Dan Fogelberg 2008 Birthday Tribute - Nether Lands

http://www.danfogelberg.com
http://www.thelivinglegacy.net

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This video is to pay homage to Dan on what would have been his 57th Birthday on August 13, 2008. With Nether Lands, released May 1977, Dan Fogelberg reached an artistic peak, untempered by any obvious commercial pressure. The irony was with such a deeply soul searching album, he managed to reach his biggest audience ever. Hardly had success been more deserved.

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Many thanks to Brett Smith, owner of http://www.everon.info (an awesome Dan site) for giving me permission to use the still of Dan in the forest. Brett gives credit to painter Greg Olsen http://gregolsengallery.com for the backdrop of the image which is called Sacred Grove.

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I used stills of 2 places in the world that Dan loved - Nederland, Colorado where he orignally lived after he left Tennessee and what this song references, and Pagosa Springs, Colorado in the San Juan Mountains where Dan later built Mountain Bird Ranch. The last picture is of Dan sailing on The Eggemoggin Reach where he lived in Maine. Sailing was the love of Dan's life along with Jean. Jean sent an email including that picture through thelivinglegacy.net with the message:

August 13th, is Dan's birthday. If you can, at around 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time USA, take a moment wherever you are to mentally join hands together with the rest of us who miss him, in remembrance. Take a quiet moment, or play his music ~ I'll be playing "The Reach", and picturing him sailing on a perfect day, with the wind in his sails and the sun on the sea.
And don't forget the "Quest" lapel pin will be for sale at the Prostate Cancer Foundation website to raise money for prostate cancer research and awareness in his name.
My best wishes,
Jean Fogelberg

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In an interview at the album's release, Dan said "The song, "Nether Lands", I think was one of the most adventurous things I've ever written. I couldn't find anyplace else on the album to put it. There's just no other place for that to go. I couldn't lose it on a side. It's too important a song. So the only place to do is to lead it off. It also sets up the major crux of the album philosophically which is the two forks of existence, acceptance or denial. It comes down, that's the only choice we have when you think about it. Any other choice we have is contingent on the basic: either accept the life you're given or deny it and commit suicide. It's either one. You've got to make that decision every day.

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~ Nether Lands ~

High on this mountain
The clouds down below
I'm feeling so strong and alive
From this rocky perch
I'll continue to search
For the wind and the snow and the sky
Oh I want a lover and I want some friends
And I want to live in the sun
And I want to do all the things that I never have done
Sunny bright mornings and pale moonlit nights
Keep me from feeling alone
Now I'm learning to fly and this freedom is like
Nothing that I've ever known
Oh I've seen the bottom and I've been on top
But mostly I've lived in between
And where do you go when you get to the end of your dream
Off in the Nether Lands I heard the sound
Like the beating of heavenly wings
And deep in my brain I can hear a refrain
Of my soul as she rises and sings
Anthems to glory and anthems to love
And hymns filled with earthly delight
Like the songs that the darkness composes to worship the light
Once in a vision I came on some woods
And stood at a fork in the road
My choices were clear yet I froze with the fear
Of not knowing which way to go
Oh, one road was simple acceptance of life
The other road offered sweet peace
When I made my decision
My vision became my release