Dan left us on December 16 at 6:00 a.m. He fought a brave battle with cancer and died peacefully at home in Maine with his wife Jean at his side. His strength, dignity, and grace in the face of the daunting challenges of this disease were an inspiration to all who knew him.
More here...
I fell in love with Dan Fogelberg my freshman year of college (1972), when the album Home Free was released - first of all, I thought he was absolutely adorable... then I was captivated by the music. I was the first secretary of our newly-formed college radio station and was friends with many of the deejays - being a night owl even back then, I loved to visit Michael Styles (wonder whatever happened to him?) during his midnight to 3 a.m. shift... and would just pull albums off the shelves to hand to him, stating which track I wanted him to play... and he'd acquiesce. The River was the song that initially sparked my interest - I quickly grew to adore (and still do) Stars, Wysteria, To the Morning and... all of them really... :-)
Souvenirs came two years after that and, in 1975, Captured Angel... poignant because my then-boyfriend, soon-to-be husband had moved and we were carrying on a long-distance relationship - he and I listened to that album separately, together, for months, particularly Old Tennessee, which was the state in which he was residing... and it also mentioned Georgia, where I lived ("dear, I miss your fire so sweet").
I bought Netherlands but never really gave it the listen I'm sure it deserved - same with Phoenix, mostly because the song Longer was *so* overplayed. Was crazy about Twin Sons of Different Mothers and No Resemblance Whatsoever, both of which were collaborations with Tim Weisberg. The Innocent Age was the last album of his I bought, as much for Joni's contributions as anything - I see by his website there were many more to follow (my loss, I'm sure). I will, however, invest in the Christmas CD and make a point to play it each holiday, in memory of a very special singer-songwriter who was so much a part of my growing-up process - to quote one of his songs, "anyway I love you, more and more and more and more and more"...
Rest in Peace, Dan...
In 2007, we bade adieu to many special entertainers and artists -- some long-lived who exited peacefully at a ripe old age (Joey Bishop), and some taken shockingly in their prime (Anna Nicole Smith). Let us celebrate their talent and the many ways they touched us, as we remember them - more here...
SONG: Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg
BOOK: New Year's Eve by Lisa Grunwald
POEM: The Old Year by John Clare
The Old Year's gone away
To nothingness and night:
We cannot find him all the day
Nor hear him in the night:
He left no footstep, mark or place
In either shade or sun:
The last year he'd a neighbour's face,
In this he's known by none.
All nothing everywhere:
Mists we on mornings see
Have more of substance when they're here
And more of form than he.
He was a friend by every fire,
In every cot and hall--
A guest to every heart's desire,
And now he's nought at all.
Old papers thrown away,
Old garments cast aside,
The talk of yesterday,
Are things identified;
But time once torn away
No voices can recall:
The eve of New Year's Day
Left the Old Year lost to all.
QUOTE: "For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice and to make an end is to make a beginning." ~ T.S. Eliot
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