Part II: From the valley to the mountains: Sketches, nocturnes and a gypsy wind
Some of the inspiration for that fourth album would come of course from his mother, but the feel and themes for it would be driven by his purchase of a house high in the Rocky Mountains, where he could feel at one with nature and muse on the meaning of life. Much of this sense of being part of something greater comes through in the album, which was released in 1977.
It's immediately apparent from the cover that Dan has at this point changed his image, and the murkier, darker and more mature face of the man looking out from the sleeve shows you how much Dan has grown. As a matter of fact, it's the first of his albums where he's not looking directly at the camera, but is in fact looking down and a little away, as if either distracted or perhaps deep in thought, maybe communing with the universe. He's grown a beard and to be honest he looks a little like Jesus, though I'm sure he would never have claimed such a resemblance. But it's really a portrait of the artist as a young man, and he is now at this point twenty-six years old, approaching something of a crossroads that all men and women have to pass, the age of thirty.
Like the sleeve, much of the material is darker, too. Songs like “Loose ends”, “Once upon a time” and even the title track betray a perhaps world-weariness, a realisation that life isn't all fun and a deep and abiding love for, and respect of nature. The title track sounds like something out of a movie, with its huge orchestral arrangements and powerful sweeping soundscapes, while in the middle is a simple piano melody, bringing everything back to earth. The overriding impression I get from this opener is of space, and I can see how he wrote it overlooking the Continental Divide, high up in the mountains.
For this album Dan brought back some of the mates who had helped him out on his second outing: Joe Walsh returns, as does Don Henley and Russ Kunkel. Joe Lalas, who had also played on “Souvenirs”, is another who reprises his role on drums, and J.D. Souther is another Eagle who plays on this album. It features, too, the first contribution from flautist Tim Weisberg, with whom Dan would later record two duet albums. Dan has at this point taken charge of production himself, obviously stretching his wings as he develops as an artiste.
This album also sees Dan honing his skill as a writer of gorgeous, tear-jerking ballads, with the fragile “Sketches” almost closing the album, its haunting piano melody almost taking the entire song solo, and the beautifully lazy “Scarecrow's dream”, but it has its fast moments too in songs like “Love gone by”, with its bouncing piano runs. It's probably the first album that features material you would have to call dark or deeper, “Loose ends”, the first song he wrote for the album, being a prime example. In what would become a typical fashion for Dan however, his next album would change all that had gone before, and move in quite a different direction.
When you've achieved the level of success and fame that Dan Fogelberg had by this point, it's usually a bad idea to veer sharp left and try something completely new, but this became something of a hallmark of Dan's output over the next few years, as he broadened his musical horizons and included new influences into his music. This was the first collaboration he made with jazz flautist Tim Weisberg, who had guested on one of his earlier albums. As the two men looked quite similar, the album featured both of them on the cover, and was imaginatively titled “Twin sons of different mothers”. It contained a mix of instrumental, semi-classical pieces and some vocal ones too, and rather surprisingly for such an eclectic album yielded a hit single in the form of “The power of gold”.
Even more of a surprise was the fact that, the album having been made in the face of growing commercial success as a “step back” from the glitz and glamour of the music business, and intended to be for the fans only, and expecting it to be panned that it went top twenty, thanks to the last-minute addition. Yes, “The power of gold” was only thrown together and put on the album at the eleventh hour, when the piece the pair had wanted to close the album hit a snag, and on the success of that last-minute hit single the album was a huge triumph. But it showed that even when he wasn't really trying, Dan could write a hit single. It is in fact a wonderful album, with no input to the writing from Weisberg, who was happy enough to just play alongside Dan.
It features such beautiful compositions as “Paris Nocturne”, with its intentionally French-sounding accordion, mandolin and beautiful string section, the boppy uptempo “Hurtwood Alley”, and the introspective “Guitar etude No. 3”, but for me the standout on it is the gorgeous, softly fragile ballad “Since you've asked”, the only song on the album not composed by Dan, one of two covers, the other being the Hollies' “Tell me to my face”. Weisberg's sprightly flute playing definitely adds something to the music and changes the focus, injecting an interesting flavour of jazz into the mix of classical, folk and rock that already existed there.
