John Denver, The #31 Artist of the Rock Era, Part One

 "Tears for the beauty of his music."

"Denver was the poet of his generation."

"What a tremendous talent he was."

"John Denver warms my Heart, fills me with Joy and transports me to a time when things were much simpler…Maybe that time and place never really existed but they did for me…."

"John Denver's voice has always comforted me."

"He sounds like an angel."

"His songs are deeply moving."

"I will always love John Denver's music."

"Truly one of the greats of his generation."

"One of the cream of the crop of entertainers in our lifetime."

"Brilliant!  Love John Denver forever and for always!"

"RIP, John--I thank you for the music you left behind."

"One of the best singers that ever lived."

"Full of life, the celebration of living."

"His music soars!"

"John Denver was incredible the range of his voice was awesome and his songs are timeless."

"John Denver was totally awesome."

"His music speaks to my heart."

"Pure magic in the form a grand poet blessed with a truly great musical soul. He is never any further away than the songs he gave us."

"Future generations will come upon these songs and once again will be touched by their soul-inspiring notes."

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. was born December 31, 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico.  His father, Lt. Col. Henry Deutschendorf, Sr. set three speed records in the B-58 Hustler bomber and earned a spot in the Air Force Hall of Fame.  With his father in the military, the family lived in several locations.

While in Tucson, Arizona, John was in the Tucson Boys Chorus for two years.  When he was 11, he received an acoustic guitar from his grandmother and practiced hard.  While at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas, John took his father's car and drove to California to visit friends of the family and begin a music career.  When his father found out about it, he flew to California to bring his son back, with John eventually finishing high school.

(Denver (second from left) performed with his group at the Kappa Alpha Grubber's Ball in 1961...


After graduating, John was ready to perform at local clubs, taking the name "Denver" after the capital of his favorite state, Colorado.  Denver studied Architecture at Texas Tech University and joined a Folk group called the Alpine Trio.  After two years, however, John's love of music again lured him away from school.  He moved to Los Angeles and sang in Folk clubs.

In 1965, Denver joined the Mitchell Trio, replacing founder Chad Mitchell.  John recorded a demo of some of the songs he had written, in the hopes of eventually striking out on his own.  One of the songs, "Babe I Hate To Go", was later renamed "Leaving On A Jet Plane".  Milt Okun, who produced for the Mitchell Trio, also produced Peter, Paul and Mary.  Okun brought the song to Peter, Paul and Mary and they enjoyed their only career #1 hit with it.  

In 1967, John married Annie Martell.

In 1969, John left the group and signed a recording contract with RCA Records.  He released his debut album, Rhymes & Reasons.  Although Denver wasn't a high priority at the time with RCA, John traveled throughout the Midwest, stopping in towns at his choosing and offering to play free concerts at local venues.  John personally went throughout the town distributing posters and promoting the shows at local radio stations.  As the author of "Leaving On A Jet Plane", this usually got his "foot in the door".  
 

John sold his album at intermissions and after shows.  After several months of this self-promotion, Denver had sold enough albums to convince RCA that they should extend his contract.  Meanwhile, he had attracted a sizable fan base, many who stayed loyal to him throughout his career.  "Rhymes & Reasons" was a promising track; we will play the better one released later on his Greatest Hits album.

 

John released the albums Take Me to Tomorrow and Whose Garden Was This, but neither enticed airplay of the amount needed to take the next step.  But in 1971, Denver wrote this song with Bill and Taffy Danoff, who went on the form the group Starland Vocal Band.  Denver's single "Take Me Home, Country Roads" moved slowly up the charts as John was to this point largely unknown.  Denver pushed RCA to promote it more, which they did, and it became a huge hit in the summer, rising to #2 in the United States and #3 in Canada and selling over one million units.  

 

Tasting solo success for the first time, Denver released another album, Aerie, later in the year.  Although it was void of hits, one should have been.  John wrote this song for a prospective television special he filmed in the Rocky Mountains.  The special never did air, but Denver included the song on Aerie.  John described his inspiration on his radio special The John Denver Show:

     The mountains aren't the only majestic things in the

      high country.  There are those incredibly 

     graceful and inspiring birds of prey.  "The Eagle

      And The Hawk" captures my feelings exactly about 

     these magnificent birds, and the way man threatens 

     their existence."

 

"The Eagle And The Hawk", never released as a single, is one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era* and was later featured on John's Greatest Hits album.

 

As he traveled extensively while his father was stationed in the military, John really felt like he was coming home when he moved to Colorado.  The Denvers moved to Starwood before Chistmas in 1970 at a time in which the area was developed only minimally.  "Starwood In Aspen" describes the feeling he had about finally settling down in his new home.

The album Poems, Prayers and Promises has now sold over one million copies.  The title song later became a fan favorite, though not the version found on this album.  More on that later.

In 1972, John was set to release his next album in September, which was to be called Mother Nature's Son, named after the Beatles song of the same name which they gave him permission to record.  After writing this song, however, Denver changed the album's name and released the album Rocky Mountain High.  

With most of the work completed, Annie, John, and some friends drove to Williams Lake to watch the first Perseid meteor showers.  "There was so much light from the stars in the sky that there was a noticeable difference between the clearing of the trees and everywhere else," Denver said.  "The shadow of the starlight blew me away."  The experience moved John to write "Rocky Mountain High":

     I worked on the song - and the song worked on me - 

     for a good couple of weeks.  I was working one day 

     with Mike Taylor, an acoustic guitarist who had 

     performed with me at the Cellar Door and had 

     moved out to Aspen.  Mike sat down and showed me 

     this guitar lick and suddenly the whole thing came                   together.  It was just what the piece needed.  

