Dan Fogelberg & Tim Weisberg - Twin Sons Of Different Mothers (1978)

Published by Ice Zero | Filed under Pop

It’s one of his earliest memories: He’s four years old, standing up on a box in front of his father’s big band, baton in hand, conducting. Though his dad stood behind him, doing the real work, for Dan it was a foreshadowing of what his life would be — following in his father’s footsteps to become the leader of the band. “It was an amazing feeling,” he declared decades later during a series of discussions for these notes. “To be immersed in music. It felt both very magical and powerful. And I was fearless.”

When the road started calling Dan again to tour for his album, “Nether Lands”, the act of pushing a new album started to seem too crassly commercial, too much about money and too little enough about music. So in the face of the greatest success of his career, he chose to make his next album completely about music, without any commercial aspirations whatsoever. It would be an opportunity to step away from the madness for a moment, and create an album that celebrated the pure joy of making music. He invited Tim Weisberg, the famous flautist who played with him on “Give Me Some Time” from “Nether Lands” to make the album a duet. With a cover photo of the two musicians looking like brothers with matching beards and long hair, the album was entitled, “Twin Sons Of Different Mothers”.

The two twins had planned a grandiose orchestral piece to close the album. They recorded the entire track only to discover — too late — that the piano was out of tune with the orchestra and had to be redone. Rather than incur that cost, Dan wrote a quick song — now thinking that maybe one commercial track might not be such a bad idea — and at the last minute, “The Power Of Gold” was recorded and added to the album.

It became one of the biggest hits of his career, causing the mostly instrumental Twin Sons to become a colossal hit. Dan, who had expected it to be savagely attacked by the critics, decided to skip the bloodbath by jetting off to Europe with friends prior to its release. In Switzerland, he was flabbergasted to receive an excited call from Irving Azoff informing him that the album had gone Top 20.

All songs were written by Dan Fogelberg with the exception of “Tell Me To My Face” cowritten by Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash and “Since You Asked” by Judy Collins.

Personnel:
* Dan Fogelberg - synthesizer, acoustic guitar, bass, guitar, mandolin, percussion, piano, electric guitar, keyboard, vocals, background vocals, voices, slide guitar, classical guitar
* Tim Weisberg - flute, percussion, oboe, piccolo
* David Breinenthal - bassoon
* Gary Coleman - percussion
* Vincent DeRosa - French horn
* Earl Dumler - English horn
* John Ellis - organ, oboe
* Bobbye Hall - percussion, conga, cowbell
* Don Henley - vocals, harmony vocals
* John Leslie Hug - guitar, harp
* Jim Keltner - drums
* Joe Lala - percussion, conga
* Neil Larsen - piano, keyboard, electric piano
* Andy Newmark - synthesizer, drums
* Norbert Putnam - bass
* Ann Mason Stockton - harp
* Florence Warner - vocals, background vocals
* Willie Weeks - bass

Track List:

01 Twins Theme
02 Intimidation
03 Lazy Susan
04 Guitar Etude No. 3
05 Tell Me To My Face
06 Hurtwood Alley
07 Lahaina Luna
08 Paris Nocturne
09 Since You’ve Asked
10 The Power Of Gold

Download includes front cover