The Passing of Pop and Country Music Star Dan “England Dan” Seals
Dan Seals, pop and country recording artist and member of the Baha’i Faith, died March 25th at age 61.
Long before I’d ever heard of the Baha’i Faith, I remember being mystified at the lyrics to Dan’s brother Jim’s song East Of Ginger Trees (Seals and Crofts): “Prepare to meet Baha’u'llah in the garden of cloves.” And as a child forced to listen to the “oldies” stations on car trips with my parents I appreciated the social commentary of England Dan and John Ford Coley’s Love Is The Answer. But I only really became aware of Dan as an individual after his 1992 single We Are One got so much press both in the Baha’i community and in popular media. Shortly after that I saw an interview with him on the documentary TV special The Power of Race Unity that really impressed me with his humility, gentleness, compassion and ingenuity.
Here’s what the Dallas Morning News had to say:
Seals, 61, was born in West Texas but moved to Dallas as a teenager. He graduated from Samuell High School in Pleasant Grove in 1966. He and classmate John Colley, who later changed the spelling of his last name to Coley, formed a group with three other Samuell students called the Playboys Five. That became Theze Few, which morphed into the legendary Dallas high school band Southwest F.O.B.
“We were very popular in the late 1960s,” Coley, 60, said Thursday from his home in Nashville, Tenn., where Seals also lived. “We even opened for Led Zeppelin and Three Dog Night, and remember, we were just high school kids.”
As the friendship blossomed, Seals’ brother Jim was emerging as a musical superstar. Jim Seals was part of the multi-platinum-selling duo Seals & Crofts. But Dan Seals and Coley would soon put their own stamp on music.
They formed England Dan & John Ford Coley and became the toast of 1976 when their single, “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” and album, Nights are Forever, became gold records, meaning each sold more than 500,000 copies.
A friend in Nashville sent me this in an email:
For those of you who didn’t know Danny, I would just like to say that he was a deeply sweet man who always had a smile for everyone, and what a Baha’i teacher! I can’t imagine how many people became Baha’is because of his selfless devotion to Baha’u'llah. He was even teaching the doctors and nurses while he was in the hospital! I am sure the concourse on high is rejoicing today while all of us are saddened as we have lost a great soul on this plane of existence.
There will be a funeral tomorrow at the Baha’i Center in Nashville. The family has requested that flowers not be sent. Tony Gottlieb, Seals’ manager since 1979, said, “If you want to honor Dan you should oppose bigotry, intolerance and prejudice.”
Dan will be missed.
In Charlottesville, Virginia
Jeff