Album: Twin Sons Of Different Mothers (1978)

Charted: 24

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• The story is told of the power of gold
  And its lure on the unsuspecting
  It glitters and shines, it badgers and blinds
  And constantly needs protecting
  
  Balance the cost of the soul you lost
  With the dreams you lightly sold
  Are you under the power of gold?
  
  The letters and calls got you climbing the walls
  And everyone wants a favor
  They beg to remind you of times left behind you
  But you know the past is a loser
  
  The face you're wearing is different now
  And the days run hot and cold
  Are you under the power of gold?
  The power of gold
  
  You're a creature of habit, run like a rabbit
  Scared of a fear you can't name
  You own paranoia is looming before you
  But nobody thinks that it's a game
  
  Balance the cost of the soul you lost
  With the dreams you lightly sold
  Then tell me that you're free of the power of gold
  The power of gold
  
  The women are lovely, the wine is superb
  But there's something about the song that disturbs you
  Writer/s: DAN FOGELBERG
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 7

• Amigajoe from MarylandFor years I played a little music video in my mind when hearing this song. It focused on a group of young hopefuls arriving in Hollywood, their eyes full of stars and dreams. And how it turned out for them. Most of them failed, but a few made it...at a high price. At the end, during the 'women are lovely...' part we see the next batch of kids walking toward the Hollywood hills with the same hopeful faces, as they're mobbed by agents, lawyers, and managers waving contracts and cash in their faces, hoping they don't notice their predecessors laying wasted on the ground...
• Martin from Fresno CaA warning about not making anything an Idol. Great song and a great singer.
• Janice Bortner from HoustonI'm impressed Esskayess. Not a lot of people remember that this song was used for the '80 winter olympics. I remember it because I was in high school at the time and my boyfriend was in the AV club. He got me to join that year. The AV teacher had the guys record ALL of the olympics that year. They recorded this and edited it so they could just play the song. And they would play the hell out of it and I fell in love with it - but never learned who did it. Fast forward 20+ years later I was trying to find it 'cause I heard it again on an oldies station. So I looked it up and found out the name and who it was buy. It was a mad rush of 10th grade all over again!!!
• Esskayess from Dallas, TxABC used this song for one of their Olympic broadcasts...the 1980 Winter Games, I think.
  I very much doubt this song was meant to be "anti-corporation." It's pretty damned hypocritical to bash corporations though song while raking in piles of cash from one or more of those corporations. And any artists who belt out anti-Capitalism rhetoric had better be doing so for free, otherwise they are hypocrites as well.
• Matthew from Milford, MaI absolutely love songs that openly state "To be greedy is to be short-sighted, immoral, stupid, and a menace to society." This song states exactly that, which makes it an instant classic in my book. (This is also part of the reason I'm so fond of "Corporate America" by Boston (honestly, how is that song not on Songfacts yet?!?) and "Money" by Pink Floyd.)
• Charles from Charlotte, NcFogelberg was deliberatly being commercial with the sound on this song, unlike the rest of the songs on TSODM, hence the irony of the title "The Power of Gold".
• Tim from Denver, CoThe song features Don Henley and Tim Schmidt on backup vocals

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