Musical Gems - Same Old Lang Syne

Dan Fogelberg was a wonderful songwriter.  He had a string of hits in the late seventies and early eighties.  One could argue the the peak of his career was his 1981 album, The Innocent Age.  it contained such hits as, Run for Roses (about the Kentucky Derby), Leader of the Band (written in honor of his muscian father), and Hard to Say.  My favorite, however, is Same Old Lang Syne.

The song is autobiographical a relates a chance encounter Fogelberg had in 1975 or 1976 with a former girlfriend during the holidays.  The melody is a variation on Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, transposed to a minor key. (Listen to this recording starting at the 3:45 mark).  What love about this song is the perfect match between the melody and the lyrics.  And what lyrics they are!  The mood is bittersweet remembrance.  Thought of what might have been, and a realization that the past cannot be recreated.  It evokes a set of emotions that almost everyone can relate to in one degree or another.  Maybe not from memories of an old flame, but something similar.


Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stood behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve

She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried

We took her groceries to the check out stand
The food was totaled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation lagged

We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldn't find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how

She said she's 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

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasn't sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude

She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly
But the traveling was Hell

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how
We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving, in our eloquence
Another "Auld Lang Syne"

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away

Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And, as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain

Songwriters: Dan Fogelberg
Same Old Lang Syne lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

I saw Dan Fogelberg in Provo, Utah in the early eighties, probably in the Fall of 1982. He played at the Marriett Center at BYU and performed this song.  He explained how he got the melody just messing around at the piano one day and how it suddenly sounded more serious when he put it in a minor key.

On the sudio version of the song, Fogelberg played all the instruments but the drums and saxaphone and sang the background vocals as well as the lead.