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PREMESSA: LA SUPERIORITA’ DELLA MUSICA SU VINILE E’ ANCOR OGGI SANCITA, NOTORIA ED EVIDENTE. NON TANTO DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA DI RESA, QUALITA’ E PULIZIA DEL SUONO, TANTOMENO DA QUELLO DEL RIMPIANTO RETROSPETTIVO E NOSTALGICO , MA SOPRATTUTTO DA QUELLO PIU’ PALPABILE ED INOPPUGNABILE DELL’ ESSENZA, DELL’ ANIMA E DELLA SUBLIMAZIONE CREATIVA. IL DISCO IN VINILE HA PULSAZIONE ARTISTICA, PASSIONE ARMONICA E SPLENDORE GRAFICO , E’ PIACEVOLE DA OSSERVARE E DA TENERE IN MANO, RISPLENDE, PROFUMA E VIBRA DI VITA, DI EMOZIONE E  DI SENSIBILITA’. E’ TUTTO QUELLO CHE NON E’ E NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE IL CD, CHE AL CONTRARIO E’ SOLO UN OGGETTO MERAMENTE COMMERCIALE, POVERO, ARIDO, CINICO, STERILE ED ORWELLIANO,  UNA DEGENERAZIONE INDUSTRIALE SCHIZOFRENICA E NECROFILA, LA DESOLANTE SOLUZIONE FINALE DELL’ AVIDITA’ DEL MERCATO E DELL’ ARROGANZA DEI DISCOGRAFICI .

DAN FOGELBERG
captured angel

Disco LP 33 giri , 1975, , FULL MOON / EPIC,  PE 33499  , USA

OTTIME CONDIZIONI, vinyl ex++/NM , cover ex++

Daniel Grayling Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 Peoria, Illinois – December 16, 2007 Deer Isle, Maine) was an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose music was inspired by sources as diverse as folk, pop, classical, jazz, and bluegrass music.

Captured Angel is the third album by the late American singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg, released in 1975

• Interprete: Dan Fogelberg
• Etichetta:  Epic / Full Moon
• Catalogo: PE 33499
• Data di pubblicazione: 1975

• Supporto:vinile 33 giri
• Tipo audio: stereo
• Dimensioni: 30 cm.
• Facciate: 2
• Gatefold / copertina apribile , white-blue tree label, white paper inner sleeve, “for military sale only” on back sleeve/scritta sul retro copertina “for military sale only”

Track listing

All songs written by Dan Fogelberg.

Side one

1. “Aspen/These Days” – 7:39
2. “Comes and Goes” – 2:25
3. “Captured Angel” – 2:57
4. “Old Tennessee” – 3:07
5. “Next Time” – 4:10

Side two

1. “Man in the Mirror” / “Below the Surface” – 7:10
2. “Crow” – 4:40
3. “The Last Nail” – 5:30

Personnel

• Dan Fogelberg – banjo, bass, guitar, harmonica, percussion, keyboard, vocals, ARP
• Hot Damn Brothers – vocals
• Russ Kunkel – drums
• David Lindley – fiddle
• Al Perkins – pedal steel, steel guitar
• Norbert Putnam – bass
• J.D. Souther – vocals, background vocals

Dan Fogelberg is a singer-songwriter in the confessional vein of Joni Mitchell; his work at this time was also heavily influenced by America, the Eagles, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. His most successful work dates from the 1970s and early 1980s. Fogelberg‘s
best songs are generally those that have a little muscle to them
(“Phoenix”) or manage to transcend his penchant for cliched,
sentimental lyrics and maudlin arrangements to be genuinely affecting
(“There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler”).

Fogelberg, with his gentle brand of country rock, builds up a
stronger following with each release and seems to become a bit more
comfortable with the style of music he has chosen. Kind of a blend
between the Cosmic Cowboy scene, the Eagles genre and the Colorado
school of music, Fogelberg runs through a series of gentle cuts
highlighted by mild electric or acoustic instrumentals, double tracked
vocals and easy harmonies. A natural follow to his last LP, which
firmly established him as a name to be reckoned with on the commercial
scene. Virtually all instruments played by artist, but when he needs it
he gets help from the likes of J.D. Souther, Russ Kunkel and Norbert
Putnam. Best cuts: “Aspen/These Days,” “Comes And Goes,” “Old
Tennessee,” “Crow,” “The Last Nail.”

