So Long, Dan Folgelberg...

I almost drove off of the road today as the DJ on KGSR radio followed up the playing of Dan Fogelberg's "Phoenix" with the startling news that Dan had passed away at the age of 56 after losing a three year battle with prostate cancer. I know... Dan was considered kind of a cheesy adult pop star in his more radio friendly days, but I loved the storyteller in Dan, and he was such an understated, gentle musician that dared call out the materialism of the 70's and 80' to sing about "The Power of Gold", and to challenge his baby boomer friends who had been activists in the 60's but had settled for playing it safe ("There's a Place In the World For A Gambler). He was also one of the first musicians to use his visibility to speak out about the alarming state of the environment, long before it was cool and trendy to do so. His album "Phoenix" in the early 80's was such a brilliant synthesis of rock, folk, jazz and bluegrass, with a classic ballad thrown in. I quit counting the number of times I was asked to sing "Longer" at weddings (the song "Longer"...nobody really was interested in listening to me longer than was absolutely necessary). But, I guess the other reason I am shocked and saddened by Dan's death, other than the fact that I am 56 as well... is that his song, "The Leader of the Band" pushed me as I turned 30 to take the time to know and understand all that my father had been through... and then, even more importantly, to embrace him and take the first step to reach our to a dad that I had become distant and resentful towards in my high school, college and young adult years. The same father that I have written so glowingly about in the last 20 years (and actually, just a few posts ago), was a stranger to me, both on purpose, and by default. I really didn't care about understanding him. The combination of hearing Dan Fogleberg talk about where his father had been, what he had come through and the choices he had made, along with becoming a father myself, began to transform my narrow uninformed picture of my father.

The last time I saw Dan perform live was in 1993 at the Starplex Ampitheatre (now know as the Smirnoff Music Centre) in Dallas and I remember distinctly feeling like I was listening to an old friend sit around the living room and tell stories with a guitar. In reality I was hundreds of yards a way on a blanket on the berm hillside along with thousands of other admirers, but I sensed that we all felt the same way.

The final words of the chorus of that beautiful tribute to his musician father ring especially true now as we bid him adieu to this earthly venue, "The leader of the band is tired, and his eyes are growing old...but his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul...my life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man...I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band." May all of my attempts be so poor...And what a wonderful legacy it is...

Pling...Pling...

dg