Dan Fogelberg

Daniel Grayling "Dan" Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 – December 16, 2007) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose music was inspired by sources as diverse as folk, pop, rock, classical, jazz, and bluegrass. He is best known for his early 1980s hits, including "Longer" (1980), "Leader of the Band" (1981), and "Same Old Lang Syne" (1981).

Early life and family

Dan Fogelberg, the youngest of three sons, was born in Peoria, Illinois, the son of Margaret (née Irvine), a classically trained pianist, and Lawrence Peter Fogelberg, a high school band director who spent most of his career at Peoria's Woodruff High School and Pekin High School. Dan's mother was a Scottish immigrant, and his father was of Swedish descent. His father would later be the inspiration for the song, "Leader of the Band". Using a Mel Bay course book, Dan taught himself to play a Hawaiian slide guitar that his grandfather gave him. He also learned to play the piano. At 14 he joined a band, The Clan, which covered The Beatles. His second band was another cover band, The Coachmen, who, in 1967, released two singles written by Fogelberg on Ledger Records: "Maybe Time Will Let Me Forget" and "Don't Want To Lose Her."

The The

The The are an English musical and multimedia group that have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer/songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member.

History

The early years (1977–1981)

In November 1977, Matt Johnson placed an advertisement in the NME, asking for "Bass/lead guitarist into The Velvet Underground/Syd Barrett". Johnson later placed a second advertisement in the NME, stating his new influences as "The Residents/Throbbing Gristle".

While trying to get his band going, in 1978 Johnson had recorded a demo solo album (See Without Being Seen) which he continued to sell at various underground gigs on cassettes. In 1979, working with Colin Lloyd-Tucker (a friend and colleague at De Wolfe Music, the Soho music publisher/recording studio) Johnson recorded his first album proper, Spirits. This album remains unreleased, although the album track "What Stanley Saw" was later licensed to Cherry Red Records for their Perspectives & Distortion compilation album, which also featured Virgin Prunes, Lemon Kittens, Thomas Leer, Kevin Coyne and Mark Perry.

The Band

The Band was a Canadian-American roots rock group, originally consisting of Rick Danko (bass guitar, double bass, fiddle, trombone, vocals), Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, vocals), Garth Hudson (keyboards, saxophones, trumpet), Richard Manuel (piano, baritone, drums, vocals) and Robbie Robertson (guitar, percussion, vocals). The members of the Band first came together as they joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins's backing group, the Hawks, one by one between 1958 and 1963.

In 1964, they separated from Hawkins, after which they toured and released a few singles as Levon and the Hawks and the Canadian Squires. The next year, Bob Dylan hired them for his U.S. tour in 1965 and world tour in 1966. Following the 1966 tour, the group moved with Dylan to Saugerties, New York, where they made the informal 1967 recordings that became The Basement Tapes, which forged the basis for their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink. Because they were always "the band" to various frontmen, Helm said the name "The Band" worked well when the group came into its own. The group began performing as the Band in 1968 and went on to release ten studio albums. Dylan continued to collaborate with the Band over the course of their career, including a joint 1974 tour.

27 (band)

27 is an American rock band from Cambridge, Massachusetts. 27 was formed by Maria Christopher, formerly of Dirt Merchants, and Ayal Naor in 1997. 27 is commonly categorized as a rock or indie rock band, but the genres lo-fi and emo have occasionally been used to describe them.

27 has toured extensively throughout Europe, North America, and Japan. In the Czech Republic, 27 opened for Robert Plant.

27 shares a relatively close relationship with the band Isis. Bryant Clifford Meyer, of Isis, co-wrote the 27 song "1001 Gods," Aaron Turner, of Isis, contributed guitars and vocals to the song "April," and Jeff Caxide, of Isis, contributed to the song "Try." Maria Christopher and Ayal Naor, of 27, contributed to the songs "Weight," "Carry," and "The Beginning and the End" which appeared on the Isis album Oceanic. Of these, the song "Weight" was featured on the television show Friday Night Lights in 2007. 27 also released an album on Hydra Head Records, which is owned by Aaron Turner of Isis.

Leader of the Band

"Leader of the Band" is a song written by Dan Fogelberg from his 1981 album The Innocent Age. The song was written as a tribute to his father, Lawrence Fogelberg, a musician and the leader of a band, who was still alive at the time the song was released. Lawrence died in August 1982.

Released as a single at the end of 1981, the tribute peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1982. It became Fogelberg's second #1 song on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, following his 1980 hit "Longer".

Other versions

Lucie Arnaz has performed a version of the song as a tribute to her late father, Desi Arnaz.

Regine Velasquez recorded this song in 2008 for her album Low Key, and she also performed the song to her father, Gerardo Velasquez, when the latter was still alive.

See also

References

External links