Windows and walls --- Dan Fogelberg --- 1984 (Full Moon)
Okay, I've been threatening to review a Dan Fogelberg album for some time now, and it's about time I did so. Trouble is, it's so hard to choose. Almost everything he's put out is exceptional, but I've decided to go for this one. Can't say why: I could have reviewed almost any album by him and been happy, but I've gone for “Windows and walls”, and here we are.
Like most of Dan's music, this album explores the human condition, from the title track, which considers the aching loneliness and sense of abandonment and futility that comes with advancing old age, to the craving to leave a pointless, unfulfilled life behind, if only for a while, as in “Tucson, Arizona (Gazette)”, or even the love which is only found through enforced absence, in “Sweet Magnolia (and the travelling salesman)”. Love, of course, is a strong current that runs through most of Fogelberg's songs, whether it's the quest to attain same, the loss of it or even the glorying in having it, but he was also very strongly eco-active, as the closer, “Gone too far” shows.
But I get ahead of myself. Let's go track by track, shall we? It opens with “The language of love”, a rocky, powerful track which explores how contradictory a thing love can be.
”I say leave” he sings
”When I mean stay/ But she don't see/ And so she moves away/ And what we really mean/ We rarely say.” It's got some great guitar, nice piano and organ, and a great drumbeat that just makes you want to tap your foot. A heavier track than perhaps people unfamiliar with Dan, and only aware of his ballads such as “Run for the roses” and “Same old lang syne” might expect, but he could rock with the best of them.
He also plays just about every instrument it's possible to play. On this album, in addition to singing he plays guitar, bass, percussion, piano, synth, electric piano and tambourine. That's a lot of instruments! He still has a full band backing him though, and the sound is certainly full, though on the title track, up next, it's as sparse and fragile as the lyrical content of the song demands. Already featured in our "More than words" section last month, it's a truly heartbreaking account of how one old woman, left behind and forgotten by her family, tries to fill her days, it's a sobering tale of how people can be “out of sight, out of mind”, but they still have their feelings. Carried on a gentle plucked acoustic guitar accompanied by low organ and gorgeous violin and cello courtesy of Katherine Burden, the lyric speaks for itself:
”The clock on the mantle/ Chiming the hours/ Must be the loneliest sound/ She washes the dishes/ Waters the flowers/ And afterwards has to sit down/ Sometimes she still can remember a child/ Playing with china dolls/ Now all that's she's left are these memories/ And windows and walls.” The fade-out low chorus of
”Day after day” and the ticking clock (he uses a real clock in the song!) serve to underline the crushing loneliness old age can be. After hearing this song, you experience a sudden urge to ring up your old mother, or go check on that elderly neighbour, and that can't be bad.
Back to rocking then for “The loving cup”, and an exploration of the reasons people fall in, out of and back into love, the things they'll do for it and the sacrifices they'll make to attain it.
”Still the lovers in the backseats crawl” Dan observes wryly,
”And still their wives wait up.” Some great guitar work in this song, particularly at the end, with the rather mad, intense scream of the guitar to its very abrupt end. A depiction of frustration, perhaps? Or just a guy enjoying himself letting rip on the guitar?
Like most, if not all of his work, every song here is composed by Dan, and they all contain his trademark humanity and honesty, something that tended to single him out from other songwriters in the same field. Although his songs may not always have been autobiographical, you always got the sense that he was putting something from his own life, some experience, some observation, some part of him into every song, so that each one sounded personal and intimate in a way others' songs often do not. A true craftsman.
The other standout on the album comes next, with the tragic “Tucson, Arizona (Gazette)”, which tells the story, to a rather incongruously bop-a-long beat and uptempo melody, of two lost souls, a girl who has come out from her hometown to make it big in the movies, but has never got any further than the desert town of Tucson, and a boy, who spends his nights cruising the lonely streets in his Chevy, the one true thing he loves. These two meet up and go for a drug-fuelled ride in his car, which ends in tragedy. The song's principle vehicle is acoustic guitar and piano, with a vaguely folk feel, Dan's anguished voice relating the tale of these two doomed lovers as he picks out the chords on his guitar, like some sort of latter-day Rod Serling telling one his many cautionary tales.
At just over eight and a half minutes, it's not only the longest song on the album by far, but also one of the longest compositions Dan has ever written. And yet, with its storytelling style, typical of Dan's songs, it doesn't seem that long before we're hearing the fade-out, as
”The neighbours speculated/ On what could make a good boy/ Go so bad” and Dan advises
”It might have been the desert heat/ It might have been the home he never had.” Powerful stuff, great orchestration and a fine, desperate piano melody during the
denoument and then to the fade.
After that, “Let her go” sounds like a rather ordinary rock song. Dan ramps it back up, cranking up the guitars and the keyboards, the thumping drums as he tries to convince his lady that his past love affairs mean nothing, and should remain in the past. Yeah sure, Dan, we've all tried that one: “Honest honey! She meant
nothing to me!” They
never believe you --- why should they? At the end he throws up his hands, declaring to his lady
”I told you the truth/ How much more can I do? /Now my love it's up to you.” I'm sure she appreciated that! I, however, do appreciate the rather tasty guitar solo that takes the song to its fade-out. Nice.
Two ballads follow, the first the bittersweet tale of a man on the road who longs to get home to the woman he loves. “Sweet Magnolia (and the travelling salesman)” is carried mostly on a piano melody with lovely string arrangement, with some really nice clarinet --- not that often you can say that! --- a simple song as many of Dan's are, but sincere and heartfelt, as is the penultimate track, “Believe in me”.
Another sumptuous ballad, it's a real love song where the orchestra get to really stretch themselves, while the main melody is kept by Dan on his acoustic high-string guitar (it says on his website) and a lovely little acoustic piano. Keep it simple was often Dan's way, and it certainly works here, where the pure love shines through in a ballad that manages not to be trite, sugary or formulaic (Boybands, take note!) and retraces the theme of “Let her go”, when he sings
”Those other loves that came before/ Mean nothing to me anymore/ But you can never be quite sure.” Finally, Dan declares that as a songwriter the one thing he would like to do is calm his lady's fears through song:
”If I could only do one thing/ Then I would try to write and sing/ A song that ends your questioning/ And makes you believe in me.” Sublime.
That would probably have been a nice enough ending to the album, but then the electric guitars churn and crank with a truly heavy rock opening to the closer, “Gone too far”, where Dan bemoans the waste of natural resources and what we're doing to our planet. There are some
really heavy moments on this, and it rocks along at a great pace, with some great slants on the lyric:
”Or have we gone too far?/ Are we just wishing on a dying star?” later changes the second line to
”Are we just living on a dying star?” Effective. With just one word, he changes the whole meaning and strikes a note of fear into our hearts.
The track ends with a lot of cacaphony and noise, winds and the sounds of a perceived coming destruction, which I believe makes the point admirably.
Never less than honest, not afraid to take chances, always with his finger on the pulse of human emotion and always championing good causes, the world lost a real gentleman, a rare talent and a wonderful singer, songwriter and musician when Dan Fogelberg died in 2007. This is just one small part of the huge legacy he left for us to remember him by, and it's a fitting tribute to the man and his music.
TRACKLISTING
1. The language of love
2. Windows and walls
3. The loving cup
4. Tucson, Arizona (Gazette)
5. Let her go
6. Sweet Magnolia (and the travelling salesman)
7. Believe in me
8. Gone too far
Suggested further listening: “Souvenirs”, “Phoenix”, “The innocent age”, “Nether lands”, “The wild places”, “Exiles”