Dan Fogelberg and His Music
by Kathy Warnes
August 13 is Dan Fogelberg’s birthday and although he died at age 56, on December 16, 2007, his music is as immediate as a breath, ageless as hope, and as real as penetrating fingers squeezing the soul to renew it. It is possible to explore the meaning of life by listening to the lyrics and music of Dan Fogelberg songs.
Dan Fogelberg was born on August 13, 1951, in Peoria, Illinois, according to reputation and aura, the symbol of an average American city and mainstream Midwestern culture. Dan Fogelberg’s music is as average as the sun navigating the sky backwards or standing in a Midwestern backyard staring at the stars glistening in the sky. He wrote with one hand clutching his Midwestern roots and the other reaching for the stars. He managed to touch both human hearts and the stars.
“One Day We’ll All Understand”
In the narrative of our personal lives, growing up in a blue collar, loosened white collar town like Peoria, Illinois, or Ecorse, Michigan, where I grew up is called “humble beginnings.” Dan Fogelberg’s beginnings were humble and musical. His mother Margaret was a classically trained pianist and his father Lawrence Peter Fogelberg a band leader. Dan learned to play the piano and the Hawaiian sliding guitar and began to play in bands. After he graduated from Woodruff High School in 1969, he went on to college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all of the time playing his music solo and in bands. In 1971, Irving Azoff who would later become his manager, discovered him and eventually sent him to Nashville to sharpen his skills. In 1972, Dan released his first album, Home Free and in 1974, he released Souvenirs. One of the songs in Souvenirs, “Part of the Plan,” became his first hit.
…”Be who you must that’s a part of the plan,
Await your arrival
With simple survival
And one day we’ll all understand,
One day we’ll all understand…”
Midwestern roots even those beginning in a gritty steel town like Ecorse, roots that shame some people, are a good foundation for the journey through life. Nostalgia inevitably tinges the edges of childhood memories sepia, but I have a file of sharp edged black and white memories of growing up in Midwestern Ecorse. The timeless and timely Detroit River that I grew alongside, my Grandfather’s tomato garden, and my Grandmother’s brown shingled house with her waiting inside to welcome me are just a few of them.
I didn’t grow up to be a Dan Fogelberg musician but I am a humble musician, and I am who I must be. I am still part of the plan, and I hope that one day “we’ll all understand.
“I’m Just a Living Legacy to the Leader of the Band”
Biographies of Dan Fogelberg tell us that his father Lawrence Peter Fogelberg led bands at Peoria’s Woodruff High School and Pekin High School, and that he wrote his song, “The Leader of the Band” to honor his father. “The Leader of the Band” honors the countless band masters in America and across the world who have polished dull souls with music and taught clumsy fingers to coax music from reluctant instruments. Mr. Saylor was the leader of our high school band and every time I listen to Dan Fogelberg’s “Leader of the Band”, I think about Mr. Saylor and how many hours he put in rehearsing our band and coaching and cajoling us to play our best. Mr. Campbell was our band leader too, and he taught us precise marching steps and to think with precision about our lives.
“He earned his love
Through discipline
A thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand..”
I remember when Mr. Saylor kept assuring me that I could play my E Flat Alto Horn well and that I could earn a higher chair in the band seating. He didn’t give up on me when I wanted to throw my horn at him! With my music, I humbly try to be a living legacy of the leaders of our Ecorse High School Band and still marvel at their “thundering, velvet hand.”
“Like the Songs That the Darkness Composes to Worship the Light”
In 1977, Dan Fogelberg released his fourth album called Nether Lands, his album title a play on Nederland, Colorado, the location of the studios where he recorded his album. Nederland is also the Dutch name for the European country called the Netherlands. By this time Dan had moved to Colorado and if the lyrics of this song accurately reflect his feelings at the time, he reveled in the state’s natural beauty and the beauty inspired him to explore his internal and external landscapes.
“High on this mountain
The clouds down below
I'm feeling so strong and alive
From this rocky perch
I'll continue to search
For the wind
And the snow
And the sky..”
I don’t live in the Colorado mountains like Dan Fogelberg did, but I have learned to build my own mountains from where I live and to appreciate my individual view of the earth and sky. Dan’s lyrics are honest and open enough to allow a wide range of interpretation and I like to think that he used the story of the Netherlands as a metaphor for human existence. Building a country on the bed of the sea and working to keep the sea from reclaiming it while preserving and contributing to its natural beauty is an inspirational human and national story. Dan sought and found natural beauty in physical places like Colorado, later in other places, and finally in Maine. His inward quest for beauty and meaning is expressed in lines such as: “Like the songs that the darkness composes to worship the light.”
