R.I.P. "England Dan" Seals

March 26, 2009 11:59 AM

Dan Seals -- half of the 1970s pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, and a hit country musician in later decades -- passed away Wednesday night in Nashville at age 61. The duo's hits included the FM staple "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight" and "Nights are Forever." In Dan's later years, he was working with his older brother Jimmy (the Seals in Seals & Crofts) as Seals & Seals.
posted by porn in the woods (21 comments total)

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posted by Joe Beese at 12:08 PM on March 26, 2009

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Dan Seals was also a member of the psychedelic group, Southwest F.O.B. Here's a live TV performance of their cover version of The Smell of Incense, originally by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.
posted by jonp72 at 12:13 PM on March 26, 2009

I always liked "Bop".
posted by ND¢ at 12:15 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

Definitely part of the poignant soundtrack to my life.

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posted by Turtles all the way down at 12:23 PM on March 26, 2009

My boyfriend was temporarily blinded by the pyrotechnics at an England Dan and John Ford Coley show, an event that happened to be both his first date and his first concert. So this will conjure many bittersweet memories for him, I'm sure.
posted by scody at 12:46 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

blinded by the pyrotechnics
Wrapped up like a dou...

aw nuts - forget it.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:13 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

They were doing fine until that wrongheaded third single. It's sad to be long? What kind of boast is that?

But to make up for that: here are England Dan and John Ford Coley in 1968 in a band called Southwest FOB playing a psychedelic song called "The Smell Of Incense". When Ovid introduces the band at 3:30, Coley is Lassie (because his real name is Colley). And here (bottom video) is Ovid's current site, with video of the band recording of the song above.
posted by pracowity at 1:43 PM on March 26, 2009

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61 is so young. Cancer sucks.
posted by dog food sugar at 2:40 PM on March 26, 2009

As a noctural-tendencied kid growing up in Florida with the radio glued to my ear, I always liked the the line: "There's a warm wind blowin' the stars around, and I'd really love to see you tonight". Seemed beachy and romantic, as opposed to your cuddling-by-the-fire-while-the-storm-rages-outside type of romantic song images. I must have been at that pre-teen girly-girl swoony age when this song was on the radio. (Hey good thing there were no cell phones, right?!)

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posted by quietalittlewild at 2:42 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

As a noctural-tendencied kid growing up in Florida with the radio glued to my ear, I always liked the the line: "There's a warm wind blowin' the stars around, and I'd really love to see you tonight".

I liked that line too, so I was quite crushed to learn it's actually "There's a warm wind blowing', the stars are out."

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posted by evilcolonel at 3:08 PM on March 26, 2009

Really going to miss those 70's love songs. Thanks Dan.
Man, I miss the Top 40 easy listening tunes. You can't hum anything today..except that McDonalds Filet o fish jingle.
posted by doctorschlock at 3:08 PM on March 26, 2009

I'm not talking about moving in, and I don't wanna change your life, but I never knew that Seals & Crofts were related to one of the England Dan & John Ford Coley duo. It figures, though, for S&C's "Summer Breeze" is a close cousin to "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight"
posted by porn in the woods at 3:33 PM on March 26, 2009

evilcolonel! Thanks for the correction. Well, I'll try not to be crushed, but to think of it as childlike nights with the radio and such. Glad to see I'm not the only one who had a creative mishearing.
posted by quietalittlewild at 4:02 PM on March 26, 2009

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posted by fairmettle at 4:45 PM on March 26, 2009

I don't know about that stars line. I used to have the sheet music for that song ("I'd Really Love to See you Tonight", or The Backsliding Song, as I like to think of it), and I am pretty sure the stars are blowing around, not just out.

Google says the lyric websites are undecided.
posted by bowline at 6:19 PM on March 26, 2009

I am pretty sure the stars are blowing around, not just out.

Stars are blowing around. I can confirm this 100% because my dad wrote the song.

Dan was a great guy and had been sick for quite a while so his death was not a surprise -- he left the hospital a couple of days ago to be with his family for what everyone knew would be his final days. Sad for his family and friends but it's a relief that's he's no longer in pain.
posted by camcgee at 11:31 PM on March 26, 2009 [6 favorites]

Here's Dan Seals singing your dad's song, just voice and guitars. (By the way, he sings "around" here and in the old hit version.)
posted by pracowity at 11:58 PM on March 26, 2009

THANK GOD the stars are blowing around. The idea that the stars are just "out" instead of "blowing around" was a much bigger problem than the realization I had earlier this morning that a clam will be elected president in 2012.

I also grew up in Florida, born in 1970, and Summer Breeze is somehow embedded in my DNA. Perhaps no other song conjures up childhood for me more powerfully, although some come close:

Black Water
Angie
Stairway to Heaven
Dust in the Wind
Hey 19

RIP, seminal '70s guy. I raise a glass of Strawberry Quik in your honor.
posted by staggering termagant at 6:42 AM on March 27, 2009 [3 favorites]

England Dan and John Ford Coley also managed to keep Todd Rundgren stocked in guitars and electronics for a while longer by improbably making a Top Ten hit out of his "Love is the Answer."
posted by aught at 7:34 AM on March 27, 2009

Ah, how nice to see the warm wind was, after all, blowing the stars around. So lovely, all that starry-nights-on-the-beach-swoony-romantic-girly-girl type stuff that one lyric instantly brings to mind.
posted by quietalittlewild at 1:39 PM on March 27, 2009

OK, I guess that means I'll play the dramatic-teenage-girl-heartbroken-over-bad-boy crying in the closet, calling the radio station requesting "Addicted."

Man, I just googled that to make sure I got the song title right, and read the lyrics over again. It isn't until you get older that you figure out what bittersweet actually means.
posted by 8-bit floozy at 7:34 PM on March 27, 2009