, I guess, my attempt at ripping off Leonard Cohen.
–via Apple Music (November, 2020)
I wrote foolish games when I was probably 18 I had been reading a lot of Pablo Neruda poetry and I had heard Leonard Cohen’s the famous blue raincoat when I was in seventh or eighth grade and I was just so struck by the moodiness and the melancholy of that song and that combined with Pablo Neruda’s imagery, I really wanted to write something that evoked those two heroes of mine and a foolish games is what came out.
