Same Old Lang Syne

Amazed. I am simply amazed at how many comments are posted on Dan Fogelberg's 30-year-old classic Same Old Lang Syne. Every year it's the same. People seem to love it or get sick when they hear it. And they take time to write about it! Must be a real catchy tune (o.k., English majors - I know it's "really catchy tune", but "real" adds the proper emphasis) to get this much blogplay. Most of the comments this year are of the nausea variety, but I am astonished that it brings such strong feelings that listeners feel compelled to write about it.

My theory is that mamas between the current ages of forty and fifty-five loved Dan Fogelberg, and, accordingly, loved Same Old Lang Syne, from 1980 through 1989 when it appeared seasonally in the charts. I was thirty-five when the song was released, and I recall young women swooning over Dan and listening to that song incessantly. Small children, or maybe even unborn children in the womb, heard the song repeatedly, and they had no control over what mama was playing. Something in the song was unpleasant to the small tykes, and those people, now in their late teens or early to mid-twenties, are blogging about it. Maybe they didn't like the "...and felt that old familiar pain," or maybe they didn't like the saxaphone solo at the end, or maybe they didn't like the fact that the song wasn't really a Christmas song at all but was being played amongst carols, thus impairing the normal balance of things, but for whatever reason, some people seem to truly despise it.

For those who hate the song, it will likely make no difference that the song had its beginning as a joke and that Dan had no intention of writing a song that landed in the Top Ten. He had attended the symphony on Christmas Eve. The performance ended with The 1812 Overture, and it was on Dan's mind while he went to the Quick-Mart to buy some whipped cream which his mother needed for Christmas Eve dessert. At the store, the events happened as described in the song, and later that evening as he sat at the piano playing the 10-note introductory portion of the Overture's French invasion of Russia (the part where they shoot the fireworks in the concerts in the park), he began absent-mindedly singing "Met my old lover at the grocery store..." and the rest is history. It has been a mainstay in Fogelberg's live concerts since its release, nowadays usually the first encore, and there was, for ten years or so, audience interaction with "I said the audience was heavenly", but Dan no longer pauses at that point...

The college where I was an adjunct professor for awhile taught songwriting, and the textbook for introductory songwriting had a chapter on "Songs which tell a story." The two songs used as the best examples of such songs were Same Old Lang Syne and Cat Stevens' Taxi, so perhaps the appearance of the song in such an authoritative reminder as a textbook turned off some of the younger generation.

Deejays really have no business playing the song only at Christmas, since it is not a Christmas song, but I think we all know why they do it. When a pop star has a song which evens mentions the season, it becomes fodder for airplay seasonally so listeners won't be stuck with just carols or traditional songs. I know some people really don't like this song. I don't understand the objection, but I know it exists.

Free advice to those who do not wish to hear the song:
(1) Call the deejays at your favorite stations and explain that it's not a Christmas song.
(2) When the song comes on the air, use the buttons on your radio.
(3) Stay out of elevators and grocery stores.

And have a very Merry Christmas.