Dan Fogleberg was a singer-songwriter who enjoyed his greatest popularity during the late seventies and early eighties. He had several hit songs: Part of the Plan, Longer, Same Old Lang Syne, and the song he is best known for—Leader of the Band.
Leader of the Band is a tribute song to his father, Lawrence, who was a high school band director. Dan Fogleberg said, “If . . . I could have written only one song in my life, it would have been Leader of the Band, because what that meant to my father and me—there’s no way I could quantify that or even explain it.”
Part of Fogleberg’s success was due to his ability as a lyricist to write verse that could stand alone as poetry and Leader of the Band is illustrative of that. When you add Fogleberg’s gentle guitar and poignant vocals, the song becomes the celebrated treasure that it is. In the final verse we hear him tell his father:
I thank you for the music and your stories of the road,
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go.
I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough,
And, Papa, I don’t think I said “I love you” near enough.
The song closes with the refrain:
The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old,
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul.
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man,
I’m just a living legacy to the leader of the band,
I am the living legacy to the leader of the band.
It’s a powerful tribute and a special song. We (sadly) don’t often hear sons celebrating their fathers in the way Fogleberg does. Maybe there are fewer fathers who deserve such—I don’t know. I only know that our world is poorer for the lack of it.
Lawrence died about a year after the song was released. Dan said, “The song, Leader of the Band, cemented our relationship. There was nothing left unsaid when he passed away.”
I remember hearing the song when it came out in ’81. I didn’t know any of the back story, but it was hard not to be moved by the passion I heard in Fogleberg’s voice. When I heard the song it made me think about Jesus. He was the leader of a band of disciples. His eyes didn’t grow old, but they were closed by the cross. The resurrection restored His song to the disciples’ souls and they became a living legacy to the leader of the band.
When I hear the song now, I appreciate its storyline and think of how wonderful it was that Dan and his father had the relationship they did. I think of my own son and am grateful for the relationship we share and that he has with his children. But I inevitably return to Jesus. I think of how John tells us, “Whoever claims to live in Him must lived as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6). I realize there are times when my actions and attitudes have been a “a poor attempt to imitate the man,” and I am determined (with His help) to do better. I want to be “a living legacy to the leader of the band.”
Don’t you?
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 