I like the mystical idea that darkness composes songs to worship the light. It suggests that in our human quest for meaning, salvation, and immortality that the two moral currents of human existence, good and evil, might someday be reconciled in other, more eternal worlds.
“Between the Worlds of Men and Make Believe”
Dan Fogelberg wrote his song, “Scarecrow’s Dream,” as a tribute to Walt Disney, the personification of dreams come true. The lyrics of the song are a poignant reminder that dreamers don’t always control their dreams, and even when realized, dreams don’t disappear with their fulfillment. Sometimes they linger for years or a lifetime, still shaping the soul and lives of the dreamer.
“And if you ever hear me calling out
And if you've been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and
make-believe
I can be found.”
As a writer, most days I travel between the worlds of men and make believe, trying to live within the bounds of both worlds and occasionally purposely straying out of the bounds. Most of us live between the worlds of reality and fantasy, sometimes, when we can muster up the courage, letting their bounds overlap. Dan Fogelberg’s words in “Scarecrow” are a reminder that there are places in our souls that we haven’t visited yet.
“Burning Lines in the Book of Our Lives”
Biographies of Dan Fogelberg tell us that he married three times and that his marriage to musician Jean Marie Meyer lasted until his death in 2007. The lyrics from three of his songs trace the progression of romantic relationships in a thoughtful and heartfelt bouquet of words. The lyrics of his song Believe in Me apply to a romantic relationship, but at a deeper level can be applied to any human relationship.
“Too many hearts have been broken
Failing to trust what they feel
But trust isn't something
That's spoken
And love's never wrong
When it's real.”
Dan’s song “The Same Auld Lang Syne” captures the universal human experience of running into an old flame and is set on Christmas Eve, the symbolic time of beginnings and endings.
The two former lovers try to recapture at least an ember of their former relationship, but they discover that they have changed beyond recapturing their former selves and their former relationship.
“We drank a toast to
innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how…”
In the beginning of the song Dan Fogelberg talks about Christmas Eve snow falling, and at the end of the song he says that “The snow turned into rain.”
“The Same Auld Lang Syne” is a multi-meaning song that suggests the idea that even though we aren’t the same people at reunions that we were years before the necessity for reunions, we can still bring the life lessons we learned in between with us. If there is emptiness in the reunion, it can be filled with memories and laughter or the connection can be broken by continuing on separate life paths. The outcome depends on the desires of the two people involved. After all, rain is another form of snow and both are versions of water – one of the essential nurturers of life.
Wesley Hyatt writes in 1999 in The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits that Dan Fogelberg jokingly described his 1979 hit “Longer” from his Phoenix Album as “the song that put me on the elevators.”
Dan Fogelberg himself recalled that he wrote “Longer” while on vacation in Maui. Lounging in a hammock one night and looking up at the stars, he mused that “this song was drifting around the universe, saw me, and decided I’d give it a good home.” Dan sang the song he had written and accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar and Jerry Hey provided a flugelhorn solo.
“Longer” combines feelings of human romantic love with natural beauties like stars, birds, fishes, mountains, and describes it as “truer than any tree ever grew.”
“Through the years as the fire starts to mellow
Burning lines in the book of our lives
Though the binding cracks
And the pages start to yellow
I'll be in love with you
I'll be in love with you.”
“Longer” expresses the human capacity for both romantic, lasting love that many people long for, but only the fortunate few experience. It captures the truth that even if the first blinding passion of romantic love dims a little through the years, that passion writes indelible imprints on hearts and lasts beyond fleeting feelings and beyond inexperienced youth.
“Joy at the Start, Fear in the Journey, Joy in the Coming Home”
Dan Fogelberg’s song “Along the Road” is also from his Phoenix Album. “This song describes life’s journey and the pitfalls that people encounter as they travel along the road of life. Dan Fogelberg uses the word humble in many of his songs and this humanizes him more than any of the words of idealism that he uses like love, nature, or legacy. One of the most telling lines of “Along the Road” is “But through it all a heart held humble.”
Despite his great success, Dan Fogelberg had a truly humble and down to earth heart and feeling for people that glow through his songs.
“Joy at the start
Fear in the journey
Joy in the coming home
A part of the heart
Gets lost in the learning
Somewhere along the road.”
Just these few songs that Dan Fogelberg wrote reveal the depths of his own journey, the substance of his soul, and his understanding of the unity of people, love, and nature. He records some of the negatives of life like anger and fear and regret, but his words and music resonate with the joy in life’s journey, wisdom gained through pain, and the hope of coming home.
Happy birthday Dan Fogelberg and thank you for your words and music that encourage others in their journey.
