I knew John back in the 1970s. I played five years in his road band during the summer. His fiddle player, John Summers, actually wrote this song. At first, as in this recording, Summers was on the fiddle. However, Summers taught Denver to play this on the fiddle and he did it for years. I miss John so much since he died in 1997. I'll never forget him.
What a wonderful experience! I know that it was the live version of this song (from "An Evening with John Denver") that went to #1, and I can't hear any version of this song without also "hearing" in my head John saying, from right after the end of the live version, "John Summers played the fiddle, and he wrote that song!" (I do remember seeing John on TV, playing the fiddle on this himself; pretty credibly, too!)
One of the funniest stories I ever heard was Paul Simon saying to Huey Lewis on the night of the We Are The World recording that if a bomb fell on this studio, John Denver would be back on top.
The songs not just about the country life. It's about the attitude of being thankful for the blessings we have. Enough food for our needs, honest work ethic, and pride and love for our family. No matter where you live, if you have those things you are blessed.
Just love John Denver. He has so many great songs. One of my many favorites is "Calypso" which is written about Jacques Cousteau (French naval officer, oceanographer, author, filmmaker, and inventor) and his ship Calypso.
Same here. Such a beautiful sea shanty sort of song. Growing up watching Jacques Cousteau on TV & hearing John Denver on the radio, the song Calypso was the combination of 2 loves.
"Yeah, city folk drivin' in a black limousine A lotta sad people thinkin' that's a-mighty keen " "Keen" is one of those old-timey words from when I was a kid ("Leave It To Beaver" times).
I remember when John wrote this song. He went out with Cousteau on "Calypso" and when he came back he said he had written a chorus that he wanted to turn into a song. I was in his road band at the time. He got in his four-wheeler and took off into the mountains. A couple of hours later, he came screaming back to the ranch yelling, "I got it! I got it!" We went into his home studio and recorded a rough version of it and it was wonderful! I miss him so much.
I just walked in the house from the garden where I got through harvesting. I got up and started canning pasta sauce, and cowboy candy. Than hulled purple hull peas for the freezer to eat this winter. I am looking at my harvest right now wondering what I will be canning tomorrow. Thank God I'm a country girl. I know my man of 43 years is going to eat good this summer and that makes me happy
Your story really intersects with John Denver's. His father was an Air Force officer whose reputation was on the same par as Chuck Yaeger. After retirement John bought a jet & talked his Dad into flying John on tour His father taught John to fly during that time, they also patched up their rocky relationship during those long flights together. John's performance of For You during the Wildlife concert highlights the strength & clarity of his beautiful singing voice.
My dad was friends with John's father, Henry John Deutschendorf. They were stationed together at Walker AFB in Roswell, New Mexico. John and I were both born there. When I graduated high school in 1973, I got to play guitar with John's road band. We called ourselves "Johnny and the Sharks." I miss him so much.
Not a country boy or even a person who even really cares for country music. John Denver is my exception. His music reminds me of my family and the farm I grew up on.
John Denver also did 2 duets with Olivia Newton John. Fly Away is my favorite of the two. You still need to go down the ONJ rabbit hole and discover what made her such a joy. RIP John and Olivia. ❤
John Denver made it cool to live in the country. City people always putting us down, I lived in both places and like both, but nothing has beaten growing up in the beautiful country. It's a blessing to do so.
please, please, please, please, if u only ever listen to one more john denver song it has to be "im sorry " ! everyone knows that 'Annie's song' was written for his wife at the beginning of there relationship. 'im sorry' was written after it ended. and such a telling song, you can literally hear the emotional collapse and torment in his voice.
