I didn't do a tribute thing when Dan Fogelberg passed away a while back, because I had to figure out, exactly, how I felt about his music. He is usually lumped with the singer-songwriter group - James Taylor, etc. - and that might be fair, or not. Some of his songs just don't do it for me; I even learned to play "Leader of the Band" on the guitar, but ugh! Ditto with "Longer", which I sang at my sister's wedding 21 years ago. "Run for the Roses"? More like "Run for the Toilet".
On the other hand, there are a couple songs of his I do like. They aren't stupendous colossal world-changing songs; they are good, and one of them always makes me smile.
When my sister moved back home from Mississippi, preparing to enter the Peace Corps, I was just entering Senior High School. She had a fantastic record collection; one of the records she had was Phoenix. The title track is a nice song in which the narrator (does it matter if it's Fogelberg?) tells the world he's tired of sitting around and moping because a relationship has ended. The following clip isn't very good, but it's the only one with this song on it.
Another song of his I have liked - and I can't really say why - is "Heart Hotels". The title is kind of stupid, to be honest. I think it's more a sensibility thing. Fogelberg didn't write for twelve-year-olds, or fifteen-year-olds. He wrote for adults; in this way he was very much in the James Taylor line of singer-songwriters. His was an adult sensibility, even if the writing and arranging was, well, kind of blah (a DJ on a local radio station when I was growing up called him "Dan Fogelboring", and I still think of that whenever I hear his music or see his name).
Finally, I harbor the dark secret that "Same Auld Lang Syne" has always been a favorite of mine, because I just like the little story that unfolds. It would be nice to have an experience like this - a reunion that is bitter-sweet. I know a couple that were high school sweethearts, who broke up. They went their separate ways, married others people, then each got divorced around the same time. They just happened to run in to one another, in Chicago on separate school field trips of all things. They are now happily married with two wonderful little boys. This is the exception that proves the rule - reunions like this usually end up in restraining orders, rather than either a happy little chat over beer, or a fairy tale ending. For some reason, with one brief exception, I haven't even tried the whole "friendship" thing. Anyway, I know it's hokey, but I still like it ("We tried to reach beyond the emptiness but neither one knew how" is a bit of a stretch; I think the narrator is reaching a bit as he describes his ex's unhappiness with her current lot).