August 13 is Dan Fogelberg’s birthday and although he died at age 56, on December 16, 2007, his music is as immediate as a breath, ageless as hope, and as real as penetrating fingers squeezing the soul to renew it. It is possible to explore the meaning of life by listening to the lyrics and music of Dan Fogelberg songs.
Dan Fogelberg was born on August 13, 1951, in Peoria, Illinois, according to reputation and aura, the symbol of an average American city and mainstream Midwestern culture. Dan Fogelberg’s music is as average as the sun navigating the sky backwards or standing in a Midwestern backyard staring at the stars glistening in the sky. He wrote with one hand clutching his Midwestern roots and the other reaching for the stars. He managed to touch both human hearts and the stars.
“One Day We’ll All Understand”
In the narrative of our personal lives, growing up in a blue collar, loosened white collar town like Peoria, Illinois, or Ecorse, Michigan, where I grew up is called “humble beginnings.” Dan Fogelberg’s beginnings were humble and musical. His mother Margaret was a classically trained pianist and his father Lawrence Peter Fogelberg a band leader. Dan learned to play the piano and the Hawaiian sliding guitar and began to play in bands. After he graduated from Woodruff High School in 1969, he went on to college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all of the time playing his music solo and in bands. In 1971, Irving Azoff who would later become his manager, discovered him and eventually sent him to Nashville to sharpen his skills. In 1972, Dan released his first album, Home Free and in 1974, he released Souvenirs. One of the songs in Souvenirs, “Part of the Plan,” became his first hit.
…”Be who you must that’s a part of the plan,
Await your arrival
With simple survival
And one day we’ll all understand,
One day we’ll all understand…”
Midwestern roots even those beginning in a gritty steel town like Ecorse, roots that shame some people, are a good foundation for the journey through life. Nostalgia inevitably tinges the edges of childhood memories sepia, but I have a file of sharp edged black and white memories of growing up in Midwestern Ecorse. The timeless and timely Detroit River that I grew alongside, my Grandfather’s tomato garden, and my Grandmother’s brown shingled house with her waiting inside to welcome me are just a few of them.
I didn’t grow up to be a Dan Fogelberg musician but I am a humble musician, and I am who I must be. I am still part of the plan, and I hope that one day “we’ll all understand.
“I’m Just a Living Legacy to the Leader of the Band”
Biographies of Dan Fogelberg tell us that his father Lawrence Peter Fogelberg led bands at Peoria’s Woodruff High School and Pekin High School, and that he wrote his song, “The Leader of the Band” to honor his father. “The Leader of the Band” honors the countless band masters in America and across the world who have polished dull souls with music and taught clumsy fingers to coax music from reluctant instruments. Mr. Saylor was the leader of our high school band and every time I listen to Dan Fogelberg’s “Leader of the Band”, I think about Mr. Saylor and how many hours he put in rehearsing our band and coaching and cajoling us to play our best. Mr. Campbell was our band leader too, and he taught us precise marching steps and to think with precision about our lives.
“He earned his love
Through discipline
A thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand..”
I remember when Mr. Saylor kept assuring me that I could play my E Flat Alto Horn well and that I could earn a higher chair in the band seating. He didn’t give up on me when I wanted to throw my horn at him! With my music, I humbly try to be a living legacy of the leaders of our Ecorse High School Band and still marvel at their “thundering, velvet hand.”
“Like the Songs That the Darkness Composes to Worship the Light”
In 1977, Dan Fogelberg released his fourth album called Nether Lands, his album title a play on Nederland, Colorado, the location of the studios where he recorded his album. Nederland is also the Dutch name for the European country called the Netherlands. By this time Dan had moved to Colorado and if the lyrics of this song accurately reflect his feelings at the time, he reveled in the state’s natural beauty and the beauty inspired him to explore his internal and external landscapes.
“High on this mountain
The clouds down below
I'm feeling so strong and alive
From this rocky perch
I'll continue to search
For the wind
And the snow
And the sky..”
I don’t live in the Colorado mountains like Dan Fogelberg did, but I have learned to build my own mountains from where I live and to appreciate my individual view of the earth and sky. Dan’s lyrics are honest and open enough to allow a wide range of interpretation and I like to think that he used the story of the Netherlands as a metaphor for human existence. Building a country on the bed of the sea and working to keep the sea from reclaiming it while preserving and contributing to its natural beauty is an inspirational human and national story. Dan sought and found natural beauty in physical places like Colorado, later in other places, and finally in Maine. His inward quest for beauty and meaning is expressed in lines such as: “Like the songs that the darkness composes to worship the light.”
