Dan Fogelberg gets a bad rap. Let’s be blunt; if you wrote
accessible folk-rock with a country tinge in the seventies and were
not The Eagles, by 1987 merely the mention of your name would
garner giggles from the musical cognoscenti. (Of course, they were
listening to the Cure, so there’s no accounting for taste.)
This is rather a shame. Fogleberg, for all his reputation as
wimp-rocker extraordinaire, is actually a pretty brilliant
songcrafter, with wide-screen lyrics that paint pictures in
brilliant shades.
Phoenix, his 1979 release, was one of his biggest CDs, with
the million-selling “Longer” leading the way. And let’s be honest;
“Longer”, for all its overplay and ubiqitous appearance at
weddings, is
still a great song. The romanticism of “Through the years,
as the fire starts to mellow//Burning lives in the book of our
lives//Though the binding cracks, and the pages start to
yellow//I’ll be in love with you” is still fresh, and still
breathtaking, if you let yourself really listen without the veneer
of cynicism that relegated Fogleberg to pop irrelevancy.
Past “Longer”,
Phoenix remains strong, its moods varying; standouts include
“Phoenix”, the title track, a bright rock anthem; “Face The Fire”,
with its passionate ecological message; and what may be the most
complex work on the CD, “Beggar’s Game”, a wistful, rich peon to
the salvation potential in love. While there are some weak points
to the CD (specifically the Eaglesesque “Gypsy Wind”, laden with
too much twang for anyone short of Travis Tritt), overall this is a
solid work.
If you can muster the courage to admit that yes, the musical
establishment might be wrong,
Phoenix is a wonderful place to start appreciating a fine
storyteller and musician who only occasionally strayed into
seventies excess. Kick your cynicism into the closet and give it a
try.
