E r n i e    M a n s f i e l d

Well, here it is!  (It helps to know, when reading this, that in college I was known as "Rick" Mansfield, although I'm known as "Ernie" Mansfield now.)

In 1969-71 Dan Fogelberg was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was playing a "steady" gig at the Red Herring Coffehouse. He stood out, even back then, and quickly acquired a following. What struck me about Dan most was, not only did he have an incredible voice and impeccable guitar technique, but when he sang a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song, for example, he would perfectly emulate the voice of Neil Young, or Steve Stills, or whomever he chose. I had never heard anyone do this so perfectly before.

I was a music composition major at U.I. at the time. I was also getting into the folk, rock, and jazz scene, playing flute, harmonica, sax, and piano. I played in a folk group called the Cary Cohen Ensemble, and we played a lot of Leonard Cohen songs. It was mushy and romantic, and the college girls just adored us! Cary Cohen actually started a "Leonard Cohen" class, which met at his house - and he was constantly surrounded by young women with flowing hair and "that faraway look" in their eye.

The peak of our career was playing at the Earl of Old Town in Chicago with Roy Orbison in the audience - Roy said something about recording us, we had our manager take his number, our manager lost the number - and that was that - our 15 minutes of fame!

How I ever met and played with Dan is totally because of our mutual friend, Elliott Delman. Elliott was a Linguistics major and never picked up a guitar until college, where he became interested in playing Spanish and Flamenco music. Amazingly, he discovered this hidden talent for music and became an excellent classical guitaristin only a few short years. Elliott is also a very, very witty and funny guy.

At some point, Elliott introduced me to Dan, and we got together and rehearsed a bit and did a couple gigs. There was Dan, Elliot, John Asher, and myself. At one point we did a radio interview on the local station, WCIA. I still have a tape of it. The regular interviewer had to cancel, so we had a sports announcer for our interviewer. We played "Norwegian Wood", and he asked if we wrote it ourselves! Funny stuff!

We also played a couple gigs around Champaign. Towards the end of 1970, Dave Luck, who had played with me in the Cary Cohen ensemble, called me to arrange music and hire musicians for a film score he had contracted. I hired Dan, Elliott, Jim McNeely on piano, and others. (Jim McNeely later went on to work with Stan Getz and other jazz greats).

In Urbana-Champaign there was a booking agency called "Blytham". It was run by 2 people, one of whom was Irving Azoff. Blytham was booking mostly Top 40 bands into bars around the midwest. Places like Chances R, Red Lion, etc. - fraternity bars, we called them. Many musicians I hung out with were frustrated with Blytham because we were playing good music, but we couldn't get booked by Blytham.

Irving was a "capitalist" amongst hippies in those days. But Irving somehow had a change of heart when he met Dan. Irving got Dan a gig playing solo in the lobby of one of those Frat bars, and soon after, he and Dan departed for L.A. Of course, you know the rest of the story.

In Spring of 1971, Elliott and I departed for France, to play in a group called "Mormos". Elliott and Dan kept in correspondence. At one point, Mormos recorded a song that was co-written by Elliott, Dan, and myself ("Hey Gilles"). Dan sent us his first album.

After Mormos, Elliott and I were playing in a band called SkyFarmer in the Midwest, 1973-75. Sometimes we would play in Urbana-Champaign, and sometimes Dan would come to a gig. (He still came back to visit, though I think he was living in LA at the time.)

I'm pretty sure Dan must have written the "Auld Lang Syne" song at that time, because every time I hear the song - (usually on Muzak while I'm shopping at Walgreens!) - it just puts me right back there on campus: I'm right there, doing and feeling what he's singing about. It's amazing!

The last time I saw Dan was in the San Francisco Bay Area around 1977. He was playing at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. It's a fairly large stadium, but I was able to get my name passed to him through security, and he let me in. He invited me out to the Record Plant in Sausalito the next night, where he was mixing an album.

Now, by this time, Dan was famous - and famous means, when you are out in public, everybody wants your attention. It's a pretty amazing thing, to see someone you once knew just as an ordinary person suddenly being a focus of so much attention that they literally do not have the time to say more than one sentence to you, before another person comes up and interrupts. It's a very strange thing.

Dan's last words to me? He paid me the very highest compliment. He said he really loved the Mormos, and wanted to take us on tour someday! Well, that day hasn't come - yet! - but, hey! - my schedule is always open!