– Billboard, 1975.

Such kind folks at Epic Records and Full Moon Productions — not
only have they let Fogelberg record nine more songs, and taken down
something he hummed in the rec room for Glen Spreen to orchestrate, but
they’ve let him put some of his art therapy on the cover.
Dimensionality is beyond him (or else he doesn’t know much about
breasts), and it does look as if somebody put out the angel’s eyes with
a poker, but after all, it’s the spirit that counts. D+

– Robert Christgau, Christgau’s Record Guide, 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 Woodruff High School and Pekin High School. Dan Fogelberg’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 to him; he also learned to play the piano. He
started his music career at age 14 when he joined his first band, The
Clan, which paid homage to The Beatles. His second band was another cover
combo, The Coachmen, who in 1967 released two singles on Ledger
Records: “Maybe Time Will Let Me Forget” and “Don’t Want To Lose Her.”
Another was the blues band Frankie and the Aliens, who toured
regionally during the 1980s covering songs by Cream and Muddy Waters,
among others.

Early musical career

After graduating from Woodruff High School in 1969, he studied theater arts and painting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and began performing as a solo acoustic player in area coffeehouses
including the Red Herring Coffeehouse where he made his first solo
recordings as part of a folk festival recording in 1971. There, he was
discovered in 1971 by Irving Azoff. Fogelberg and Azoff—who started his music-management career promoting another Champaign-Urbana act, REO Speedwagon—moved to California to seek their fortunes. Azoff sent Fogelberg to Nashville to hone his skills. It was in Nashville that Dan became a session musician and recorded his first album with producer Norbert Putnam. In 1972, Dan released his debut album Home Free to lukewarm response. He performed as an opening act for pop-folk artists such as Van Morrison. Dan’s second effort was much more successful—the 1974 Joe Walsh–produced album Souvenirs and its hit song “Part of the Plan” made him a major star.

Musical career

After Souvenirs, Fogelberg released a string of gold and platinum albums, including Captured Angel (1975) and Nether Lands (1977), and found commercial success with songs such as “The Power of Gold.” His 1978 Twin Sons of Different Mothers was the first of two collaborations with jazz flutist Tim Weisberg. 1979’s Phoenix reached the Top 10, with “Longer” becoming a #2 pop hit and wedding standard in winter 1980. This was followed by his Top 20 hit “Heart Hotels.”

The Innocent Age, released in October 1981, was Fogelberg’s critical and commercial peak. This double album song cycle included four of his biggest hits: “Leader of the Band,” “Hard to Say,” “Run for the Roses,” and “Same Old Lang Syne,” based on a real-life accidental meeting with a former girlfriend (Jill Anderson). A 1982 greatest hits album contained two new songs, both of which were released as singles: “Missing You” and “Make Love Stay.” In 1984, he rocked a little again with the album Windows And Walls, containing the singles “The Language of Love” and “Believe in Me.”

Fogelberg released High Country Snows in 1985. Recorded in Nashville, it showcased his (and some of the industry’s best) talent in the bluegrass genre. Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Doc Watson, Jerry Douglas, David Grisman, Chris Hillman, and Herb Pedersen
were among those who contributed to the record. In a world defined by
“life in the fast lane,” Fogelberg described the music as “life in the
off-ramp.” 1987 heralded a return to rock with Exiles, and 1990’s The Wild Places was a tribute to Earth preservation. In 1991, he released the live album Greetings from the West.

River of Souls, released in 1993, was Fogelberg’s last studio album for Sony Records. In 1997, Portrait
encompassed his career with four discs, each highlighting a different
facet of his music: “Ballads,” “Rock and Roll,” “Tales and Travels”
(which displayed his talents as a narrative songwriter), and “Hits.” In
1999, he fulfilled a career-long dream of creating a Christmas album, with his release of First Christmas Morning, and in 2003, Full Circle showcased a return to the folk-influenced, 1970s soft rock style of music for which he and other singer-songwriters from his era had gained popular recognition.

Fogelberg also used his music to address social issues, including peace and Native American concerns. He was particularly outspoken about his commitment to the environment and to finding alternatives to nuclear power. To that end, Fogelberg included “Face the Fire” on the Phoenix album and performed at a number of the Musicians United for Safe Energy “No Nukes” concerts in 1979 and 1980.