    When I realized what I had - another anthem, maybe; a 

    true expression of one's self, maybe - we 

    changed the sequencing of the album we'd just 

    completed, and then we changed the album title. 

 

The title song peaked at #8 in Canada and #9 in the U.S. and on March 12, 2007, the Colorado General Assembly made "Rocky Mountain High" an official state song of that state.  Snowmass, a ski resort near Aspen, later named a run "Rocky Mountain High" in honor of Denver.

The album's cover photograph was taken at Slaughterhouse Falls on the Rio Grande Trail in Aspen. 

 

This album made people realize that Denver had immense talent and depth as a songwriter.  At its peak, it was the #1 album in Canada and #4 in the United States and has sold over two million copies.  Another track, later included on Denver's Greatest Hits, is another worthy song--"Goodbye Again".  Eric Weissberg, who later helped Dan Fogelberg on several of his albums including one that they collaborated on (Twin Sons of Different Mothers, which included "The Power Of Gold"), played guitar and banjo for Denver on the song.

After the success of "Rocky Mountain High", John and his wife Annie moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he lived until his death.  

Denver released the album Farewell Andromeda in 1973.  None of the singles caught on, but after he became a superstar, fans subsequently purchased albums earlier in John's catalog, enabling Farewell Andromeda to be certified Gold.

 

John released his Greatest Hits album, which contained a new recording "Sunshine On My Shoulders", originally included on his Poems, Prayers and Promises album.  

Denver wrote the song on an early spring day when he lived in Minnesota.  The rain was gently falling and John was looking forward to spending time outdoors and enjoying the sunshine.  "On one level it was about the virtues of love," Denver said.  "On another, more deeply felt level, it reached for something the whole world could embrace."

Previously it was the B-side of "I'd Rather Be A Cowboy" on the Poems, Prayers and Promises album.  When promoted properly as the A-side from his Greatest Hits album, it raced to #1 in the U.S. and Canada and sold over one million copies.  "Sunshine" finished the year as one of The Top 10 Songs of 1974*.

 

The album also featured several new and better recordings of earlier songs.  One example is "Poems, Prayers and Promises", one of the most beautiful and meaningful songs ever written.   It is easily one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*. 

"Follow Me" is another re-recording that sounds far superior to the one first released on the Take Me To Tomorrow album.

Before he performed the song on The Tonight Show in 1974, Denver said he wrote it for his wife whom he had to leave behind when he was touring early in his career because he couldn't afford to take her with him. 

  

We promised to play the updated and better version of "Rhymes & Reasons".  Here it is!  In John Denver - The Complete Lyrics -, John says:

     "Rhymes and Reasons" is, I think, one of the best 

     songs I’ve ever written. I wrote the song - or 

     started at least - in the shower one morning. It comes 

     from a very real and consistent thought that the

     children and the flowers are my sisters and my 

     brothers. I do not feel separate from any aspect or 

     from of life. I feel part of it, and bound to it, and the

     way I expressed the feeling was to use the phrase 

     "the children and the flowers". There is a brotherhood               there, and a sisterhood. It’s funny to me that even 

     before the time of women’s liberation there was a

     desire to uphold that concept. The song is basically  

     autobiographical. It’s not one of those songs where 

     I’ve described someone who has a job to do in the

     world. I’m describing who that person is - the song is 

     about me. I intend to lead people to the mountains; I 

     intend to lead them back to the earth, back to the

     spirit. Songs like "Rhymes and Reasons" are a 

    way of doing that for me.

The compilation is just short of Diamond status, currently over nine million albums sold.  The album soared to #1 in the U.S. and Canada and reached the Top 10 in nearly every major country in the world.

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Rocky Mountain High" got John's solo career started, and most music professionals were aware that he wrote "Leaving On A Jet Plane", but the 1974 album Back Home Again solidified Denver as a star. 

 

John wrote this song for his wife after a separation and near breakup of their marriage.  He was riding on a ski life in Aspen and John was inspired to write the song when he came home.  Denver said it was one of the fastest songs he ever wrote, composing it in about 10 minutes.

"Annie's Song" kept up the momentum, again topping charts in both the United States and Canada and selling a million copies.  It too finished the year as one of The Top 10 Songs of 1974*.

 

There will never be another like him, with a voice so pure and songs that touch the heart.  John's unique songwriting style was based on a philosophy that there is a commonality in all of us:

My music and my work stem from the conviction

that people everywhere are intrinsically the same.

Parents are the same, lovers are the same,

families are the same. It’s that shared experience to

which my music is directed. When I write a song, I

want to take the personal experience or observation

I have and express it in as universal a way as

possible. I absolutely believe there is something in all

of us that binds us together.

The title song hit #1 on the Adult chart and #5 overall and also sold over one million copies.

 

 

In 1974, Denver was named poet laureate of the state of Colorado.  Back Home Again topped Album charts in both the United States and Canada has now sold over three million copies in the U.S. alone.  "Sweet Surrender" is a journey of self-exploration and appreciating the beauty of nature.  It gave John four consecutive #1 songs on the Adult chart.

Much more from this amazing singer-songwriter.  Join us for Parts II and III!