TS: Dan Fogelberg vs. James Taylor vs. Kenny Loggins vs. John Denver vs. Jackson Browne

I almost put Croce in there, but think he's really of another era, and would go better in a TS with Cat Stevens and Joni Mitchell.

Well, that explains the beard.

See above.

BTW i love all this stuff

I share Puffin's nostalgia for some of John Denver's stuff, but don't really need to hear it. "Jet Plane" and "Country Roads" are pretty good songs. Dan Fogelberg I only know one song by. James Taylor is possibly the least interesting ex-junkie musician ever.

I gained renewed appreciation for Denver through the Toots and the Maytals cover of "Country Roads" and especially Robbie Fulks's cover of "Jet Plane."

Dan Fogelberg indeed the worst, but not as bad as his namesake Dan Hill.

And I agree that Mr. Browne can be a stellar songwriter. His rootsy rawk posture is vastly more credible than Loggins's attempts to crank up the volume ("Footloose," the "Top Gun" theme, etc.).

Artistically, putting him up against John Martyn, Nick Drake, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell would be more fair (I am not saying he'd still win when put up against them though)

Of course, it's been many moons since I've heard a Dan Fogelburg song.

The first album > the second album > the third album > anything else he ever did. I like me some Jackson Browne.

I love that. It implies that the best cry and the rest laugh, first of all, and never being sure if it's real can be a pretty heavy emotion.

All we know for sure: he's giving up a lot of weight and a lot of reach in that fight.

Loggins: smooth.

I prolly mentioned this before on ilx, but the closest I've ever come to dying was nearly drowning in kenny loggins' pool when I was in 2nd grade. it was at his kid's birthday party.

when me and my brother were getting put on an ambulance and everyone else at the party was huddled around us, kenny loggins decided to go for a hike.

also dan fogelberg is secretly awesome

he didn't save me from drowning or anything, he just has some good songs

fogelberg and browne both hung out with that Eagles/linda ronstadt southern californina crowd...in some circles that might give them some cred... but not in my circle it dont...
I agree that Gordan Lightfoot and Jim Croce need to be in this conversation as well...hell, maybe even cat stevens and donovan...and if you are gonna throw them in, then why not Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell?

please explain your circle and its standards of cred please

also dan fogelberg is secretly awesome

very secretly.

gg allin needs to be one of the options here. he is secretly awesome, too.

Jackson Browne is great. Even his strange 80s fixation on Central America yielded some killer songs. You brats better show some respect goddamnit.

Jackson Browne wrote "Somebody's Baby" ergo he is awesome

Jackson Browne also wrote "Lawyers In Love" ergo he is doubly awesome.

And Tender is The Night from that same record.

heard this Dan Fogelberg song on the radio and it made me dislike him even more than I thought I did
what a jerk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmVXYOJzAJM

He's bizarre: a folkie with New Age and often spectral touches. His music is soothing in a creepy way.

Mickey Newbury can be like that. In her memoir,Stardust Memories, Susie Nelson recalls that she and Newbury were going to run away together (she was underage, he was def. not). Dad Willie and her Mom, usually at odds, prepared to meet Newbury with a six-shooter at the rendezvous point, but he didn't show (precognition?)

apparently this story is autobiographical
i imagine her face twisted into a grimace as she recognizes him and then spills her purse
i'm sure they both convulsed with laughter on the floor as he claims

can you imagine running into some dude you used to know, having him startle you into spilling your purse, then drinking three beers with him in your car and then he goes and spills the beans about the whole thing in a song this awful? i'd want to murder him.

sleepless since 3 a.m., I somehow find myself thinking about Dan Fogelberg, whose name, to me, when I was a snotty "everything louder and darker" teen, was anathema. turns out, unsurprisingly, that there is considerably more to him than "Longer" (which still dislike, but I wonder if that also isn't lasting adolescent aversion to a certain strain of grown-up schmaltz). early pre-dawn explorations only allow two observations so far and these are they

1) I wonder if anybody on ilx would have been able to ID the artist listening to this outstanding bluegrass workout without knowing who it was by. The list of bluegrass luminaries on the album is bonkers & the harmonies are unsurprisingly cosmic, just gorgeous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W365cFlw4XM

2) the cover of that album, seen in the YouTube embed, is the most striking "I don't give a fuck what you think about me, this is how I'm trying to look" picture I have ever seen

Fogelberg has an incredible voice