His live concerts won acclaim across the nation over the years.
Fogelberg said that one of his proudest moments came in 1979 when he
played New York City‘s Carnegie Hall
for an audience including his mother and father. Most summers,
Fogelberg would perform with a full band or in a solo acoustic setting;
the formats allowed him to show the breadth and depth of his talent as
a singer, guitarist, pianist, and bandleader. In 2002, fans showed
their appreciation by choosing Fogelberg as one of the first-10
inductees into the Performers Hall of Fame at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.

Final years

In May 2004, Fogelberg was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
He underwent therapy and achieved a partial remission, which did not
eliminate his cancer but reduced it and stopped its spread. On August 13, 2005,
his 54th birthday, Fogelberg announced the success of his cancer
treatments, and he thanked fans for their support. He said that he had
no immediate plans to return to making music but was keeping his
options open and enjoying spending time with his wife, musician Jean Fogelberg.

Fogelberg maintained residences in Deer Isle, Maine, and at Mountain Bird Ranch, a 610-acre (2.5 km²) property near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, that he bought in 1982. The ranch was put up for sale in 2005.

After battling prostate cancer for three years, Fogelberg succumbed to the disease on December 16, 2007, at his home in Maine with his wife, Jean, by his side.

Soon after his death, Jean announced that a song written and recorded for her by Fogelberg for Valentine’s Day 2005, “Sometimes a Song,”
would be sold on the Internet and that all proceeds would go to the
Prostate Cancer Foundation. The song was released on Valentine’s Day
2008. She further announced that this song would be included in a
collection of eleven previously unpublished songs (nine originals) that
will be released later in 2008 on a CD that Dan titled “Love In Time.”

In tribute to Fogelberg, the city of Peoria renamed Abingdon Street
in the city’s northside Dan Fogelberg Parkway. The street runs along
the outside of Woodruff High School, Fogelberg’s alma mater.

Popular culture

• A Dan Fogelberg signature edition Martin D41-DF guitar was issued in 2001.
• “Run For The Roses” was written for the 1980 Kentucky Derby.
• Two of his songs have been used in feature films: “There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler” (originally on Souvenirs) can be heard in the 1978 film FM; and “Times Like These” was used in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy, a year before it appeared on The Innocent Age.
• In a Bloom County comic strip, the character Lola Granola confesses to having a tattoo of Dan Fogelberg’s face. Her boyfriend, Opus the Penguin, is oblivious and refers to him as “Dan Fogerburp.”
• In BASEketball,
  the deceased owner of “The Beers” refers to Joe Cooper and his
  generation as fans: “You kids today with your loud music and your Dan
  Fogelberg, your Zima, hula hoops, and Pac-Man video games!”
• In a fifth-season episode of The King of Queens
  titled “Kirbed Enthusiasm,” Deacon beseeches Doug to help him get his
  son Kirby interested in football and toughen him up because he believes
  that his wife, Kelly, is causing their son to be too soft and too
  sensitive. While the other kids are practicing on the field and Deacon
  is complaining to Doug, Kirby is in the car “listening to Dan
  Fogelberg!”
• In No Cure for Cancer, comedian Denis Leary suggests suing Fogelberg and James Taylor
  for turning him soft in the 1970s, based on the legal precedent of the
  lawsuit filed by the parents of the two young men who allegedly killed
  themselves after listening to Judas Priest.
• Jay Leno cited Same Old Lang Syne as one of his favorite holiday songs.
• Houston, Texas, Rapper
  “Magnificent” states, “I’m the leader of the band, like Fogelberg.”
  Amusingly, Fogelberg’s song “Leader of the Band” was written for and
  described his father, Lawrence Fogelberg.
• David Archuleta sang “Longer” in the semifinals of the seventh season of American Idol in 2008.
• “The Power of Gold” was used by ABC as a theme for their pre-Olympics special in 1980.
• During an episode of Triple M‘s Get This Ed Kavalee asked if, were Tony Martin to be like Crosby in a fictional band, he could be Stills. Martin replied, “You can be Stills if you want… You can be Dan Fogelberg.”

