Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Dan Fogelberg, Aug 13, 1951 - Dec 16, 2007

Singer-song writer Dan Fogelberg died Dec 16, 2007 after battling with prostate cancer for years. He is survived by his wife, Jean. He was 56.

His unapologetic soft rocks live on YouTube. Growing up in Hong Kong, I remember the radio loved Dan's corny tunes, "Longer" and "Same Old Lang Syne" got plenty of airplays. Back then some kids still enjoyed English pop songs and Canto pops had not been as prominently overwhelming as now. I especially remember Longer for some idiosyncratic reason. I think some DJ might have jokingly or actually pronounced the song as \ˈlŋ-jer\. You know that was before we have Siu sir to correct our English mis-pronunciations. I guess I was too young to appreciate Dan's movie like unfolding lyrics.

I didn't know he was such a "rebel" until I read this part of "Same Old Lang Syne"
We bought a six-pack at a liquor store. And we drank it in her car. ... The beer was empty and our tongues were tired ... And I watched her drive away.
So we have alcohol consumption, activities that make the tongues tired, driving intoxicated probably in snowy or raining weather ....

If only I knew what he was singing I might have given him more accolades.



4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:34 AM

    Yes, that song always reminds me of xiu lou, the deejays at that time...

    vl1982

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  2. Longer, I remember HK Singer Johnny Yip Chun Tong, actually he was born in Macau, made the Cantonese version, those were the days in 70's

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. It's the talking, the catching-up after all those years that made the tongues tired, rather than any other things else.

    If only we HK students had known the lyrics, our everyday English would have been much better, even without Siu Sir.

    Phrases like:

    I stole behind her in the frozen foods

    The food was totalled up and bagged

    her eyes flew open wide

    spilled her purse

    the conversation dragged

    kept her warm and safe and dry

    the years had been a friend to her

    reliving in our eloquence

    running out of things to say

    All are simple and to the point. Too bad HK students do not like this kind of old songs and don't have the chance to listen to lyrics like this.

    ReplyDelete

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