So I'm in the hottub on New Year's Eve, saying "I can't believe Dan Fogelberg is dead, and I think this is actually the first holiday season I haven't heard 'Old Lang Syne' in forever!"  And my husband (who is so rock & roll & so not "70's AM" as he calls it) says he doesn't know the song.  ARGH!  So I explain and sing the song & get all choked up just talking about it, because to me it's always been so powerful.

Now, I am on Rik Emmett's mailing list, and each month he puts out a terrific newsletter, which always includes an answer of a fan's quesiton.  Always an interesting read.  This month, both he & Don Johnson dissect "Old Lang Syne".  It's long, and most of you probably won't even read it, but I wanted to post it because I think it's terrific.  Maybe because I love Rik Emmett so much, and maybe because that Dan Fogelberg song always got to me, but probably more so because I think songwriting is the most amazing thing in the world.  I hope some of you will give it a go.

JANUARY QUESTION OF THE MONTH

 

(NOTE: While this question wasn't asked directly to Rik, he chimed in with a reply....as did a few others...)

 

From: Craiger

 

Given the season, and the recent unfortunate passing of Dan Fogelberg, it got me thinking about a lyric that I would love some insight about.

In Same Old Lang Syne, there is a line that goes:

"And when I turned to make my way back home The snow turned into rain"

I'm sure there must be some significance to the "snow turning into rain", but I can't figure it out. Anybody have an idea? I'm sure it's something very obvious that's going right over my little coconut head.

 

Don Johnson replies:

 

Given the story he has told before these final refrains, I always interpretted this as follows.

Sorry I didn't notice where you live before I started to respond to this but I live in Canada where the winters are (at least where we live)....well...snowy. Growing up here one can get a warm, romantic, cozy feeling from seeing a light snowfall on a cold winter's night. Notice I said "seeing" because this is best experienced from inside, looking through a nice big picture window, while sitting in front of the warm glow of a fireplace. In any event, a snow fall can become associated with warmth and good feelings.. Rain, on the other hand, is often associated with more negative emotions.

So, all this to say, IMHO the writer is reflecting on what he had, what once was, the fond memories of a time past; and now he has to return to the moment and realizes what he has lost and what his new reality is.

And so, the snow had turned to rain.

Aren't lyrics wonderful. I'm always amazed at how a skilled writer can, in a few short syllables, express a thought that can create such powerful images for us.

Anyway, that's my take on this. I'd love to hear what others feel. This a great lyric.

  Rik's reply:

 

Don's got it nailed [but I want to take it just a tiny bit farther, if y'all don't mind].

The memory plays its tricks on us, with a sweet, soft-focus lens: it plays on us, with the magic of a xmas snow-globe toy, and the warm & fuzzies of our very human nature, as we mythologize our own histories, to make them seem more storybook.

He meets his old lover - in the immediate moment, memory rekindles all kinds of emotions, hopes, nostalgia and curiosity. Sweet - beguiling - magical!

Alas. They drink a 6 pack in the car - a nostalgic attempt to recapture an activity from their past, maybe? - but certainly a fairly low-class, not-exactly-magical kind of activity for two middle-aged folks. Hmmm ...

She reveals she's not all that happy. He admits that his career has some hellish stuff to it, and that his life ain't perfect either.

As the scene plays out, he's beginning to feel the impact of the old universal truth: you can't go back.

Life is like that half-full or half-empty glass: whether or not you are the optimist or the pessimist, the simple truth is: the glass has shares of good & bad, happy & sad, etc. It ain't always all the magical glitter of a Hallmark Card moment ...

His relationship with the woman - it's not such a 'magic snowfall' kind of memory now: there's this reality, of growing older, of time passing: and then the moment of truth arrives: as she turns to go, he feels the same "old familiar" pang of when she left him, so long ago: he feels this deadly arrow --- of how life offers infinite potential and possibilities to us, and we invest in some of them, and others get thrust upon us: but the very process also takes things away from us, and the harsh reality is: we'll never get those opportunities back. Some things are irrevokable - once they're gone, they're gone forever.

This moment of realization - this turns the warm & fuzzies of sweet nostalgic memory [snow] into a cold December rain: rain, [which is usually, as Don astutely pointed out] a metaphor from the negative side of the ledger.

Such is weather: sometimes, it makes us feel magical, and glad to be alive, and a part of Nature. Then sometimes it makes us shiver from the sleet, and the slush, and the depressing presence of Nature, which we cannot change [but only adapt to]. So - weather, and nature, show up in metaphorical ways in poetry and lyrics all the time: they are "go to" kinds of metaphorical elements, because their universality place our humanity in perspective instantly.