@@BradLeroy Seasons of the Heart, a lesser known song, is a great one too, and really shows John Denver's vocal chops - almost operatic. ruclips.net/video/VwZ_qUGkQgw/видео.html
I have been into John for over 40 years. I know a lot of people will disagree with me but he is not country he is folk. What really got me was his duet with...no not Olivia Newton John or Plácido Domingo but Alexander Gradsky. Maybe its not really a duet but when i saw it live on PBS it touched me and will never forget it 39 years later. My mom got me into John and now she can watch him play in heaven
John Denver nee Deutschendorf, Jr. and you have something in common. His father was an Air Force pilot (Captain Deutschendorf Sr. was a decorated pilot who set a number of air speed records in a Convair B-58 Hustler in 1961) He was stationed in Roswell, NM
You're absolutely 100% right I grew up on a farm and now I've got friends who didn't grow up on a farm and and now we got generations of generations that now seems like they don't know how to cope or manage or do anything without technology
Love this one! It's so fun! Another fun one is Grandma's Feather Bed! John Denver is definitely worth a deep dive! This Old Guitar & Poems, Prayers and Promises are two of my absolute favorites by him!
This song was a true crossover hit. You couldn't get away from it, whatever kind of music station you liked. I tended to avoid the Country and Western stations (that was what they were called before the Western genre faded out). But this blasted from the rock stations as well. And ... I loved it too.
This has been the 7th Inning Stretch song for the Baltimore Orioles since old Memorial Stadium. When they moved to Camden Yards the Orioles tried to change it. But the fans campaigned to reinstate it. John Denver himself performed it at both stadiums.
To fully appreciate John Denver and his amazing talent you've got to watch him "LIVE" He's one of the few artists that are actually better performing their songs live than the studio versions
I could *swear* that there was an entire film version of his concert that was recorded for "An Evening With John Denver"; I swear I can remember seeing it on TV around that time. But I've only ever been able to find a partial version, that doesn't quite match my memory. What I wouldn't give for a full film of that concert!
One of the great things about you and this channel is you'll react to and give honest and fair and interesting views on such a wide range of styles of music. Well done.
I always heard that this was the 7th Inning stretch song for the Orioles. It turned out that John just happened to be at the game. He was so surprised that he climbed up on top of the dugout and started dancing. He said that if the Orioles won the playoffs he would come back and sing this song. Unfortunately they didn't make it that year.
Yesssss……Matthew is one of my favorites of his. I went to one of his concerts back in the early 70’s and when he sang this song he had a video playing on a giant screen behind him of a man with a small boy on his shoulders behind a mule in the sunshine. It was so special❣️
This came out in ‘74. I was 4 and knew every word. Adults thought it was cute and had me sing it wayyy too often. I thank God none of them had video cameras.
The concert album that live version is from is terrific throughout! IIRC, it was called “An Evening with John Denver,” and was from two LA concerts in 1975 or so. It opens with just John and his guitar playing “The Music Is You.”
@@kathyastrom1315 Honestly, that concert album is probably what I'd pick as my favorite album of all time. Listen to it fairly often (it's especially great for road trips), and just never tire of it.
I'm now 70 and I still know every word of this song. It means so much to hear the songs again while getting a new perspective. Love your reactions and always look forward to each new one. Congrats on the new channel. ❤
Along with riding in the back of my folks' 1972 Oldsmobile or their 76 Plymouth, listening to either that wonderful AM Gold stuff - John Denver is 100% part of my soundtrack of growing up in the 1970s. This is one of the very first songs my dad taught me on my first guitar, and when Mr. Denver passed in that plane crash 10/12/1997, I was holding my newly born daughter in the hospital, and started bawling.
I "discovered" John Denver when I was about 8 years old. Dad was a long-haul truck driver and Mom would sing "Back Home Again", I realize now, as a way of soothing herself while raising 7 kids/keeping the home fires burning. When she said we have the song on an album....welll...that was the beginning of a wonderful musical journey. Each Christmas, for the next 5 years, the first thing on my list would be "a John Denver record". That's how I grew my collection, one album at a time per year. LOL That's just how it was back then. (And when I received "An Evening With John Denver" and found out it was a double album, wow, I was so thrilled!) John Denver was a huge influence on me and still is playing in my car whenever and wherever I go. I was born and raised in Wisconsin but now live in the Colorado mountains where I get to see God every day and listen to John Denver every day. This song describes a simple life well lived and that's what we should all strive for. Thank you for appreciating his talent! Hopefully his music will never go silent...the messages he conveyed are timeless. May he rest in peace ❤
@@christopherderoy3153It really is. I still remember where I was when I found out he passed. Every time I hear it I think about that. 😔 It's beautiful yet haunting
Me too! I love he goes where his mind leads not what he thinks he should say. I find reactors that literally listen to the song and say that was good see you,are so boring and no worth in watching.
