the leader of the band is tired...

[winterbadger]

"Easy-rocking singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg, known for such '70s and '80s hits as "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" died Sunday at his home in Maine, following a battle with prostate cancer. He was 56."

Story from the AP

Comments

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

Oh, sad news! Dan Fogelburg's music has been woven into so much of my life.

His first album (the green was) was the first record I ever bought, in 7th grade. In high school and college, I eagerly awaited each new album, and rushed out and bought them on the day of release, like someone awaiting a new Harry Potter novel. One of the things that brought my first college boyfriend and I together was our shared love of DF's music. I think to this day I could sing every song on his first seven albums by heart (though not well, of course). So many of them conjure up images of specific places or people or feelings. Definitely the soundtrack of much of my 10s and 20s.

One of the benefits of having a brain wired like mine---which forgets where I put the car keys but remembers song lyrics I learned 35 years ago---is that I carry a lot of music around in my head, whether I'm listening to it or not.

I'm sorry he's gone, but the music will never die.

[azbound.livejournal.com]

I 100% associate Dan Fogelberg with my father. To have them passing so close in age and time (though from different things), is very surreal. I take some comfort in knowing that my father now has some great entertainment in the great beyond, and Dan has a fan.

[winterbadger]

I'm sure that no one else in my family (well, maybe my sister Cornelia) would agree, but 'Leader of the Band" will always make me think of my dad.

[winterbadger]

That one (Home Free) was, maybe the ?third? album I ever bought, at the hole in the wall record store, long gone, that lived in the alley off Spring Street. I love his music, and it will always have a special meaning for me.

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

Was that record store on the second floor, up some outside steps? I bought a bunch of classical records there during my various music classes. They had a better selection of those than Toonerville Trolley and weren't as far a hike away.

Home Free . . . of course, that was the name of the green album. Possibly my favorite of DF's records, though Innocent Age is a close second. Windows & Walls and High Country Snows have some great songs, and Exiles completely fit my relationship mood of the time.

Good memories.

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

"His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand."

"Thank you for the kindness, and the times when you got tough,
And, Papa, I don't think I said 'I love you' near enough."

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

That's funny; one reason that shy_kat doesn't much like Dan Fogelberg's music is that she associates it with her father (whom she's not close to). Alas, such is our age difference and her fiercly classical music upbringing with her mom that she thinks of many of my favorite balladeers as old people's music. :-)