About "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg.

raccoon

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Thu Dec-18-08 01:39 PM
Original message

About "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg.

OK, first off, I like the song. I know it's based on a real-life accidental meeting with a former girlfriend (Jill Anderson). (Fr. Wikipedia)

But this is what I wonder about:

"She said she'd married her an architect,
Who kept her warm and safe and dry,
She would have liked to say she loved the man,
But she didn't like to lie."

So why didn't she become an architect herself? This wasn't Jane Austen's time or even the 1950's.

:shrug:

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motely36

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Thu Dec-18-08 01:42 PM
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1. Don't know the answer

but it has always driven me crazy that this is considered a Christmas/New Year's song.

Yeah I know "the snow was falling Christmas Eve", but it really has nothing to do with that.

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tigereye

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Thu Dec-18-08 01:49 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. it always made sense to me since it was reviewing the past

with a somewhat bittersweet eye- seemed totally appropriate for this time of year.

I was so sad when I heard he had died, I love this song.

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Arugula Latte

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Thu Dec-18-08 01:43 PM
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2. Wonder how "the architect" felt after hearing Dan Fogelberg proclaim

to the world that his wife doesn't love him?

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lizziegrace

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Thu Dec-18-08 02:26 PM
Response to Reply #2

5. The marriage ended

I read it in an interview with Fogelberg years later.

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raccoon

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Thu Dec-18-08 03:24 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. Wonder if the song had anything to do with that? nt

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lizziegrace

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Thu Dec-18-08 04:35 PM
Response to Reply #6

7. If you believe his take in the interview

yes, it certainly did.

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LanternWaste

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Thu Dec-18-08 02:22 PM
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4. She wanted to play the role...

I've never seen the implication as that she wanted to be an architect herself to "keep her warm and safe and dry"; rather, that she wanted the marketed, perfect, idyllic life to do that-- and that "perfect" life included being married, and being married to a guy with a respectable job title and higher than respectable income; that the architect was the metaphor for "warm and safe and dry."

I think she wanted to play the role, hoping that love would fall into place in due time.

Ok-- now you've done, I'm going to have to listen to it a brazillion times to excise it from my head...

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DS1

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Thu Dec-18-08 04:52 PM
Response to Original message

8. Yeah, the Reply All feature sucks

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CreekDog

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Thu Dec-18-08 05:14 PM
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9. I like the closing line..."As I turned to make my way back home, the snow turned into rain..."

which gave me the idea that this song is really about how you conceive and dream of life when you're young and what living that life really feels like.

the whimsy of snow turning into mundane rain just nails it for me.

he was so gifted in turning a real experience into a narrative that explains something probably most of us have come to see in life as it plays out.

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