I always loved this song & John Denver. My mom had 2 8 track tapes while i was growing up. A John Denver tape & the Carpenters. Thanks to my mom i grew up loving both of them.
The 70s were a great time musically because there were a number of brilliant singers who could effortlessly move between genres and sound right at home in any of them. John Denver was a prime example.
@@wtk6069 oh no doubt. It's just a "fight" I have with my dear STL raised husband, he always reminds me that John Denver is not country. I try to explain that down here Folk, Bluegrass and such were fed into Country, he doesn't get it. But to me, honestly, I don't care about Genres... if I like the music, I like the music. I can only understand things here and there, but I love Mariachi, I listened to Selena with my best friend long before she was taken from the world. *should note, I'm not saying Selena is Mariachi even though she might have been* The only reason I put the song suggestion was because that was the only thing that I could remember as a live performance, and John Denver definitely deserves to be heard live. I still can't figure out if he did Grandma's Feather Bed on the Muppets ..d'oh!
@@AngB517 It's kind of a shame that he didn't choose the live version of this song, from "An Evening With John Denver", for this reaction, since that's the version that actually hit #1. (When it comes to "Leavin' on a Jet Plane", I actually really like his album version of that. But no live version from John is ever bad.) "Country music" as an institution has always seemed very touchy about what to include, and what not to include. It'd be really interesting sometime to see a documentary on it, specifically examining the evolution of it as a music industry, and how it navigated the inclusion - or not - of various related types of music like bluegrass and folk. I feel like the argument about whether John Denver was a country star is more informed by weird little details of the industry's politics in the 60s and 70s, rather than actually just evaluating the music itself. That is, because he got his start in "folk" with the New Christy Minstrels, folks who considered the "heart of country music" to be Nashville wouldn't include him because he didn't follow "the right path". But then you have him doing a lot of songs that are just undeniably country songs (from this, and Grandma's Feather Bed, and Back Home Again; etc.). I thought it was really interesting in 2017 when the Country Music Awards were celebrating their 50th anniversary, that the big "Forever Country" music video they did ("Artists of Then, Now & Forever") was a medley that started off with "Take me Home, Country Roads", went on to Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", and ended with Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You". Like... at least two of those choices are kind of iconoclastic, in retrospect. But, I guess you could equally say that it just took time for the country music industry to come around on some things they kicked up a fuss about at the time. Like you, I don't really care about genre, and will go all over the map finding what I like. This subject just interests me because of the way it is entwined in the story of John Denver's career. It doesn't matter all that much today, and thus, you can look back on it and know that it really shouldn't have mattered then, either.
Love John Denver and his.songs. Annie's Song is one the most beautiful love songs you'll ever hear. A few that I haven't seen mentioned yet are "Matthew", "Looking for Space", " For Baby (For Bobbi)", "Poems and Prayers and Promises" and "The Eagle and the Hawk". To me the music on The Eagle and the Hawk makes you feel like you're majestically soaring through the sky gazing down God's beautiful earth. For me and.many others, I think a lot of his songs remind us to notice and appreciate the beauty of nature.
The instrumental part of this always makes me think of the old Irish music my friends’ parents used to play. I always hear traces of Scottish/Irish roots in country music. 😊
The more you talk the more I love listening, please don't let haters change your style. By telling stories and listening to stories we learn we are not so different after all. The art of story telling and conversation is slowly dieing. Good luck with your new channel
You needed to watch this live. I thought I was weird because John Denver was popular before my time, and when I first heard this song, as well as others, I fell in love with his music. My friends weren't into his music. LOL! He throws an amazing concert. He also played in a movie, Oh God, with George Burns and Terri Garr.
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
How can you listen to this and not just feel happy?
