No More Auld Lang Syne
Dan Fogelberg died yesterday. And I am sad.
This article gives a briefing. His official website has a link to The Living Legacy, a fan site I believe.
I saw him in concert with a girlfriend in 1979. We swooned - it was an acoustic solo concert. Piano and guitar. For two hours, he enthralled us. We were two girls at the stage door, waiting with the 30-some others. Then we saw his limo pull out from another door. Oh well… only years later, after living with a musician, would I understand why he ducked us.
I listened to his songs in college, those angsty years. I gazed at his beautiful face on the album cover. I fell in love with a Dan who looked a lot like him (though he couldn’t sing). I shed many cathartic tears, and was completely astonished at just how apt so many of his lyrics were to situations in my life. Surely no one else had EVER felt what I felt! and here was a song that described the feelings to a T! amazing! (Sketches and Same Auld Lang Syne, to be exact.)
One time, I went home with a date after a truly fantastic dinner out… he sat down at his piano and played one of Fogelberg’s songs… it must have been his best “line” because it worked. I fell for him right then and there. Music is so powerful, and as cheesy as some find his work to be, it was significant to me for a good long period of my life.
I think I’ll trot out the LPs and play them on my record player tonight (yes, I still have one!)
Go in beauty, Dan. Your creativity, work and music are here to remind us of your gentle spirit.