old lang syne

The group fares best with competently sung, lightly modernized renditions of classics like “O Holy Night” and “White Christmas”; it sounds out of its depth grappling with the singer-songwriter poeticism of Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne.”

“Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg: The singer runs into his old high school flame at the supermarket on Christmas Eve, which makes this probably the only holiday song with a protagonist stalking someone in the frozen food section.

If you play “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg on December 31st at 11:57:33 PM and your mom is there, she’ll wait patiently for Dan to sing “I said the years had been a friend to her / And that her eyes were still as blue,” so she can mutter “ugh, so rude,” just as the clock strikes midnight.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard “Same Old Lang Syne.”

Later, when I looked up the back story, “Same Old Lang Syne” took on deeper dimensions of melancholy for me.