June 17, 2024 3:00 am
Dan Fogelberg's song 'Leader of the Band' is a heartfelt tribute to his musician father, Lawrence Fogelberg, and the impact he had on his life. The song has helped bridge the gap between fathers and sons, and has been a way for people to express their love to their fathers and solidify their relationships.
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Our American Stories
Lee Habeeb
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app to Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All show long, we're celebrating Father's Day and the importance of fathers and the effect and impact good fathers have on young men's lives and young women's. In a canon of personal songs, leader of the band stands out as Dan Fogelberg's most treasured. It's a loving tribute to his musician father, Lawrence Fogelberg.
Released in late 1981, it peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and hit number one on adult contemporary. Here is Dan Fogelberg with the story of his love song to his father. If I think I could only have written one song in my life, it would have been leader of the band.
Because what that meant to my father and to me, there's no way I could quantify that or even explain it. My father passed away over 10 years ago now and he got to hear that song. He got to enjoy the success of that song. People were calling him on the phone and interviewing him in his last days.
Who is this man, the leader of the band? And he loved that and I loved that because I respected him so much. I mean, he gave me everything I am really. My mother and he were both musicians and the idea of being a living legacy is really the truth. I don't think I'll ever be as accomplished a musician as he was. But I've had a different gift. It came to me in a different way.
I've been able to reach and touch people with these songs and that one has probably touched more people more deeply than anything I've ever done. An only child alone and wild, a cabinet maker's son. His hands were meant for different work and his heart was known to none.
He left his arm and went his lone and solitary way. And he gave to me a gift I know I never can repay. Every night when I sing that song I feel him.
He's there with me. It's a difficult song to sing some nights. A quiet man of music denied a simpler fate. He tried to be a soldier once but his music wouldn't wait. He earned his love through discipline, a thundering velvet hand.
His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand. Some nights it's ebullient. Some nights it feels great. I celebrate his life. Sometimes it's very sad because I really miss him. I miss having that guy, you know, that strong central figure in my life that I respected so greatly.
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man. I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band. So I think in the long run that song is maybe one of the most important I've written simply because it has helped bridge the gap between fathers and sons or daughters and fathers. You know, there's a lot of women that have said too that it helped them to communicate their love to their father. And to be able to solidify that relationship and express that relationship, well, there's time. One of the worst things I think that can happen to people is if they don't express the love to their father and their mother while they're alive.
I mean, there's always difficulties in family relationships. But I think it's one of the most important things you can do in your life is to make sure that's all done while everybody's still around. I thank you for the music and your stories of the road. I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go. I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough.
And Papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough. The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old. But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul.
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man. I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band. I am a living legacy to the leader of the band.
And the song leader of the band cemented our relationship. There was nothing left unsaid when he passed away. And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler himself, a father. And what a story Dan told, what a tribute and what a thing to do for your dad. And imagine how moved he was. Dan said what it meant to my father and to me.
There's just no way I can quantify it. Every night when I sing that song, I feel him. I miss having that guy Dan said about his dad, that strong central figure in my life. I respected so greatly. And my goodness, there are two kinds of fathers out there and you're listening.
The guy whose son says that about you or daughter and the guy whose son or daughter doesn't and get busy being that first guy. It is the most important song I ever wrote because it helped bridge the gap between fathers and sons and fathers and daughters. The song cemented our relationship Dan said, and there was nothing left unsaid when he passed away. The story of a song, the story of leader of the band, a father and son song, a love song here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories, the show where America is the star in the American people.
And we do it all from the heart of the South, Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows will always be free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, consider making a tax deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to our American stories.com. Give a little, give a lot. That's our American stories.com.
