a year ago today, it was.
i was in sandusky, ohio with dan may, doing what i’m doing now, oddly enough…waiting out a snowstorm. that night, though, dan and i (along with percussionist peter trezzi) were trying to decide whether or not to go through with a scheduled show at stillwater, snow be damned or…not.
we had one of those magical shows that night…the perfect audience, an ideal setting, and all the circuitry worked the way it’s supposed to.
and, of course, it was a year ago today that the world lost dan fogelberg.
today, dan’s wife jean relaunched his official site, danfogelberg.com with a new layout and some new content in honor of the anniversary of his passing. i’ve learned some interesting things as a result of jeans’ willingness to share a little more information than dan perhaps would have – dan and i shared a fondness for the tradition of watching the 1951 alastair sim version of a christmas carol on christmas eve every year…and also that his eyes had a tendency to change color, in and out of the same shades mine have a predilection for drifting in and out of.
trivial, i know, but interesting to me at any rate.
the last couple of days, i’ve been compiling something of a year-in-review entry that i plan on posting here when it’s finished, and – i gotta tell ya – even the eternal cynic that i am, it’s been an amazing year for me. personally, musically, professionally – i can’t remember a year with as many high spots as this one. i feel a little guilty even saying that, considering everything that’s upside down in the world as we speak, but it’s the truth.
now, if i were far less cynical and far more romantic than the curmudgeon that lesser years past has sent forth to this point in time, i might be inclined to fantasize that dan is up there, having a word with the powers that be and sending some good energy my way…if for no other reason than to say, “hey, man…payment in kind for all the good thoughts that travelled the opposite direction these past four years.”
yeah, of course – it’s an absurd notion, concocted in my head to explain a coincidence in time, with the underlying motive of forging a personal connection that never existed on this plane. i know, i know.
the world is a different place without you, man.
“tell them how they are missed…and say not to fear
it’s gonna be all right…
…for us down here.”
john gorka, let them in
...from the rear view mirror 