death of an influence

I play guitar. Not nearly as often or as well as I used to, but still I play.

I was in high school in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and was influenced, for better or worse, by Dan Fogelberg. Laugh if you want, but the dude had some great music. As with most artists, his best stuff never got on the radio.

I snuck a tape recorded into a Fogelberg concert when he was touring for The Innocent Age, and the only audible thing I caught on the two hours of tape was the woman in front of me yelling, “Dancing Shoes” between songs, as if he would change his set list for the woman in row 54. The tape caught that, and the woman turning around to offer me and my friends some pot. We declined her kind offer.

The first time I sang at someone’s wedding, they requested “Longer.” More sap in that song than the maple syrup crop of ‘93, but I still smile when I hear it.

Arguably his biggest hit was “Leader of the Band.” I sat at my father’s bedside and played him that song the night before we checked him into the hospice; it was the last thing I ever sang for my father.

Fogelberg had been fighting cancer, and lost the fight yesterday. Today I’m listening to my Fogelberg collection, which includes albums on both sides of his popular years.

The chords struck at birth grow more distant,
But we strike them again and again
And we plead and we pray
For a glimmer of day
As the night folds its wings and descends
Exposing the loose ends.

Rest in peace, sir.