If James Taylor epitomized the definition and the original, late-’60s incarnation of the term singer/songwriter, Dan Fogelberg
exemplified the late-’70s equivalent of that term at its most highly
developed and successful, with a string of platinum-selling albums and
singles into the early ’80s and a long career since, interrupted only
by a health crisis in more recent years. He came out of a musical
family, born Daniel Grayling Fogelberg
on August 13, 1951, in Peoria, IL, where his father was an established
musician, teacher, and bandleader. His first instrument was the piano,
which he took to well enough, and music mattered to him more than the
sports that were the preoccupation of most of the boys around him. At
age ten, he was saving and listening to any old records he could find.
And if there’s a “God-shaped space” in everyone, Fogelberg‘s
was filled with music, something his family might’ve guessed if they’d
seen how much he loved the music in church but was bored by the
sermons. His other great passions were drawing and painting. His
personal musical turning point came in the early ’60s, before he’d
reached his teens. A gift of an old Hawaiian guitar from his
grandfather introduced him to the instrument that would soon supplant
the piano, and at age 12, he heard the Beatles
for the first time, which not only led him to a revelation about how
electric guitars could sound, but also made him notice for the first
time the act of songwriting as something central to what musicians did.
It was also at that point that he began picking up on the music of Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly, all of whom were, of course, in the Beatles’ repertory.

He started writing songs soon after, and by the time he was 13,
he was in a band called the Clan, playing school events with a
repertory that mostly consisted of Beatles
songs. Of all the members, he was the one who stayed with music, and
his taste and interests evolved with the music around him. By the time
he was in his mid-teens, he was listening to the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, and was finding inspiration in the sounds and songs of Gene Clark, Stephen Stills, Chris Hillman, Neil Young, and Richie Furay,
among others. His second band, the Coachmen, who’d started out doing
Paul Revere & the Raiders-style dance-oriented R&B, evolved
into a more progressive folk-rock outfit, even embracing some of Springfield‘s
more ambitious repertory. Yet, somehow, for all of that devotion to
music, he didn’t plunge directly into the field. Had he been living in
California, in Los Angeles or San Francisco, it might’ve been
different, but in the absence of a highly receptive audience, or a
surrounding coterie of serious musician friends, or much encouragement
anywhere in Peoria to pursue music, he ended up embracing other goals.
After finishing high school, it was on to the University of Illinois at
Champaign as a drama major, in hopes of an acting career, and then a
switch to painting.

This was all going on amid the political agonies of the Vietnam War, which was still going on full-tilt at the time, and Fogelberg
wasn’t isolated from the tensions over the war as they manifested
themselves. He fell back into music through one of the relatively few
public centers for what passed for a counterculture in central
Illinois, a club called The Red Herring, owned by a friend named Peter
Berkow. The latter invited Fogelberg to play, and soon he was building a local audience with his sound and his songs, and it was from that beginning that Fogelberg came to the attention of a University of Illinois alumnus named Irving Azoff,
who at the time was managing REO Speedwagon and was thinking that it
was time for him to move up to the next level in the music business.
One performance by Fogelberg,
accompanied by his solo acoustic guitar at an otherwise drunken
fraternity event in front of a singularly oblivious audience, sold Azoff on his prospects and the idea that his own future might well be quite favorable if tied to Fogelberg. He moved to Los Angeles and Azoff began the task of getting him signed. In the interim, he played some sessions and even rated a support gig on tour with Van Morrison, in a series of shows that also included Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks. His demo tape was good enough to get serious attention from Jerry Moss at A&M Records and David Geffen at the newly established Asylum Records, but it was the legendary Clive Davis, then still at Columbia Records, who got Fogelberg under contract.