I like the mystical idea that darkness composes songs to worship the light. It suggests that in our human quest for meaning, salvation, and immortality that the two moral currents of human existence, good and evil, might someday be reconciled in other, more eternal worlds.
“Between the Worlds of Men and Make Believe”
Dan Fogelberg wrote his song, “Scarecrow’s Dream,” as a tribute to Walt Disney, the personification of dreams come true. The lyrics of the song are a poignant reminder that dreamers don’t always control their dreams, and even when realized, dreams don’t disappear with their fulfillment. Sometimes they linger for years or a lifetime, still shaping the soul and lives of the dreamer.
“And if you ever hear me calling out
And if you've been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and
make-believe
I can be found.”
As a writer, most days I travel between the worlds of men and make believe, trying to live within the bounds of both worlds and occasionally purposely straying out of the bounds. Most of us live between the worlds of reality and fantasy, sometimes, when we can muster up the courage, letting their bounds overlap. Dan Fogelberg’s words in “Scarecrow” are a reminder that there are places in our souls that we haven’t visited yet.
“Burning Lines in the Book of Our Lives”
Biographies of Dan Fogelberg tell us that he married three times and that his marriage to musician Jean Marie Meyer lasted until his death in 2007. The lyrics from three of his songs trace the progression of romantic relationships in a thoughtful and heartfelt bouquet of words. The lyrics of his song Believe in Me apply to a romantic relationship, but at a deeper level can be applied to any human relationship.
“Too many hearts have been broken
Failing to trust what they feel
But trust isn't something
That's spoken
And love's never wrong
When it's real.”
Dan’s song “The Same Auld Lang Syne” captures the universal human experience of running into an old flame and is set on Christmas Eve, the symbolic time of beginnings and endings.
The two former lovers try to recapture at least an ember of their former relationship, but they discover that they have changed beyond recapturing their former selves and their former relationship.
“We drank a toast to
innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how…”
In the beginning of the song Dan Fogelberg talks about Christmas Eve snow falling, and at the end of the song he says that “The snow turned into rain.”
“The Same Auld Lang Syne” is a multi-meaning song that suggests the idea that even though we aren’t the same people at reunions that we were years before the necessity for reunions, we can still bring the life lessons we learned in between with us. If there is emptiness in the reunion, it can be filled with memories and laughter or the connection can be broken by continuing on separate life paths. The outcome depends on the desires of the two people involved. After all, rain is another form of snow and both are versions of water – one of the essential nurturers of life.
Wesley Hyatt writes in 1999 in The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits that Dan Fogelberg jokingly described his 1979 hit “Longer” from his Phoenix Album as “the song that put me on the elevators.”
Dan Fogelberg himself recalled that he wrote “Longer” while on vacation in Maui. Lounging in a hammock one night and looking up at the stars, he mused that “this song was drifting around the universe, saw me, and decided I’d give it a good home.” Dan sang the song he had written and accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar and Jerry Hey provided a flugelhorn solo.
“Longer” combines feelings of human romantic love with natural beauties like stars, birds, fishes, mountains, and describes it as “truer than any tree ever grew.”
“Through the years as the fire starts to mellow
Burning lines in the book of our lives
Though the binding cracks
And the pages start to yellow
I'll be in love with you
I'll be in love with you.”
“Longer” expresses the human capacity for both romantic, lasting love that many people long for, but only the fortunate few experience. It captures the truth that even if the first blinding passion of romantic love dims a little through the years, that passion writes indelible imprints on hearts and lasts beyond fleeting feelings and beyond inexperienced youth.
“Joy at the Start, Fear in the Journey, Joy in the Coming Home”
Dan Fogelberg’s song “Along the Road” is also from his Phoenix Album. “This song describes life’s journey and the pitfalls that people encounter as they travel along the road of life. Dan Fogelberg uses the word humble in many of his songs and this humanizes him more than any of the words of idealism that he uses like love, nature, or legacy. One of the most telling lines of “Along the Road” is “But through it all a heart held humble.”
Despite his great success, Dan Fogelberg had a truly humble and down to earth heart and feeling for people that glow through his songs.
“Joy at the start
Fear in the journey
Joy in the coming home
A part of the heart
Gets lost in the learning
Somewhere along the road.”
Just these few songs that Dan Fogelberg wrote reveal the depths of his own journey, the substance of his soul, and his understanding of the unity of people, love, and nature. He records some of the negatives of life like anger and fear and regret, but his words and music resonate with the joy in life’s journey, wisdom gained through pain, and the hope of coming home.
Happy birthday Dan Fogelberg and thank you for your words and music that encourage others in their journey.
