Home Free / Souvenirs

These are 5 star albums. You know that or you wouldn't be buying the Re-master. That said, the quality of these is disappointing. Or, rather, the overall quality and care is lacking. The songs or sections of songs that are unblemished, sound crisp and clear and are superior to the original version I have on CD. However, I don't think there's a single song, at least on the Home Free disc, that doesn't have blemished sections. The re-master or whatever they do ( I am not a technical person ) seems to magnify that bad parts as well as improve everything else. The overall result makes the disc virtually unlistenable and annoying, at least on headphones. I am actually reverting back to my original, lesser quality disc, because it is at least consistent throughout. The Souvenirs disc sounds better. I have already purchased the Wild Places/Windows Re-master and was pleased. I have Innocent Age, Twin Sons/Phoenix, Captured Angel/Netherlands re-masters ordered. I hope they are better than Home Free. All come from BGO so odd that some are good and some are not so much. Disheartening that BGO doesn't care either way. But, decided that these are albums I want forever and wanted the best recording available.

BGO produced perhaps the best remasters of Dan Fogelberg music you can find. Overall Captured Angel remains musically true to the original recordings and are so much easier to listen to than the USA versions. The USA CD Remix is OK but the guitar riffs audibly bite and require severe adjustments to make it palatable. It is over cooked. This is also true of the other USA remasters. I have both versions and find the BGO versions to be more enjoyable.This seems to me to be the case with nearly all of the USA CD remasters of Dans music. When you get to the guitar riffs they bite audibly. I don't have one I don't have to turn down. To me they are all over engineered to the point I am removing the USA remasters from my MP3 device and installing the BGO versions.

Previous reviewers who noted the drop-outs or other transfer flaws throughout the middle of "The River" are correct, and that is frustrating to listen to; however, the original mix of Home Free is SO vastly superior to the '80s-era remix that it basically doesn't matter - it's far more important that we at least have that original mix now in the best form we can. These two, along with Captured Angel, are by far my favourites of DF's albums, and to hear them presented so well, flaws and all, is a blessing beyond anything else that could detract from them. Thank you BGO for releasing these, warts and all. This Dan Fan greatly appreciates it....

Great albums by great artist - but "re-masters" have errors. Bad recording/production by BGO. I bought this set and another. One cd of each 2 disc set was distorted.

I agree with other reviewers who say the sound quality of BGO releases are a clear upgrade. But they can have faults.On my copy of this double cd the song Stars has an annoying tape bobble at the very beginning. I tried to cut, adjust and strip in the small section from the old original Home Free release, but the sound is so poor on the original release, I could not make it work.I'll live with the bobble. Does anyone at BGO listen to these remakes before they release them?

It's very dated. I used to like Dan Fogelberg and saw him in concert when these originally came out, but this music has not, IMO, withstood the test of time. And my musical tastes have changed over the years.

Great CDs

The sound quality of this release is excellent. The best since the early releases.

Dan Fogelberg's particular way with a melody has always tugged at my heart strings Dan Fogelberg's particular way with a melody has always tugged at my heart strings - and this genuinely classy Beat Goes On 2CD reissue of his first two albums from the early Seventies - only hammers home that great way he had with words about hurt and love - and all of it wrapped up in a fiendishly hooky Eagles-like Country Rock tune. Here are the hickory groves, changing horses and songs from half mountain...UK released May 2006 on Beat Goes On BGOCD 709 (Barcode 5017261207098) breaks down as follows:Disc 1 (46:58 minutes):1. To The Morning2. Stars3. More Than Ever4. Be On Your Way5. Hickory Grove6. Long Way Home ((Live In The Country) [Side 2]7. Looking For A Lady8. Anyway I Love You9. Wysteria10. The RiverTracks 1 to 9 are his debut album "Home Free" issued in the USA in October 1972 on Columbia KC 31751 and 1974 in the UK on Epic S EPC 31847 (re-issued in July 1976 on Epic 80697 in the UK).[Note: earlier CD issues of this album have tended to use a `remixed' version of the album that was done in the Eighties. This CD uses the original master tape - so is the album as heard on release].Disc 2 (43:29 minutes):1. Part Of The Plan2. Illinois3. Changing Horses4. Better Change5. Souvenirs6. The Long Way7. As The Raven Flies [Side 2]8. Song From Half Mountain9. Morning Sky10. (Someone's Been) Telling You Stories11. There's A Place In The World For A GamblerTracks 1 to 11 are his 2nd LP released December 1974 in the USA on Full Moon Records PC 35872 and March 1975 in the UK on Epic EPC 80623.His debut is good rather than being great but already had his melody strengths on show - a sort of singer-songwriter lone Eagles persona. Tracks like the piano opener "To The Morning" and the largely acoustic "Be On Your Way" are melancholic but also beautiful in their way. It's been years since I first heard these songs (now sounding crystal clear) and a full forty years plus - it's impressive stuff (like a male Judee Sill). But things took a quantum leap with LP number two...With guest appearances on illustrious albums like "So What" by Joe Walsh, "Late For The Sky" by Jackson Browne and "Peace On You" by Roger McGuinn of The Byrds - Dan Fogelberg was already moving in elevated circles when he went to make the gorgeous "Souvenirs" album. Packed with catchy tunes and even a chart hit or two - this hugely polished effort put the album into the Top 50 charts in late 1974. "Part Of The Plan" was even lifted as a 7" single and did reasonably well.Produced by JOE WALSH - "Souvenirs" featuring most of the Eagles (Henley, Meisner, Frey), Graham Nash, Kenny Passarelli, Russ Kunkel, Joe Lala and Al Perkins - the musician credits reads like a whose who of what was hot at the time. In the USA it was issued as a gatefold sleeve but in the UK as a single sleeve with a lyric insert. This CD reproduces the inner American artwork (a painting of his) and the lyrics for both LPs. The John Tobler liner notes are excellent (features an interview with Joe Walsh).But the big news for me is the sound. I had "Souvenirs" on a 2007 Japanese remaster and 5" card repro sleeve - and that was good - this remaster is light years better. ANDREW THOMPSON did the remaster at Sound Mastering in London (he handles large numbers of BGO's reissues) and his transfer here has brought out Walsh's accomplished original production values. You can hear the squeaking of strings, air around the instruments - even the normally muddied "Part Of The Plan" sounds more open. There are so many goodies on here - a plaintive "The Long Way" and the gorgeous title track "Souvenirs" (lyrics from it title this review). "Song From Half Mountain" where he plays all the instruments himself is so pretty and the chugging Eagles Rock of "Someone's Been telling You Stories". "Changing Horses" and "Better Change" still stand up as great melodies - only the countrified "Morning Sky" lets the side down. All in all - moving stuff.I posted a note on Fogelberg's website when he sadly succumbed to cancer in December 2007 - yet another teenage hero of mine gone to the great gig in the sky."There's a song in the heart of a woman...that only the truest of loves can release. Set it free..." These lyrics from the album finisher "There's A Place In The World For A Gambler" get me to this day - nearly 40 years after the event. My younger sister Cathy even described him once as `beautiful'.Well - now Dan is free - and this beautiful-sounded 2CD does his memory proud...

I rate Dan Fogelberg as being probably the best folk artist that has ever lived. I find him a wonderful writer of music. 'souvenirs', apart from a few songs is an exceptional album. shame he is now no longer with us!

Nice to hear it without the platter noise. Still good after all these years. Bought it only because, I only found out he had died, on same day that JJ went.

Terrific music!

So sad that he died too soon. But he produced many wonderful songs and makes you feel a love for life.