John Denver was his very own lane.
"Sunshine on my Shoulders" is so pretty it can make me cry.
I knew John back in the 1970s. I played five years in his road band during the summer. His fiddle player, John Summers, actually wrote this song. At first, as in this recording, Summers was on the fiddle. However, Summers taught Denver to play this on the fiddle and he did it for years. I miss John so much since he died in 1997. I'll never forget him.
What a wonderful experience! I know that it was the live version of this song (from "An Evening with John Denver") that went to #1, and I can't hear any version of this song without also "hearing" in my head John saying, from right after the end of the live version, "John Summers played the fiddle, and he wrote that song!" (I do remember seeing John on TV, playing the fiddle on this himself; pretty credibly, too!)
Always Remembered, Never Forgotten. From a Retired Paramedic in Ontario, Canada, Jenn 💖 🇨🇦
I envy you sharing the stage with this icon. What an amazing experience for you ❤️ write a book🎉
I've got a school picture of myself wearing a "thank God I'm a country boy" t shirt awesome times
Annie's Song,
I'm Sorry,
Sunshine On My Shoulders,
Country Roads,
Rocky Mountain High.
John gave us some great songs.
One of the funniest stories I ever heard was Paul Simon saying to Huey Lewis on the night of the We Are The World recording that if a bomb fell on this studio, John Denver would be back on top.
I've been a country boy for all of my 66 years, and wouldn't have it any other way! Yes, thank God, I'm a country boy!
John Denver was a staple in our home in the ‘70’s. Gone too soon.
Always Remembered, Never Forgotten. From a Retired Paramedic in Ontario, Canada, Jenn 💖 🇨🇦
Farming and ranching is hard work, but the reward is greater than anything else.
His "Grandma's Feather Bed" is great, just for fun. John was a wonderful gift to the world and is missed.
especially the Muppet Show version
So true! Grandma's Feather Bed is a fun song!
FAVORITE
Always been one of my favorites. Especially now that my grandies have sleepovers here!
Oh yes! Such a fun song!
You are so perceptive that's exactly what that line meant. Love your reactions. Thank you.
The songs not just about the country life. It's about the attitude of being thankful for the blessings we have. Enough food for our needs, honest work ethic, and pride and love for our family. No matter where you live, if you have those things you are blessed.
Annie's Song, One of the most beautiful songs ever written.
Seconded, enthusiastically. Hard to pick between the album version and the live version. Absolutely would love to see him listen to that.
Just love John Denver. He has so many great songs. One of my many favorites is "Calypso" which is written about Jacques Cousteau (French naval officer, oceanographer, author, filmmaker, and inventor) and his ship Calypso.
Same here. Such a beautiful sea shanty sort of song. Growing up watching Jacques Cousteau on TV & hearing John Denver on the radio, the song Calypso was the combination of 2 loves.
One of my heroes. I wanted to grow up and work for him.
Ah yes such a beautiful song 🐬🐳🦈🐠🐟
Calypso is a glorious song.
For a change of pace from Mr. Denver, check out "Calypso", It's a song about a boat..... owned by his friend Jacques Cousteau.
Loved him on The Muppet Show !
I am pretty sure this might be the most upbeat song I've ever heard him do.
"Yeah, city folk drivin' in a black limousine
A lotta sad people thinkin' that's a-mighty keen "
"Keen" is one of those old-timey words from when I was a kid ("Leave It To Beaver" times).
Right up there with "neat-o".
A nice way to rhyme limousine. It would match the word cool or any other word to describe enthusiastic about something
@@terryreese663 "A lotta sad folks who need Listerine" would send a different message. 😄
Don't forget jeepers or gosh.
@@tomlafleche332 Golly, you're right. We definitely shouldn't forget those two.
There's value in simplicity. Most of us take so much for granted and don't step back to appreciate how good we have it. Another great reaction B.P..
One of the best sayings I ever saw was "The best things in life aren't things". I love it, so simple, so true.
When I was in 2nd grade we sang John Denver songs in music class.
