Dan Fogelberg (Official Thread)

[the ferret]

Thought I'd give this a bump, I heard a song of his on the radio a couple days ago, and it wasn't bad... Definitely not the reaction I remember having to his music in the past
What would be a good album of his to start with? Possibly the most energetic of his material?:gritnhumb

There's a box set which shuffles Dan's music into four categories: hits; ballads; travels & tales & rock and roll. Quite handy if, like Craig from Indy, you don't like one aspect of Dan's music.

Other than that, I'd probably go for the Captured Angel/Netherlands re-release on B.G.O. which would give a fine overview of the raw & lush duopoly of Dan's musical psyche.

Whichever, try and hear Tucson Arizona (Gazette) - from Windows & Wall, also on the box set - which is my favourite song. I dread to think how often I've heard it but it never loses its lustre.

 

[Darlu]

I ran across this thread this evening and wanted to add a few personal comments from my experience. I spent the entire year of 2019 listening to Dan Fogelberg. I don't know why I did this, but it is the way it went. I bought 10 CDs of his work. Not in chronological order. And one at a time. I also watched a lot of youtube vids and read all the comments to see where people stood on his music(there are some very solid Fogelberg fans and especially on youtube). To get a real idea of the scope of the man's work my recommendations are: album: River of Souls - Faces of America; album: Netherlands - Lessons Learned(for lyrics); album: The Innocent Age - Empty Cages; album: Dan Fogelberg at Carnegie Hall - Someone's Been Telling You Stories, Crow; album: Home Free - The River; album: Love in Time - Nature of the Game(excellent guitar playing); album: Dan Fogelberg Live - Road Beneath My Wheels(very fine guitar work); album: Full Circle - Icarus Ascending There seems to be some disagreement as to whether Joe Walsh actually played on the studio version of Face the Fire on the Phoenix album. If you are in doubt about Fogelberg's chops as a lead player...take a look at the live video on Tim Hatfield's youtube channel. Video title is Face the Fire but you want the one from the 106th Kentucky Derby live performance(not the Houston one). You can see Fogelberg playing the lead part from about 5 minutes 20 seconds on to the end.

 

[garye]

Through the years have also had up and down reactions to some of Fogelberg's songs. When Dan was on top of his game, few could match the raw emotions and heartfelt lyrics coming forth. But by 1980 he kinda got stuck in a rut, musically.
As he got more successful sometimes you play it safe and stick with what works, instead of pushing yourself. Phoenix had some very good songs and some "safe" bets such as "Longer" which was a huge hit for him, and summed up the good and bad sometimes songwriters seem to fall back on.
My wife loved the song, so it has a place in my heart others not as much.
"Same Old Lang Syne" was a nice autobiographical song about love or relationship loss and I enjoyed it, but can see why some did not care for it.
Dan Fogelberg is the best example of singer/ songwriter from those days and even though we lost him to soon, to me his music at times met me on levels that reminded me to think on things and they will be alright.
Can't ask any worse than that!