A eulogy i wrote for Dan Fogelberg, an artist who greatly influenced my style and love for music.
indie
acoustic
folk
christian
ccm
buried
talents
buried talents band
Story behind the song
Dan Fogelberg's music hit our house as I was growing through my teen years, and his early clean acoustic sound was an easy style to fall in love with.
I grew up listening to and playing songs from Souvenirs, Captured Angel, That Green Album whose title escapes me, Phoenix, and Innocent Age.
I sat in the Mud Island Amphitheater in Memphis, listening to Dan sing his beautiful songs underneath a starry sky, with the lights of the city glowing behind him and the river flowing slowly by behind us. Just an incredible and poignant memory.
I ran out of money before I ran out of albums to buy. He was just a really prolific and talented artist/songwriter, and I highly respected both his skill and his storytelling ability. I learned to play almost every song off his first four albums, and would sit and play through them, intermixed with old Jim Croce favorites and some Simon and Garfunkel.
His later albums weren't that aligned with the style I'd chosen, so I didn't pick up the High Country, Windows and Walls, or the Dancing Shoes album.
Dan went through a messy divorce and out of it came his Exiles album, which my wife bought for me, and we went to his Exiles concert, where I hoped to hear many of my favorite old tunes from him.
But it was mainly cuts from the new album. I went away vaguely disappointed because I was fixed in his past music.
No big. He still had it - the skill, the songwriting. He'd just moved on, and I hadn't.
But regardless, when I heard he'd passed away recently from cancer, it still shocked me and I usually deal with the death of a friend or family member with a poem or song.
And yes, though Dan never knew me, I certainly considered his albums dear friends to jam to in those turbulent teen and early adult years.
So, here's my message to him, see if you can pick out some of my favorite titles from his early stuff...
Lyrics
Sitting in the 15th row just twenty years ago
You were on the stage with your guitar
Telling us your memories with every note you sang
As we sat spellbound, underneath the stars.
Chorus:
And the souvenirs you left for us
Were just part of the plan
Just a trip beyond the reach
With the leader of the band
And we sat down by the river
As the stars fell from the sky
With the scent of sweet wysteria
As the time, the time just passed us by...
Exiles out of space and time,
The phoenix from the flames
Trying to reclaim its innocent age
And I pray you've found a better place
Along the road you've gone
As we contemplate
Before the Empty Stage...
Chorus