I can’t seem to turn this video off. I heard this song on my recent road trip to Wyoming and I’ve taken a particular liking to it since. I remember listening to this balad as a child and now, as a musician in my adult life, it resonates in a part of me I can’t explain. It is so simple but so heart felt- a sweet tribute to his father.
In one performance Fogelberg prefaces the song by saying “I think if I had been only allowed to write one song in my lifetime, it would have been this one.”
The verse that floors me most reads simply:
My brother’s lives were different
For they heard another call;
One went to Chicago and the other to St. Paul.
I’m in Colorado (when I’m not in some hotel)
Living out this life I’ve chose and come to know so well.
Enjoy Leader of the Band by Dan Fogelberg.