Lyrics Booklet INCLUDED; discoloration spots near bottom corner and last two pages stuck together. Vinyl plays with occasional light-crackles (play-graded). Double LP. Embossed gate-fold cover has moderate scuffing, discoloration with darker discoloration spots, and a few surface impressions (front/back/inner-gate); back top right corner has surface abrasions. Inner-sleeves are original (generic white). Spine is easy-to-read with heavy wear near top. Little shelf-wear along top/bottom-edge and corners. Openings are rippled with signs of use and divots. (Not a cut-out.)
With The Innocent Age, Dan Fogelberg created the most ambitious, successful, and creative recording of his career and one that in retrospect was actually quite underrated. A conceptual song cycle, the double album traces the stages of life from the cradle to the grave. Beautifully orchestrated, imaginatively conceived, and obviously well thought out, it works as an artistic statement and also includes some of Fogelberg's most universally appealing and commercially successful music. Leader of the Band (about his father) and Same Old Lang Syne (about an old girlfriend) have a timeless quality and were big hits. As bold as the album was, Fogelberg acknowledged the importance of his influences and those who inspired him to attempt to reach such lofty musical heights by thanking a long list of music notables in the liner notes. A truly outstanding effort and a major work, The Innocent Age is a recording of a caliber that few artists could achieve. The album generated three Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100: Hard to Say (No. 7), Same Old Lang Syne (No. 9), and Leader of the Band (No. 9), as well as another Top 20 single in Run for the Roses. All four also reached the Top 10 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart, with Leader of the Band reaching No. 1 on that chart. The Innocent Age drew its inspiration from Thomas Wolfe's major novel Of Time and the River. Fogelberg captured on this album Wolfe's protagonist's search for meaning, for self, and the inexorable passage of time.