Also, John Denver was an amazing artist! It’s difficult to find someone as popular as he was that was also incredibly wholesome. He is a true poet!
Another thing to consider is, he is telling people that hard work along with time set aside to enjoy your family together.
John Denver was the best. RIP John. You are so very missed! Love your reaction!
Sheryl Crow said "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got"
Calypso, with the video! Tribute to oceanographer Jaques Cousteau. John Denver got to go out on that research boat and wrote this song as a result.
I remember when John wrote this song. He went out with Cousteau on "Calypso" and when he came back he said he had written a chorus that he wanted to turn into a song. I was in his road band at the time. He got in his four-wheeler and took off into the mountains. A couple of hours later, he came screaming back to the ranch yelling, "I got it! I got it!" We went into his home studio and recorded a rough version of it and it was wonderful! I miss him so much.
Old boy at an outdoor music weekend down in Tennessee once told me, 'A violin sings. A fiddle dances.'
I just walked in the house from the garden where I got through harvesting. I got up and started canning pasta sauce, and cowboy candy. Than hulled purple hull peas for the freezer to eat this winter. I am looking at my harvest right now wondering what I will be canning tomorrow. Thank God I'm a country girl. I know my man of 43 years is going to eat good this summer and that makes me happy
I LOVE John Denver!!!! Thanks BP!!!
Actually got to meet John Denver in Colorado while he was filming. He was very nice and I always loved his music...he is missed.
Your story really intersects with John Denver's. His father was an Air Force officer whose reputation was on the same par as Chuck Yaeger. After retirement John bought a jet & talked his Dad into flying John on tour His father taught John to fly during that time, they also patched up their rocky relationship during those long flights together. John's performance of For You during the Wildlife concert highlights the strength & clarity of his beautiful singing voice.
My dad was friends with John's father, Henry John Deutschendorf. They were stationed together at Walker AFB in Roswell, New Mexico. John and I were both born there. When I graduated high school in 1973, I got to play guitar with John's road band. We called ourselves "Johnny and the Sharks." I miss him so much.
Love this song and John Denver. He could get the audience going and he was a great entertainer. Gone way too soon.
Whaaaaaaat WHAT!!!!
Hell yes!!! This is the slappiest of the slaps. I love this freaking song.
You and John Denver has some major things in common! His father was an air force officer and they traveled a lot!
John Denver also played in a movie with George Burns called God. George Burns played the role of God.
Please check out Johns Poems Prayers and Promises!
"Sitting in a black limousine thinking this is mighty keen,"
I believe was the lyric.
Back home again is a song about a farmer/truck driver coming home after being on the road to his family.
Not a country boy or even a person who even really cares for country music. John Denver is my exception. His music reminds me of my family and the farm I grew up on.
Think he's more of a folk singer
John Denver also did 2 duets with Olivia Newton John. Fly Away is my favorite of the two. You still need to go down the ONJ rabbit hole and discover what made her such a joy. RIP John and Olivia. ❤
John Denver made it cool to live in the country. City people always putting us down, I lived in both places and like both, but nothing has beaten growing up in the beautiful country. It's a blessing to do so.
please, please, please, please, if u only ever listen to one more john denver song it has to be "im sorry " ! everyone knows that 'Annie's song' was written for his wife at the beginning of there relationship. 'im sorry' was written after it ended. and such a telling song, you can literally hear the emotional collapse and torment in his voice.
And Aspenglow, and Sunshine on my Shoulders, and this Old Guitar, and Annie’s Song, and Leaving on a Jetplane and so many more! Lol
Another reflective song from JD... "Some Days are Diamonds"
That's a heavy song ❤❤❤
@@BradLeroy Seasons of the Heart, a lesser known song, is a great one too, and really shows John Denver's vocal chops - almost operatic. ruclips.net/video/VwZ_qUGkQgw/видео.html
YESSS
"Alot of sad folks thinking that's a mighty keen." is the line, your interpretation of it is spot on however.
