A Songwriter Passes away...

Despite the juicy news (McCain endorsements galore!) I thought I would take a break from the politics.

Today has been so gloomy with the nor'easter pounding on my window panes. It is days like these that cause one to reflect on the past, and how fleeting the present is. I had a great weekend. It wasn't particularly eventful. My mother and Aunt came down to Massachusetts to visit on Saturday. Saturday night and Sunday I spent time with Kate and we reminisced of the Christmases gone past. We exchanged presents to some classic Christmas music. I found myself unable to sing along with Bing, or Mr. Como. It wasn't because of rusty singing chops, but because I was so overflowing with the feeling of time passage and nostalgia, that my voice cracked when I tried.

This evening I discovered that Dan Fogelberg passed away of prostate cancer at the young age of 56. Folgelberg had one or two songs that had radio play in the 70s and 80s. They still can be heard occasionally on easy listening stations. They are the types of songs that many people like, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on his perspective) I think name recognition would be fuzzy at best. A couple of them tell stories, reflections of the past. "Leader of the Band" is probably one of the better known songs.



"Longer" is, cheesy... but that is why it is so good. It is simple, elegant, and comes off like a reassuring lullaby. This video is a youtube user's interpretation with nature scenes. I was looking for another live performance or official Fogelberg video, however this was the best of my findings. Fogelberg had the high tenor's octave that was perfect for the material. The video has a rather literal interpretation of the lyrics, which is a bit corny but whoever put it together did choose some nice photographs.



Lastly Fogelberg performed a melancholy Christmas song (Same Old Lang Syne) about a past love, which is very sad, yet beautiful. His lyrics are real, and in this song in particular they capture the unpredictable nature of the world and the amazing speed at which life flows by. The songs seem so simple, and yet it seems so difficult for many to match this type of writing that the listener really connects with. I especially like the ending of the song:

"As I turned to make my way back home, the snow turned into rain" followed by the sax crying out the familiar notes of Auld Lang Syne.

The following is a video someone supplied for this song. This video kind of bites, but the song is great... so close your eyes, picture what you may.