Fogelberg‘s debut album, Home Free (1972), recorded in Nashville, with Norbert Putnam
producing, was an embarrassment of riches, musically speaking. It was a
sublimely beautiful melding of country-rock with the personal level of
a singer/songwriter, reminiscent at times of Gene Clark‘s solo work, and also encompassing sounds derived from the likes of Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Neil Young, yet never sounding too much like the joint work of those three (or four) and always sounding like Fogelberg. But it was a lot like several other brilliant debut albums to come out of the Columbia Records orbit during Davis‘ tenure, including Child Is Father to the Man by the original Blood, Sweat & Tears and Greetings from Asbury Park by Bruce Springsteen,
in that it never generated a hit single to help drive sales. Everyone
who heard the album loved it, but without a single to generate AM radio
play, very few people heard it; in Davis‘ view, fine as it was, Home Free
was a little too country-ish for mainstream radio, and fell between the
cracks between pop/rock and country playlists. A few years later, after
the success of acts such as the Eagles, such distinctions would matter
less, but in 1972, the music marketplace was that segregated
stylistically. Fogelberg kept working, mostly as a session musician, turning up on Buffy Saint-Marie‘s MCA debut LP, Buffy, and on Jackson Browne‘s
Late for the Sky, among other early- to mid-’70s albums. He also
managed to continue with Columbia with help from his manager. Azoff‘s
own Full Moon label had a production and distribution deal with
Columbia, through its Epic Records imprint, and it was by way of
Epic/Full Moon that he got a second chance. This time out, however, Fogelberg would record in Los Angeles with guitarist/producer Joe Walsh. Fogelberg quickly discovered that he had a sympathetic and enthusiastic partner in Walsh, and everything literally fell into place, even Graham Nash‘s presence (at Walsh‘s request) singing harmonies on the resulting album, Souvenirs,
which featured a range of renowned Los Angeles-based musicians. The
results were more than golden — they ended up double platinum, as
“Part of the Plan” reached the Top 20 in 1974 and Souvenirs
rode those charts for six months and sold steadily for years after. The
album had mostly the same mix of elements as its predecessor, but this
time it was widely heard and accepted. The country-flavored rock of
“Part of the Plan,” the reflective singer/songwriter work of “Song from
Half Mountain,” the bluegrass-flavored “Morning Sky,” and the heavier
“As the Raven Flies” (which recalled Neil Young‘s “Ohio”) — all seemed to fit together perfectly.

Now Fogelberg
was a star, leading an Illinois-spawned band called Fool’s Gold and
touring almost constantly for the next two years. In the midst of it
all, he completed a third album, Captured Angel
(1975) — which he produced himself this time — which showed him
extending his sound in more ambitious directions, and in surprising
circumstances. It was during 1975 that he’d returned home to spend time
with his father, who had been hospitalized, and afterward, while
staying in Peoria, cut what were supposed to be demos of the songs he
wanted to use on his new album, with Fogelberg playing every instrument and doing all the vocals. Instead, when Azoff and Davis
heard the demos, they insisted that this was the album, and that he
could never recapture the feel he’d gotten on songs like “Comes and
Goes” working with other musicians. He eventually came to an agreement
with the label that the percussion parts would be redone by Russ Kunkel, and the final version of Captured Angel included Norbert Putnam on bass on certain tracks, and Al Perkins on pedal steel guitar and David Lindley on fiddle, plus some string arrangements by Glen Spreen, but otherwise it was truly a Fogelberg
solo effort. That album only solidified his fame, as well as making him
a special favorite of college students (especially coeds) across the
country, and a tour with the Eagles in 1975 — who, by then, were being
managed by Azoff — only enhanced his profile.

Fogelberg moved to Colorado in the mid-’70s, and his initial time there resulted in the songs that became the basis for his next album, Nether Lands
(1977). Ironically, the songs came at the end of an extended dry spell
as a songwriter, the first of his adult life. He found himself unable
to compose for months, and then, suddenly, he started writing again,
but in a much more ornate, elaborately conceived, classically
influenced idiom. The songs were bolder both lyrically and musically —
the title track, in particular, was notable for employing the services
of composer/arranger Dominic Frontiere
in orchestrating it. The album was a hit, and he was still riding that
initial wave of recognition and the concertizing that went with it,
even if he was now taking the audience in some unexpected directions. Fogelberg
decided at this point to step back a bit — get off that wave — and do
something purely for his own satisfaction musically. In 1978, he began
work on a record that was to be more of a personal indulgence than
anything else, the non-commercial side of Dan Fogelberg, sort of his equivalent to those instrumental albums that Frank Sinatra had issued as a conductor a couple of times in his career, or Neil Young‘s later Everybody’s Rockin’. He teamed up on what became a duo album with jazz flutist Tim Weisberg
for the album Twin Sons of Different Mothers (1978) — but instead of
being a curio or a footnote in his output, it ended up charting high
and generating a huge hit single in the guise of “The Power of Gold”
(which, ironically, had been added to the LP at the last minute). The
album ended up in the Top 20 and was embraced by critics and the public
alike. For the next few years, Fogelberg was literally riding a creative and commercial whirlwind, peaking with his 1980 album Phoenix,
which was propelled to platinum status with help from the number two
single “Longer.” The year before, he also fulfilled a longtime career
goal by playing Carnegie Hall in New York, to a sellout audience that
included his parents.