I have been into John for over 40 years. I know a lot of people will disagree with me but he is not country he is folk. What really got me was his duet with...no not Olivia Newton John or Plácido Domingo but Alexander Gradsky. Maybe its not really a duet but when i saw it live on PBS it touched me and will never forget it 39 years later. My mom got me into John and now she can watch him play in heaven
Can't help but smile listening to this.
John Denver nee Deutschendorf, Jr. and you have something in common. His father was an Air Force pilot (Captain Deutschendorf Sr. was a decorated pilot who set a number of air speed records in a Convair B-58 Hustler in 1961) He was stationed in Roswell, NM
You're absolutely 100% right I grew up on a farm and now I've got friends who didn't grow up on a farm and and now we got generations of generations that now seems like they don't know how to cope or manage or do anything without technology
John appeared on the Muppets several times. Watch Muppets John Denver Grandma's Feather Bed , very cute
Love this one! It's so fun! Another fun one is Grandma's Feather Bed! John Denver is definitely worth a deep dive! This Old Guitar & Poems, Prayers and Promises are two of my absolute favorites by him!
Grandma’s Feather Bed live.
@@richardfromtexasYes!
Calypso is my favorite
And The Eagle and The Hawk
This song was a true crossover hit. You couldn't get away from it, whatever kind of music station you liked. I tended to avoid the Country and Western stations (that was what they were called before the Western genre faded out). But this blasted from the rock stations as well. And ... I loved it too.
Love, love this song, and Country Roads Take Home and Sunshine my Shoulders ❤
John Denver was so talented. Always a pleasure to listen to him.
I'd put this on during some college, ultra-hip, new-wave parties back in the day, then watch the feet tap and the knees bend.
This has been the 7th Inning Stretch song for the Baltimore Orioles since old Memorial Stadium. When they moved to Camden Yards the Orioles tried to change it. But the fans campaigned to reinstate it. John Denver himself performed it at both stadiums.
This song was huge!!
To fully appreciate John Denver and his amazing talent you've got to watch him "LIVE" He's one of the few artists that are actually better performing their songs live than the studio versions
I could *swear* that there was an entire film version of his concert that was recorded for "An Evening With John Denver"; I swear I can remember seeing it on TV around that time. But I've only ever been able to find a partial version, that doesn't quite match my memory. What I wouldn't give for a full film of that concert!
I absolutely love listening to you and seeing you transform. John Denver was one of the best storytellers in our music history.
Keep on Rocking! ☮️🎶✝️
One of the great things about you and this channel is you'll react to and give honest and fair and interesting views on such a wide range of styles of music. Well done.
John Denver was such a great artist. Keep the reactions coming.
I always heard that this was the 7th Inning stretch song for the Orioles. It turned out that John just happened to be at the game. He was so surprised that he climbed up on top of the dugout and started dancing. He said that if the Orioles won the playoffs he would come back and sing this song. Unfortunately they didn't make it that year.
JD had a lot of great songs but one of his most underrated was Matthew. Makes this 53 year old Marine vet cry like a baby every time.
Yesssss……Matthew is one of my favorites of his. I went to one of his concerts back in the early 70’s and when he sang this song he had a video playing on a giant screen behind him of a man with a small boy on his shoulders behind a mule in the sunshine. It was so special❣️
I remember going camping when I was little and how my daddy would play John Denver and how fun it was.
This came out in ‘74. I was 4 and knew every word. Adults thought it was cute and had me sing it wayyy too often. I thank God none of them had video cameras.
That would be a viral video on RUclips and TikTok if they had video cameras and social media
I was 13 with My family in Kodiak Alaska loving country life HUGE ,I was a very over spoled 70s brat lol ,,John Denvers my fav 70s singer
Highly recommend the live version. It has so much energy!
The concert album that live version is from is terrific throughout! IIRC, it was called “An Evening with John Denver,” and was from two LA concerts in 1975 or so. It opens with just John and his guitar playing “The Music Is You.”
Live John Denver is always better! lol
@@kathyastrom1315 Honestly, that concert album is probably what I'd pick as my favorite album of all time. Listen to it fairly often (it's especially great for road trips), and just never tire of it.
That's the version they released as a single from the concert album, and it's what went to #1, too.
