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Rating: The ashes of this unfortunate country rock musician from Illinois, who died at the age of just fifty-six due to an illness, were scattered off the coast of Maine nearly eight years ago. Inevitably, the memory of him in our parts, already rather faint at the time of his full musical activity, is now almost completely faded. I therefore take it upon myself to try and bring Dan back into contemporary consideration, by writing a few lines about one of his many works, specifically his fourth career album released in 1977.
This is the album that introduced me to this artist: all thanks to an American girl I came into contact with while she was staying in Italy, hosted by friends. Seeing me happily engaged with Eagles, Crosby Stills and Nash, Poco, and company when she listened to my music programs that I held at a couple of private radios or when she came to a certain place on Saturday nights where I used to play some records, one evening she shot the following phrase at me: "In my opinion, the best country rocker is Dan Fogelberg, you've got to listen to him!" Minchia! Who the heck was this Fogelberg? Never heard of him... fortunately, the radio had one of his albums, which was this one: untouched, ignored, with the vinyl still stuck to the inner sleeve. I took it home and gave it quite a few delightful listens, before placing it back on the shelf from where I had taken it.
Fogelberg played the acoustic guitar, piano, and electric guitar in order of preference, in addition to singing with an emotional and romantic voice, which could be quite cloying in the long run. A couple of years before the release of this album, he considered, and then declined, the spot in the Eagles left vacant by the defector Bernie Leadon, an opportunity finally seized by the more spirited Joe Walsh. Specifically for this work, he allows his producer Norbert Putnam to do quite a bit, who, during the symphonic phase, stuffs, through the specialist arranger David Campbell, two or three ballads with an impressive orchestral accompaniment.
This is the case with the titular opening of the album, at the highest levels of pomp and glory, with no expense spared regarding timpani rolls and massive movements of air from brass and woodwinds. Much more typical, and in line with the album's owner, is the subsequent "Once Upon a Time," marked by the beautiful work on the acoustic guitar and the rich harmonies provided by an excellent vocal trio: Fogelberg himself + Don Henley of the Eagles + John David Souther, who is also part of the Eagles' entourage.
Other excellent country rock songs are "Promises Made," with its rolling and dense rhythm thanks to exquisite embroidery of electric guitar harmonics, and then the hyper-romantic and dreamy (as the title demands) "Scarecrow’s Dream," the somber "Loose Ends," the rocking and polemical finale "False Faces" which also features his friend guitarist Joe Walsh at work, who had previously produced his first successful album “Souvenirs.”
"Nether Lands" is a cohesive work, with almost no qualitative divergence between the various tracks that compose it, decidedly rich in instrumentation and arranged very "densely," in practice the most grandiloquent and emphatic work of our artist. Daniel Grayling Fogelberg was a humble, sensitive, and generous artist... it's always a pleasure to take one of his works off the shelf and listen to it again. In my house, this work is one of his most played, along with the masterpiece "The Innocent Age" and the equally valid and already mentioned “Souvenirs.”
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Nether Lands (05:35)
High on this mountain
The clouds down below
I'm feeling so strong and alive
From this rocky perch
I'll continue to search
For the wind
And the snow
And the sky
I want a lover
I want some friends
And I want to live in the sun
And I want to do all the things that I
never have done.
Sunny bright mornings
And pale moonlit nights
Keep me from feeling alone
Now, I'm learning to fly
And this freedom is like
Nothing that I've ever known
I've seen the bottom
And I've been on top
But mostly I've lived in between
And where do you go
When you get to the end of
your dream?
Off in the nether lands
I heard a sound
Like the beating of heavenly wings
And deep in my brain
I can hear a refrain
Of my soul as she rises and sings
Anthems to glory and
Anthems to love and
Hymns filled with early delight
Like the songs that the darkness
Composes to worship the light.
Once in a vision
I came on some woods
And stood at a fork in the road
My choices were clear
Yet I froze with the fear
Of not knowing which way to go
One road was simple
Acceptance of life
The other road offered sweet peace
When I made my decision
My vision became my release.
04 Lessons Learned (04:55)
You
With the past at your back
And the future unsure
Asked
For the chance to try
Love once more.
Well aware of the consequences
Should the dream fall through
You threw down you last defenses
Wanting to try something new
Wanting to try something new.
You found me
In a sea of confusion
Drifting with the tide
Living
On love that had long since died.
But everytime that I touch you, baby
I feel a little more alive
And I'm reminded how much you've
made me
Believe in the love that survives
Believe in the love that survives.
Lessons learned are like
Bridges burned
You only need to cross them but once
Is the knowledge gained
Worth the price of the pain?
Are the spoils worth the cost of the hunt?
Are the spoils worth the cost of the hunt?
Borne
On the first warms winds of
Feelings newly found
Fly
But remember
Don't look down
Take as much as you think you ought to
Give just as much as you can
Don't forget what your failures have taught you
Or else you'll learn them all over again
Or else you'll have to learn them
All over again.
Lessons learned are like
Bridges burned
You only need to cross them but once
Is the knowledge gained
Worth the price of the pain?
Are the spoils worth the cost of the hunt?
Are the spoils worth the cost of the hunt?
07 Promises Made (03:22)
Promises made
Promises broken
Measures of our demise
Secrets of souls that
Rarely get spoken
Pleasure's a thin disguise.
Dozens of ways
Dozens of reasons
Shielding our hearts from pain
Riddles of romance
That distance may yet explain.
Certain of nothing
So fearful of love
Nobody seems to show you enough
Over and over
The scenes are replayed
And once again
Those promises made.
Feeling forsaken
Broken in two
How did this ever happen to you?
Taken for granted
Bruised and betrayed
Lonely survivors
These promises made.
Dozens of ways
Dozens of reasons
Shielding our hearts from pain
Riddles of romance
That distance may yet explain.
Certain of nothing
You're so damn fearful of love
Nobody seems to show you enough
Over and over
The scenes are replayed
And once again
Those promises made.
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