Also: great songwriting is ALWAYS about trying to figure out life - trying to make some sense of it, trying to turn it into good stories that have magic in them.

And this song is saying - "That's Life". Life brings us great moments of joy, and celebration; moments filled with hope, and the potential of our human spirit. But it also brings us, inevitably, aging, sickness, sorrow, grieving: indeed, at times, parts of us mourn for ourselves, for the person we used to be, for our youth, for the spring & summer of our lives, for the past, when we were bursting with ambition and potential. [My wife and I would find it comical when our kids, as teenagers, would express their 'nostalgia' for the 'good old days' when they were back in kindergarten or grade school. We humans, quite apparently, are hard-wired for nostalgia ... That's Life. ] Imagine what it's like to be at a New Year's party of 20 somethings, as they celebrate New Year's and sing Auld Lang Syne: now imagine what's going on in the heads & hearts of a group of senior citizens in an old folks' home, as they sit around and sing Auld Lang Syne on New Years. The old Scottish drinking song, literally a toast to the departed, to the past, and to the people that can't be with the singers, for whatever reason. [Maybe they've died: or emigrated to try and make a better life: or they've gone off to war, etc.] We sing for old acquaintance, but we also sing for ourselves; for the brief flicker of our own candle. [I remember my brother Russell asking our 83 yr. old grandmother to give us a bit of wisdom from the point of view of 83 years of living. She said, quite curtly, "It's too short. It went too fast." I know I'll feel that way, too, even if I live to be 110 ... Thinking of Russell, I know it will be one of the cruel injustices of Life that will kill me over this holiday season ... ] Fogelberg captured all of that, hung in the song structure's moving picture frame of a simple little story. His song is a mini-movie. It captures a moment of universal realization, and it does it brilliantly, with tremendous craft and skill and attention to detail. It's also a fearless kind of songwriting, for a few reasons. One of them is that it is unabashedly sentimental - but far from hokey. The very point of the song is the truly melancholy heart in Auld Lang Syne, because it is the moment where the past and the future collide, right here in the present, and you can never get the past back. It's gone, forever. When that thought permeates into your being, it breaks your heart.. So the song isn't a celebration. It's got too much truth in it for that. It's a ballad, and it's a lament: it doesn't have a beat that you can dance to: it has no repetitive hook, or simple chorus [but it has some POWERFUL moments, like when the B section recurs: "We drank a toast to innocence..." ... wow ... : it's a story song, with an extended coda which is, in fact, a quote from another song! Unusual, and brave. [And I have no confirmed knowledge of this, at this point, but I have a pount of conjecture which I'll raise, for the hell of it: Fogelberg's father had been a marching band leader, and Dan had written about him in a song called "Leader Of The Band". I know that, at a certain point in Fogelberg's career, his dad was sick, and might have even passed away. In any case, I suspect there was some additional, rich, emotional sub-text for Fogelberg to have the saxophone break into "Auld Lang Syne" at the end, because he'd probably heard his father conduct it and maybe even play it [not sure what his dad's principal instrument was] a lot as Dan was growing up. Arranging was one of his father's great skills: and Fogelberg pays tribute, in a song about tradition, and nostalgia ... ] Here's another thing: in songwriting classes, when I've used this lyric as an example - older writers admire it and think it's terrific: younger writers are [usually] simply not that impressed. As I marvel at the song's intricate structural balance, [knowing how much craft it takes to get that to happen, yet seem completely 'inspired' and spontaneous, with none of the mechanics showing] younger writers often find that "boring". They find the sentimentality "corny". Fogelberg had to know that this kind of song would not have a universal appeal, even though it contained a universal truth. it'll take 15 or 20 years of living for those young songwriting students to "get" it. Now - think about Steven Tyler's & Aerosmith's "Dream On". It's based on upon EXACTLY the same nostalgic emotion, but it goes in a very different direction: it says, don't give up the fight - Dream On, and pump your rock & roll fist in the air. Live for this moment! Fogelberg doesn't take an easy way out - in fact, he leaves the bittersweetness and melancholy hanging in the air. Brave. -------------------- Aren't lyrics wonderful. I'm always amazed at how a skilled writer can, in a few short syllables, express a thought that can create such powerful images for us. -------------------- Yes - I love the way they take a mountain of stuff, and condense it down into a few short phrases ... "The snow turned in to rain ... " In my songwriting classes, I call these things 'iceberg tips', because it's a small thing, poking its head in the air: but underneath the surface, there's an awful lot of story, a lot of emotional baggage and important, weighty stuff, which gives the little phrase its huge metaphorical power. It's always a pleasure to indulge in a tremendous lyric. It's like getting to sip on a great Cabernet, over and over. Or a great scotch. Fogelberg was a Master Vintner - a distiller of uncommon quality.