You would really like the song " Back home again" title song of this album. Country boy "live" is awesome!
You said it well, give me the simple life!
I'm now 70 and I still know every word of this song. It means so much to hear the songs again while getting a new perspective. Love your reactions and always look forward to each new one. Congrats on the new channel. ❤
My brother had this on 8 track, we are all BIG John Denver fans. He is on all of our playlists. And I ended up here in Colorado!!
Too bad CO is a commie craphole that stands against everything John Denver loved.
His father was in the military at carswell air base in Fort Worth he started singing in high school here
love his music
Along with riding in the back of my folks' 1972 Oldsmobile or their 76 Plymouth, listening to either that wonderful AM Gold stuff - John Denver is 100% part of my soundtrack of growing up in the 1970s. This is one of the very first songs my dad taught me on my first guitar, and when Mr. Denver passed in that plane crash 10/12/1997, I was holding my newly born daughter in the hospital, and started bawling.
I "discovered" John Denver when I was about 8 years old. Dad was a long-haul truck driver and Mom would sing "Back Home Again", I realize now, as a way of soothing herself while raising 7 kids/keeping the home fires burning. When she said we have the song on an album....welll...that was the beginning of a wonderful musical journey. Each Christmas, for the next 5 years, the first thing on my list would be "a John Denver record". That's how I grew my collection, one album at a time per year. LOL That's just how it was back then. (And when I received "An Evening With John Denver" and found out it was a double album, wow, I was so thrilled!) John Denver was a huge influence on me and still is playing in my car whenever and wherever I go. I was born and raised in Wisconsin but now live in the Colorado mountains where I get to see God every day and listen to John Denver every day. This song describes a simple life well lived and that's what we should all strive for. Thank you for appreciating his talent! Hopefully his music will never go silent...the messages he conveyed are timeless. May he rest in peace ❤
All my bags are packed…..I’m ready to go……
I'm standing here outside your door.
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye...
Love this song ❤
@@kristie825 it’s beautiful yet ironic, especially how he passed
@@christopherderoy3153It really is. I still remember where I was when I found out he passed. Every time I hear it I think about that. 😔 It's beautiful yet haunting
@@kristie825 absolutely. Music meets us where we want to be and sometimes where we NEED to be
Yes...Totally. "Leaving on a Jet Plane", how could I possibly forget that one...TY for reminding me...
When you reminisce about your time on your Uncle's ranch made me so happy!! Keep it up Black P! 40!
Me too! I love he goes where his mind leads not what he thinks he should say. I find reactors that literally listen to the song and say that was good see you,are so boring and no worth in watching.
😅😅😅❤❤ Yes Yes finally a song I requested many times SO SO Excited Love you BP
I always loved this song & John Denver. My mom had 2 8 track tapes while i was growing up. A John Denver tape & the Carpenters. Thanks to my mom i grew up loving both of them.
SAME 😁❤ except they were my dad's 8 tracks. He had a Willie Nelson 8 track too. I grew up loving all 3. The memories they bring back 🥰
That is so cool.
He's technically a Folk Singer. He did Leavin' On A Jet Plane, that's a live performance.
The 70s were a great time musically because there were a number of brilliant singers who could effortlessly move between genres and sound right at home in any of them. John Denver was a prime example.
@@wtk6069 oh no doubt. It's just a "fight" I have with my dear STL raised husband, he always reminds me that John Denver is not country. I try to explain that down here Folk, Bluegrass and such were fed into Country, he doesn't get it. But to me, honestly, I don't care about Genres... if I like the music, I like the music. I can only understand things here and there, but I love Mariachi, I listened to Selena with my best friend long before she was taken from the world. *should note, I'm not saying Selena is Mariachi even though she might have been*
The only reason I put the song suggestion was because that was the only thing that I could remember as a live performance, and John Denver definitely deserves to be heard live. I still can't figure out if he did Grandma's Feather Bed on the Muppets ..d'oh!
