[I first posted this one on January 1, 2013, and, while I'm not trying to turn it in into some kind of internet tradition, I do find it amusing enough to give it the old "One More Time!". So sue me. I should add that I'm wishing all you kids the happiest of happy 2026's; please, Flying Spaghetti Monster, make it an improvement on the hell year we've all just lived through. -- S.S.]
This is, as I have been wont to say here on many previous occasions, a very sad story, so please try not to laugh.
It also has a certain relevance to today's festivities, which will be revealed later in the narrative. Please be patient.
Anyway, so the other day I was in a cab heading down the West Side Highway in a snowstorm, and the driver had the radio tuned to whatever soft-rock Lite FM station they inevitably have on when they don't have WINS News Radio blasting or some guy from Queens yelling about sports.
I wasn't particularly paying attention, but suddenly some soft-rock Lite FM staple song came on, and immediately I knew three things.
1. I had definitely heard it before.2. It was probably from the 70s or the 80s, although I couldn't rule out the possibility that it might have been more recent, and it had that whole California soft-rock vibe, which I usually detest, in spades.
3. I had no idea who the guy or the group singing it was, although I was painfully aware that when and if I found out I was gonna kick myself. Because pretty much everybody in the world, at least of a certain age, would have been able to recognize it instantly.
The truly insidious part was that there was something about the damn thing that grabbed me. Yes, the vocals had that laid-back L.A. Mr. Sensitive shtick that usually makes my gorge rise. But the tune was charming, the voicings of the harmony parts in the chorus were really quite lovely, and -- try as I might to deny it -- it was getting under my skin.
Fortunately, because of the roar of traffic, I couldn't really hear the lyrics, although one word -- "architect" -- jumped out. "Hmm," I thought. "There's a word you don't hear in a pop song everyday."
Anyway, I then went about the rest of my weekend, but I knew with an absolutely dread certainty that I was gonna break down sooner or later and look the song up on the Intertubes.
So, late on Monday, I googled "Soft Rock song with the word architect in it" and up it popped.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...and my fingers are shaking as I type these words....Dan Fogelberg (the horror, the horror!) and his 1980 smash (which I had apparently put out of my mind, probably deliberately, ever since its original vogue) "Same Old Lang Syne."
Well. In case you're wondering, no -- I have no interest in revisiting the rest of Fogelberg's body of work, and yes, I still basically can't stand the whole genre he represents, but goddamn it -- this damn song works and it gets to me. Like I said, it's melodically quite charming, and now that I've actually deciphered the lyrics, it turns out that -- despite a certain smugness that kind of rankles -- they actually make a pretty good little literary narrative vignette.
Sticks in my craw a bit, though.
As I said, this was a very sad story, so please try not to laugh.
I should add that Fogelberg departed this sad vale of tears during the holiday season in 2017. That doesn't excuse him for any of this stuff, but I just thought I'd mention it. 😎
And again, Happy New Year everybody!!! Oh -- and a guaranteed to be fun Weekend Listomania arrives tomorrow. 😎😎
