Oh no, Nikki Swango! So it ain’t so! So much brother-on-brother crime to process in this week’s episode. What does the music have to tell us about where Fargo stands at the season midpoint? Let’s take a listen!
Song: Mac Davis, “It’s Hard To Be Humble”
Scene: Emmit’s wife watches a fake sex tape.
If you know the name Mac Davis, it’s likely that you grew up listening to pop-country radio and watching network television in the ’70s and early ’80s. A songwriter by trade who got his big break penning a series of hits for post-’68 comeback era Elvis Presley — including “In The Ghetto,” “A Little Less Conversation,” and the underrated tearjerker “Don’t Cry Daddy” — Davis graduated to a successful solo career by specializing in slightly naughty love songs such as “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me,” “Naughty Girl,” and, ahem, “Baby Spread Your Love On Me.”
The Ron Burgundy-style masculinity of these songs is hard to take seriously now, and maybe it was even then. The premise of 1972’s “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me” is that Davis is so irresistible that he has to warn women not to fall in love with him. “Just keep it friendly girl ’cause I don’t want to leave,” Davis purrs — this guy can’t help being a total dog, baby, so just hit and quit it for the good of all.
By 1980, Davis was signed to Casablanca Records, the notorious home of Kiss and Donna Summer, and about to enter his self-parody phase. That’s what the winking “It’s Hard To Be Humble” essentially is — it takes the template of “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me” and adds a dose of self-awareness. Though, seriously, how self-aware can you be when this is your album cover?
Take a long look at that cover. Who does Davis remind you of? The broad smile, the handsome tan, the air of jovial smarm, the curly brown hair — am I crazy to see Emmit Stussy when I look at Mac Davis? Or do arrogant white guys with curly brown hair all look alike? After all, Emmit’s own wife fell for Ray and Nikki’s ill-conceived sex tape scheme, in which Ray dons an Emmit wig and proceeds to, ahem, spread his love on bride-to-be Nikki. Either way, this episode is certainly a humbling experience for poor Emmit, whose marriage is now on the rocks, wrecking any lingering feeling he still had for his brother. Whether Emmit has any self-awareness about this, however, seems less certain.
Song: Noah Hawley and Jeff Russon, “Ship Of Fools” (World Party cover)
Scene: Nikki gets more than she bargained for during her meeting with Sy.
Now that we’ve reached the midpoint of this season, it’s worth reflecting back on what’s already occurred on Fargo. Clearly, season three is a much different beast than season two. There are no split-screens, the cast of characters is smaller, there’s relatively little violence (given how bloody the Gerhardt family business could be), and the storytelling moves with far less velocity. Dare I say, the “mystery” of this season — will Gloria uncover Ray and Nikki’s conspiracy to steal Emmit’s stamp? — seems less and less important. The looming threat of Fargo this season is more existential. No relationship is secure and nothing can be trusted, not even God or a universal sense of right and wrong. Instead, we’re watching characters who are inching toward something horrible and unavoidable.
In 1986, World Party’s hit single “Ship of Fools” communicated a similarly foreboding message about the environment. Like this season of Fargo, “Ship of Fools” is about that awful moment when you’re not doomed quite yet but know that doom is coming in the near future and you can’t do anything about it. Just look at the evocative first verse:
We’re setting sail to the place on the map
from which no one has ever returned
Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool
by the light of the crosses that burned.
Drawn by the promise of the women and the lace
and the gold and the cotton and pearls
It’s the place where they keep all the darkness you need.
You sail away from the light of the world on this trip, baby.
You will pay tomorrow
You’re gonna pay tomorrow
You will pay tomorrow
Keep in mind this song was released 31 years ago. In term of the environment, we’re well past “tomorrow” by now.
It’s easy to overlook the darkness of “Ship Of Fools” in the World Party version because the soulful arrangement is so bouncy and beautiful, in keeping with the band’s “Sgt. Pepper via ELO” aesthetic. Perhaps that’s why none other than Fargo’s primary mastermind Noah Hawley covers “Ship Of Fools” with the show’s composer, Jeff Russo. The Hawley/Russo version is slower and breathier, almost a goth redux, which makes it a less incongruous soundtrack for Nikki’s desperate struggle to survive her bad meeting with Sy.
It appears that Nikki has already paid for her sins today. But who on Fargo’s ship of fools will pay tomorrow? Emmit? Sy? We shall see next week!