@@AngB517 It's kind of a shame that he didn't choose the live version of this song, from "An Evening With John Denver", for this reaction, since that's the version that actually hit #1. (When it comes to "Leavin' on a Jet Plane", I actually really like his album version of that. But no live version from John is ever bad.)
"Country music" as an institution has always seemed very touchy about what to include, and what not to include. It'd be really interesting sometime to see a documentary on it, specifically examining the evolution of it as a music industry, and how it navigated the inclusion - or not - of various related types of music like bluegrass and folk. I feel like the argument about whether John Denver was a country star is more informed by weird little details of the industry's politics in the 60s and 70s, rather than actually just evaluating the music itself. That is, because he got his start in "folk" with the New Christy Minstrels, folks who considered the "heart of country music" to be Nashville wouldn't include him because he didn't follow "the right path". But then you have him doing a lot of songs that are just undeniably country songs (from this, and Grandma's Feather Bed, and Back Home Again; etc.).
I thought it was really interesting in 2017 when the Country Music Awards were celebrating their 50th anniversary, that the big "Forever Country" music video they did ("Artists of Then, Now & Forever") was a medley that started off with "Take me Home, Country Roads", went on to Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", and ended with Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You". Like... at least two of those choices are kind of iconoclastic, in retrospect. But, I guess you could equally say that it just took time for the country music industry to come around on some things they kicked up a fuss about at the time.
Like you, I don't really care about genre, and will go all over the map finding what I like. This subject just interests me because of the way it is entwined in the story of John Denver's career. It doesn't matter all that much today, and thus, you can look back on it and know that it really shouldn't have mattered then, either.
Love the county folk songs back then. Something so hauntingly beautiful. Maybe the fiddle and happiness the scratchy tune.
Love this song! We sang it in the junior high choir. Should have heard us tripping over those lyrics!😱🥱
"Grandma's Feather Bed" is another along these same lines
"Fly Away" and "Looking For Space" are both great thought provokers.
Calypso and Annie's Song...my faves
Great fiddle in this song.. love this so much. John Denver was amazing. He's missed.
I saw him in concert in college and own all his albums! Love him and he's gone too soon.
I am still praying you listen to his song Poems, Prayers and Promises.
Love John Denver and his.songs. Annie's Song is one the most beautiful love songs you'll ever hear. A few that I haven't seen mentioned yet are "Matthew", "Looking for Space", " For Baby (For Bobbi)", "Poems and Prayers and Promises" and "The Eagle and the Hawk". To me the music on The Eagle and the Hawk makes you feel like you're majestically soaring through the sky gazing down God's beautiful earth. For me and.many others, I think a lot of his songs remind us to notice and appreciate the beauty of nature.
The instrumental part of this always makes me think of the old Irish music my friends’ parents used to play. I always hear traces of Scottish/Irish roots in country music. 😊
Especially from the Appalachian mountains from WV down to NC those mountains were settled by Irish and Scottish settlers
The difference between a fiddle and a violin is simply in the style of music played on it.
The more you talk the more I love listening, please don't let haters change your style. By telling stories and listening to stories we learn we are not so different after all. The art of story telling and conversation is slowly dieing. Good luck with your new channel
You needed to watch this live. I thought I was weird because John Denver was popular before my time, and when I first heard this song, as well as others, I fell in love with his music. My friends weren't into his music. LOL!
He throws an amazing concert. He also played in a movie, Oh God, with George Burns and Terri Garr.
The live version actually is much better.
He did a great job in "Oh, God".
Great song, His best!!!!
Forever Country Then & Now
A violin moves your soul, a fiddle moves your feet.
To dance for this is so fun, it's a cross between a square dance and a two step and better be quick
Peyton, Colorado.... I used to deliver to Falcon High School out there off of Woodmen Rd. and Highway 24. Keep up the journey discovering history.
There are so many great John Denver songs. “Matthew” is one of my favorites.
A live concert version of this song was released as a single and hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975.
"More better" works just fine for me.
That was my favorite song back in the day in the early 70s living in the boonies of Wakulla County. Florida.
I remember doing a routine to this song for a baton recital back when I was maybe 6 or 7 years old. That was a fun routine.