Monday, February 4, 2019

The 1984 Listening Post - Dan Fogelberg - Windows and Walls

Dan Fogelberg - Windows and Walls


#116
May 22 1984
Dan Fogelberg
Windows and Walls
3 out of 5

Highlights:
The Language of Love
Let Her Go
Gone Too Far

After the radio friendly rock of the opener Fogelberg settles in to some hollowness belying the fact that he’s out of step with the musical times. He’s trying to be Jackson Brown and on “Let Her Go”(a song I actually enjoy) he wants to be Lindsay Buckingham and no one needs two of either of those.
The attempt at elegy on “Windows and Walls” or the epic misstep of “The Loving Cup” are a struggle for me because I know that he is the kind of songwriter who can get there but he just falls so short. And following those up with Side One’s EIGHT MINUTE closer, the novella “”Tucson, Arizona (Gazette)” is annoying. It’s a story song that can’t carry the heft of it’s length. Cut it by 3 minutes and I would be drinking down that Spanish guitar and the rest of the saga, Dan. But that song goes nowhere. It’s a shame. The musicianship is lovely.
And then there’s just soooooo much treacle. Just another Singer with a song who really just needs…a hug and to get laid. 


After that terrific The Innocent Age I guess there’s not a way to go anywhere but sideways or down the singer-songwriter mountain. This is a slide. 


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