20 Comments on “Soft Rock Gets a Little Sadder”

1. Wow. I’ll tell y’all something. I had a girlfriend back in the early 80s who’d had a huge crush on Fogelberg for years. She liked Steely Dan and Tom Scott and Steve Winwood and The Who and Abandoned Luncheonette-era Hall & Oates — but Fogelberg was the man. His mainly-non-hit stuff appealed to me, as well, and Souvenirs and Netherlands and Twin Sons of Different Mothers with Weisberg made up a goodly chunk of the soundtrack of our courtship.

   We had the pianist include a bit of “Beggar’s Game,” I believe it was, from that very same Phoenix, in the musical medley in advance of our wedding. She just now went up to bed, but I think I’ll wait and tell her this news tomorrow.

2. Sad news. I wonder if my dad knows yet.

3. This is sad news. Oh, the memories!

   I admit that I never listened to his soft rock outside of school, although I am the right age. The reason is that I was a band nerd and we always had to play the soft rock stuff. We played Bread and Chicago and Dan Fogelberg. When you play something over and over and over, you really can’t stand it after a while.

   But, he sure helped my musical skills in high school! Here’s wishing he finds that soft rock heaven in the sky. My condolences to his family.

   Julie

4. Not many of his sub-genre for whom I still have a soft spot in my heart, but he’s one. Very sad. I wonder if Opus will note this some time soon.

   D

5. Sigh. Now he can’t be a Living Legacy to the Leader of the Band. And that’s sad. :(

6. Saw him in concert several times. His “Twins Sons of Different Mothers” with flutist Tim Weisberg is still one of my favorite car driving albums.

7. I was touched by the outpouring of comments on all his videos on YouTube. Folks have just been flooding the site with their condolences and memories, and I’m sure he would have appreciated that.

8. I never was fan, but I never had anything against Fogelberg’s music either. At 56, his death is a tragedy that didn’t have to happen, and it strikes home for me since prostate cancer runs in my family – my grandfather died from it, and my dad is fighting it right now. If you’re male and over 30, get a prostate exam at least every couple of years. If you’re over 40, get one every year. Prostate cancer has a very high cure rate – if it’s detected early.

9. My wife and I were wed to a lovely rendition of “Since You’ve Asked.”

   He had a way with a lyric. And a mood.

   Damn.

10. Very sad indeed…Captured Angel and Souvenirs formed a big part of the soundtrack for my late teens-early twenties. He was too young to go.

11. Dang.

    Weren’t we all just ragging on him last week? And then so many came to his defense. He was good at what he did. I will always have a soft spot for “Longer Than” and others from the late 70’s and early 80’s as it was the anthem for my love for Jenny Papazian.

12. Fogelberg was a big part of the soundtrack of my childhood. He was the reason I picked up the guitar at age 12. Sad news indeed.

13. I think I like most of his original material. But listening to Wolverine’s adamantium claws on a blackboard would be preferable to Fogelberg’s cover of “Rhythm Of The Rain.”

14. My aunt was huge into horse breeding, and loved his song “Run for the Roses.” For a while, everytime we used to get into her car, a Jeep Eagle, we had to hear that album, though I can’t remember the name. It brings back alot of memories. It’s amazing the songs, and artists, that affect you. He was never one of my favorites, but it’s his music that I remember more that some of the music that defined my “coming of age.” My prayers go out to his family and friends. And, my thanks go out to him, and his music, for solidifying those memories.

15. He may be best known for being nice and mellow but I’ll always remember him for “Tucson, Arizona”. It’s up there with Springsteen ballads.

16. Cybersage @ 14:

    The album was The Innocent Age, and it included not only Run for the Roses, but Leader of the Band and Hard to Say. Well, it also had Another Old Lang Syne, but we won’t go any further with that. I had that album on vinyl, and I remember listening to it with my mom quite a few times. Good memories. I also quite enjoyed The Language of Love. The guy was a pretty fair guitarist on top of singer and songwriter.

17. “Soft rock”? You call that “rock”? Then the word means nothing. That was schmaltz. Absolutely terrible. I mean, not that he deserved to die over it or anything. Don’t get me wrong. The man did me no harm other than the trouble it took to change the station whenever one of his sappy songs came on the radio. I’m sad he’s dead too young. But, come on, people. That stuff stunk.

18. Thanks, Punslinger.

19. The only song of his that I can remember hearing is “Leader of the Band”, and I hated it from the first time that I heard it–the most smug, self-congratulatory bullshit imaginable. And a bunch of kids in my dorm in college used to play it over and over again; they thought that it was the best song ever. Bleargh.

    But, you know, what Jim O said. Cancer is just a real sucky way to go.

20. Awww, damn. I remember way too many of his songs, and where I was when I heard them the first time. Rats.

    Cancer *is* a sucky way to go; I’ve seen too many people go that way already. I’m glad he had courage, but for his sake I’m glad that it’s over for him. Rest in peace, Dan.