Dan Fogelberg’s “Face the Fire” Lyrics Meaning

On 28 March 1979 an accident occurred at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, which was located in Pennsylvania. And even some 40 years later, it serves as the most-significant commercial-nuclear mishap in U.S. history.

Fortunately, even though all types of potentially-fatal toxins were released into the environment, by the looks of things the Three Mile Island accident did not result in any adverse health effects on the local population. However people at the time were quite concerned and pissed off nonetheless. Indeed even beforehand there was sort of an anti-nuclear power sentiment brewing amongst the masses. And in the aftermath many individuals, such as Dan Fogelberg via “Face the Fire”, decided to vociferously speak up.

An anti-nuclear song

Indeed this particular song, despite never calling out the powers that be directly, is still quite scathing in its approach. The title alludes to the propagation of nuclear power posing a danger which cannot be ignored. And the way the singer presents the situation is as one in which those who are in charge of the industry are more concerned with “lin(ing) their pockets” than the “health” of the people. And said entities are in fact generating “unequaled wealth” at the potential cost of public wellbeing. So Fogelberg is imploring the listening public to “shut them down cold”, i.e. protest to the point where the nuclear industry will be forced to irreversibly close its doors.

Indeed later in the song when Dan speaks of ‘one hundred thousand people screaming in anger’ he meant so quite literally, as the largest protest in reaction to the Three Mile Island accident consisted of 200,000 people rallying in New York City. Also his conclusion of said efforts “fall(ing) on deaf ears” is itself prophetic, as America still went on to become heavily reliant on the commercial consumption of nuclear energy since the 1990s.

Writing and Release of “Face the Fire”

This song was written entirely by the late Dan Fogelberg (1951-2007). He subsequently released it in November of 1979 as part of his sixth-studio album, Phoenix. It was actually the first single that came out from Phoenix. And the entire Phoenix project was put out by Full Moon Records in conjunction with Epic Records.