A track from Steely Dan's 1972 debut album, "Only A Fool Would Say That" is a groovy little mid-tempo cut that has a lot in common stylistically with the band's funky hit "Do It Again" which opens the same record. Both share a certain dark and cynical tone in their lyrics, but "Only A Fool Would Say That" takes aim at the kind of people who might be listening to Steely Dan's records. The opening line — "A world become one of salads and sun / Only a fool would say that" — criticizes the utopian vision many young people had in the hippie era of a world free from war and poverty.

But "Only A Fool Would Say That" seems specifically aimed at one person in particular: John Lennon, solo artist and former Beatle. Far Out Magazine says Steely Dan were avowed fans of The Beatles but clearly unafraid to take their idols to task, with a song the magazine calls a "devastating" critique. Consider the chorus, where the band sings, "I heard it was you / Talking 'bout a world where all is free / It just couldn't be / And only a fool would say that." Against the contemporary success of Lennon's 1971 album and single "Imagine," where the former Beatle sings, "Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world," Steely Dan's lyrics read like a harsh rebuke.

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