I sitting here in cubicle world and a neighbor has some John Denver playing for all of our enjoyment. I actually don’t mind it, and it’s better than the opera/elevator music he usually plays. My problem is that it seems his music seems very sullen and depressing. I seem to remember his music being more upbeat. What gives?
Some theories I have:
It’s the same music, but since JD’s gone, I am subconciously associating somber feelings with the music.
This is the post-mortem, digitally remastered, more emotional album.
It’s the same music, but I remeber it as more upbeat because I usually only listened to it when I was plastered in some ski town bar.
“Annie’s Song” was written as an ode to Denver’s then-wife, Annie Denver (née Martell) of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Denver “wrote this song in about ten-and-a-half minutes one day on a ski lift” to the top of Bell Mountain in Aspen, Colorado as the physical exhilaration of having “just skied down a very difficult run” and the feeling of total immersion in the beauty of the colors and sounds that filled all senses inspired him to think about his wife. The song has since become a wedding standard and an expression of love for many people, due to its grand imagery and the fact it could apply to anyone (Annie is not mentioned by name in any part of the song).
We play a lot of JD here in the OR. Rocky mountain high and all of that…JD was a complex guy. The popular image was that of a sunny soul, who wrote these beautiful love songs to his wife. A documentary on PBS suggested otherwise. According to his first wife (Annie), JD was a serial adulterer. She would lock him out of the house after each indiscretion, and he would write these beautiful songs to profess his undying love for her in the hopes she would take him back. She got tired of the cycle, and eventually divorced him.
I do like his music a lot, but there is some darkness there. He died in his ultralight plane when it ran out of fuel after a morning of “eye-openers” with some friends in Malibu.
"He died in his ultralight plane when it ran out of fuel after a morning of “eye-openers” with some friends in Malibu. "
Actually, he died in a Long EZ (an "experimental"aircraft, not an ultralight) in Monterey, CA, and the toxicology tests were negative for all screened substances including alcohol.
Ok…now that’s funny! I can still picture the 8 tracks in my mom’s car playing JD over and over. Kind of corny, especially here in SoCal, but not really all that bad to listen to as a kid.
Far worse was the “John Denver experience” ride on a South Park episode. Patrons at an amusement park ride would get into little airplane shaped seats, be lifted up gently in the air to the strains of one of his songs, then be smashed to a pulp on the ground. Yes, I did laugh…
Robin. You are correct.
It’s not Christmas at my house until we hear Beaker singing on “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
I heard from someone - a hardcore Pixies/Frank Black fan - that the song “Czar” on Frank Black’s eponymous album is about John Denver buying gasoline out the wazoo and storing it in underground tanks at his place in Aspen during the oil embargo in the '70’s. Anyone else heard that one?
It was somber because you realize how much of you life was wasted listening too or having to listen too John Denver. It is time we will never it get back. It’s gone and there is nothing we can do about it.
