This may be a little premature since the LP just dropped on May 13, but here it goes anyway ...
Who is "ol' Dan" that Murry refers to in "Color of a Lonely Heart is Blue?" ... as in "scorpio's up, a leadin' ol' Dan to pasture" and later, "scorpio's up a leadin' ol' Dan to cancer" ???
Obviously, there's the star/constellation/astrology references with scorpio and cancer, but does cancer have a double-meaning?
Is it the name of a cow?
Is it Dan Fogelberg (who died of cancer last year)?
Is it the nickname of another constellation in the sky?
Is it nobody in particular?
The 97's often put people they know in songs (Celeste, Robert's Dad, etc.) ... so I wonder if it's an inside reference. Like Murry lost a bet with his buddy Dan and promised to put him in a song -- that sort of thing.
I love this song and enjoy singing along, but it really bugs me when I don't know what it all means. I've always appreciated how the band puts their glossary of lyric inspiration on their website to answer inquiring minds like mine ... hope they do so for this one as well.
Cheers!