Fogelberg‘s
career in the 1980s began with an unexpected turn — concept albums
were common enough by then, but most record labels also tended to
strongly discourage the recording of double LPs, owing to the expense
and the difficulties in selling and marketing them. But midway through
finishing his next album, and with the single “Same Old Lang Syne”
already in release and record stores and buyers poised for a new LP, he
suddenly decided to expand the planned record, writing new songs and
effectively doubling its length, as well as delaying it well into 1981,
the better part of a year beyond what the label or his manager had
planned on. The result was his boldest production to date, The Innocent Age (1981), a massive project featuring some VIP collaborators (including Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris),
from which four hit singles, the earlier “Same Old Lang Syne” plus “Run
for the Roses,” “Hard to Say,” and “Leader of the Band” (the latter a
tribute to his father), were ultimately extracted. That album marked
his commercial peak, and seemed to end a phenomenally popular and
productive phase of his career. As though to mark the transition, the
following year Epic released its first hits compilation on Fogelberg, a ten-song LP on which four of the slots were filled by the singles off of The Innocent Age.

It was three years before his next new album, during which time Fogelberg‘s
musical sensibilities evolved in new and more specialized directions.
He turned toward more personal and experimental forms of music, none of
which proved remotely as popular with the public or with critics as his
1970s work. Additionally, as was the case with many artists of the
1970s and earlier, the playing field was fundamentally altered in the
1980s. MTV and music videos as promotional devices became central to
getting exposure and airplay, and recording artists
now needed a distinct visual style as well as a sound to make it to the
front rank; additionally, a new generation of music critics, most of
whom were bent on showing contempt for most of the favored artists of
the previous decade or two, were now speaking in the press. His 1984
album Windows and Walls did reach the fans, and even generated a hit in
“Language of Love,” but got a hostile reception from the critics of the
period. And his turn toward bluegrass music, helped in part by his
contact with Chris Hillman, who’d also turned back toward his bluegrass roots at the time (and recorded Fogelberg‘s
“Morning Sky” as the title track of his latest album), didn’t make him
any more accessible to the mainline music critics of the day. The
resulting album, High Country Snows (1985), was a good seller and showed off Fogelberg‘s
roots brilliantly, but did nothing to enhance his pop credibility,
which had waned considerably over the previous three years.

Fogelberg
withdrew somewhat in the years that followed, playing anonymously in
bars around Colorado as part of an outfit called Frankie & the
Aliens, formed by Joe Vitale. He seemed to be headed back to his teenage roots, and in the process redefined himself musically. When he re-emerged with The Wild Places
and the worldbeat-flavored River of Souls in the early ’90s, he was
writing what amounted to topical songs about the environment, a subject
with which he’d become much concerned since moving permanently to
Colorado. By that time, he’d established a fully equipped home studio
that provided him with the independence that he craved, and he was
beholden to the record label merely as a conduit for his work. Epic,
for its part, kept releasing Fogelberg‘s
music, including a superb 1991 live album called Greetings from the
West, and his earlier albums made perennially popular CD releases. Home Free was also extensively remixed by Norbert Putnam for its CD re-release in 1988 (those desiring to hear the original mix can find it on BGO’s U.K. double-CD reissue of Home Free/Souvenirs). Indeed, all of Fogelberg‘s
compact discs reflected an unusual degree of care in their production,
especially for Columbia catalog reissues of the era, when the label was
often just slapping down the digital masters and batting them out
without an eye toward quality.

In 1995, he and Tim Weisberg did another collaboration together, No Resemblance Whatsoever, which seemed to pick up right where their 1978 album had left off without skipping a beat. In 1997, Columbia honored Fogelberg
with a four-CD career retrospective compilation entitled Portrait: The
Music of Dan Fogelberg from 1972-1997, looking back over his previous
25 years of work. Fogelberg closed out the old century with First Christmas Morning,
which saw him plunge several centuries into the past in pursuing
traditional holiday music, evoking sounds that, in the context of work
from a pop/rock artist, had previously only been heard from Jan Akkerman on his Tabernakel album and the work of the Amazing Blondel, nearly 30 years before. Finally, in 2003, Fogelberg went back to the acoustic singer/songwriter sound of his early career with the appropriately titled Full Circle
album. This seemed like the possible opening of a promising new phase
to his work and career. Those prospects were dashed in mid-2004,
however, when Fogelberg was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, to which he finally succumbed in late 2007. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide