I could have been listening to this album years earlier than I did because this album cover failed me. My older cousin had this album and I saw it in the stack for years. I never sampled it though because the cover looked like something I wouldn’t be interested in.
I can’t tell you what I thought it would have been. I don’t remember. All I know was that I would look at that cover and feel that it was something for stodgy old people. Maybe I thought it was a collection of concertos for cello or something like that. I liked classical music well enough but I was still focused on Bach.
What message was Dan trying to convey with this album cover? Howmany other people skipped it based on how it looked? Fortunately, I heard my cousin playing on my Aunt and Uncle’s living room stereo one day. I was really drawn into the song Nether Lands. It was filled with imagery of soaring over mountains and rocky, snow covered vistas. The rest of the album was filled with true musical accomplishment. It didn’t feel like typical rock and roll or pop music. There was this feeling that this was a real musician. That may sound kind of weird but that is still the feeling that I take from Nether Lands. Maybe it is a holdover from my previous assumption based on the cover. It sounds more grown up to me than stuff by REO Speedwagon or The B-52’s especially when you get to Dancing Shoes. Maybe it is because of the acoustic nature. Only real musicians can do a complete song with just a couple of acoustic guitars. No pounding drums or electric effects to hide behind. Just clear notes pouring out and harmonized vocal parts delicately singing mature lyrics that do not have anything to do with whisky or driving too fast.
Maybe I was right after all. This is a grown up album for grown up people. I would soon after buy Phoenix which had the song Longer. Dan Fogelberg’s new album The Innocent Age, was getting some air play. Leader Of The Band was a favorite of my friend Adam. Adam has long marched to the beat of a different drummer and I think that Leader Of The Band spoke to that in a way.
I don’t want to lump all things Fogelberg into this one post. I’d eventually end up with a handful of Dan’s albums. Just a couple of years ago, I was going through some old internet bookmarks. I had a folder of the official sites of some of my favorite artists. I saw Dan’s there and thought “I wonder if Dan is touring. I’d like to take my wife to see him in concert.” I was stunned when I got to the home page and discovered that Dan Fogelberg had died in December of 2007. For some reason, his passing saddens me in a very personal way. I mean he isn’t the first recording artist to die but somehow he is one of the very, very few that I feel a sense of loss over.
Nether Lands
Dancing Shoes
Lessons Learned
Give Me Some Time
Scarecrow’s Dream
Sketches