Bemused, but also galvanised by the almost accidental success of the album, Dan descended into a flurry of furious songwriting that would culminate in one of his most lauded albums ever, and provide the hit that would forever define him, and for which people would always afterwards know him.
Perhaps the title was meant to refer to the fact that Dan was returning to the soft rock and ballads that has made his name, coming back, as it were, to planned commerciality, but whatever the reason this album did indeed see a resurgence in his popularity, which would continue well into the next decade. The joy and enthusiasm evident in the title track, which is almost the opener but for a short instrumental, shows a man who is delighted to be back recording again, and determined to share that joy with the world. Songs like “Gypsy wind”, “Wishing on the moon” and “Heart hotels” are all infectiously catchy, while having a lot to say.
His biggest triumph however would come with the ballad “Longer”, which would become one his best-loved and best-known songs, just narrowly missing out on the number one spot but would remain at the number two slot for two consecutive weeks. It is also the only of Dan's singles to even chart in the UK. Its theme of the permanence and power of love has made it a favourite at weddings, and one of the most requested love songs ever. There's a lovely flugelhorn solo in the bridge that really adds something to an already great song.
This album is the first one on which Dan would tackle any sort of political theme, with “Face the fire” looking at the issue of disappearing natural resources and the consequences that may have down the line. It's also one of the heaviest tracks on this, or any of his albums prior, with a big growling guitar sound and a pretty screeching solo to finish it off. This would be the beginning of Dan's foray into the world of political songwriting, and the next few albums would tackle such subjects as the plight of the indigineous Native American tribes, global warming, poverty and the aged.
In 1979, Dan achieved one of his lifetime ambitions, to show his proud father that he was a legitimate musician too, when he played Carnegie Hall with his parents in the audience. Buoyed by this success and adulation, he returned to writing, but although one of his biggest hit singles, the Christmas favourite, “Same old lang syne”, resulted from these sessions, Dan felt he had too much material to include in the next album and that his vision for it was that it would have to be a double. His record label were not impressed, eager for a new album they could promote, particularly on the back of the success of the single, but Dan was adamant and Irving Azoff backed him, and the label simply had to wait. In the end, they were glad they had.
Double albums have never been popular, not with record companies. More expensive, often harder to get into for the fan and sometimes filled out with substandard material, they're a hard sell. They must have been delighted then to find that this double album yielded not one, not two, but four hit singles, and became Dan's most successful of his career. Billed as “a song cycle”, it traces the search for the meaning of life, from birth to death, with its opener “Nexus”, describing the process of birth and its closer, “Ghosts”, tackling the subject of death. In between, Dan explores, in more detail than he ever has to date, the human condition, with songs like “The lion's share”, “Hard to say” and “In the passage”.
Dan also invited back some of the icons who had helped him out on previous albums, among them Russ Kunkel and Don Henley, and performed a beautiful duet with country superstar Emmylou Harris on “Only the heart may know”. He also arranged for his father to conduct the “Washington post march” that forms the final few seconds of what became one of his biggest hits, a tribute to Lawrence Fogelberg, “The leader of the band”. There are other hit singles on the album too, including the lead single “Same old lang syne”, as well as “Run for the roses”, which was written by Dan for the Kentucky Derby, and “Hard to say”, on which Glenn Frey provides backing vocals.
If Dan was not already established as a top singer/songwriter, “The innocent age” planted him firmly in the limelight, and became one of his biggest-selling albums, despite the initial reluctance of his label to agree to a double album. Dan was now able to sell out huge concert arenas, playing to audiences he could only ever previously dream of. His songs were on the radio all the time, and people were beginning to know and recognise the talent of this man, now turning thirty, from Illinois. Surely his next album would be the one to capitalise and build on this success, and his rising star would shoot even higher?