I've been on a John Denver kick lately

[OzarkDem]

I picked up his autobiography a few months ago and rediscovered what a great activist he was, as well as a great singer and songwriter. He never gave up advocating for peace and environmental reform and put a great deal of his own money behind really good projects. I really miss him

A great clip of him singing at an anti-war protest in DC in 1971

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBcwAJZGXsk

Bells of Rhymmny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUc41gKw0iQ

Leaving On A Jet Plane w/ Cass Elliott from 1971

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVyMGfcV4uA

[lizziegrace]

1. I was devastated the day he died

I couldn't believe his life was cut so short. He was fallible and I think I admired him more because of it. He was tireless when it came to his music and his causes.

Thanks for reminding me!

:hi:

[OzarkDem]

3. He had a great moral vocabulary in his music

without being religious or preachy. Celebs who work for causes today could learn a lot from him.

[lizziegrace]

2. Ohio?

same here!

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. MrG and I cried he day he died. We took a lot of guff for our favorite

album being "An Evening with John Denver". He was a great human being.

[lizziegrace]

5. There's a PBS special about him

I think it's titled "John Denver - A Song's Best Friend". Watch for it next time there's a fundraiser. It was a wonderful tribute to the musician, the activist and the human being he was.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. We've got the DVD...

We pretty much own all things John Denver.

:blush:

When BabyG was in utero, I played John over my belly phones. We have beautiful video of him laying on the floor looking up at MrG with "This Old Guitar" and "Matthew" playing in the background. "Matthew" makes me cry everytime I hear it.

P.S. The special was on last night I think. :hi:

[lizziegrace]

8. Don't be embarassed!

I've got *almost* everything John Denver and I think everything Dan Fogelberg. I sent the CD cover for the Inocent Age to him with a SASE and he autographed it and sent it back. :loveya:

We're also huge James Taylor fans around here too. I have video of Lelapin dancing to "Sun on the Moon". She still grins when she hears it.

:hi:

[OzarkDem]

9. I just got it, too

Loved it. He had so many friends who spoke so highly of him.

I always think of him when I'm in Colorado, his music was very popular during the years we were living there, great times.

[cmkramer]

15. Not sure if it was the same one

but Wisconsin Public Television had a special about him a week or so ago on one of their pledge drives.

I was a teenager when he was popular and almost everyone I knew had at least one of his albums. Even the kids who were more into metal or hard rock liked to listen to him when they were feeling mellow or needed to chill or something.

The first time I ever saw him on TV was when he did an appearance on a local Baltimore TV teenaged dance show called "The Kirby Scott Show". He sang "Leavin' On A Jet Plane" which became a hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary a few months later. Then, after Kirby Scott did a short interview with him, he said he was going to sing another song he had written called "Richard Nixon". It went:

"This is a song about Richard Nixon
And all the good things he has done." And then he just grinned. I doubt if the kids in the audience got it, but I remember our next door neighbor just laughing her head off over it.

[OzarkDem]

17. Ballad of Spiro Agnew

When he was with the Chad Mitchell Trio, they played for years in Washington DC and their act was a lot of satire and protest folk songs.

[cmkramer]

26. I stand corrected!

Guess I got the wrong crooked Republican.

[OzarkDem]

27. No, you were right

The song was about Nixon, too.

[wildhorses]

7. this song gives me chills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_cAhd6z8-s

[OzarkDem]

10. His lyrics are so sincere

he wrote about the things he felt passionately about, even in later years.

His Windstar Foundation is still active - run by his brother Ron. I've thought of getting involved, going to some of their seminars.

http://www.wstar.org/

[YellowRubberDuckie]

11. So has this girl at work...

She's been listening to him in her car. And then she wouldn't believe me that he sang Country Boy. Of course she never listens to me, but that's a whole other story.
Duckie

[OzarkDem]

13. Hell, yeah

He didn't like being referred to as a Country Western artist, though, he was a folk singer at heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNAD2yMqJn8

[Richard Steele]

12. "Forest Lawn" may be partially responsible for my love of snarky satire.

I was young and impressionable back then, and John Denver
was one of the few albums in the house that I actually enjoyed
listening to...

[lizziegrace]

14. Saturday Night in Toledo Ohio...

:rofl:

[Richard Steele]

16. "So smile and be thankful next time you get weighed....."

I had no IDEA why the grownups thought that line was so funny!

[lizziegrace]

20. Let's let the sleeping dogs lie

and here's to the dogs of Toledo, Ohio...

:evilgrin:

Isn't nice to get the jokes now!

:hi:

[lizziegrace]

18. Poems, Prayers and Promises

found the video on youtube.

Poems, Prayers, and Promises
I've been lately thinking
about my life's time
all the things I've done
and how it's been,
and I can't help believin'
in my own mind
I know I'm gonna hate to see it end.
I've seen a lot of sunshine
slept out in the rain
spent a night or two all on my own
I've known my lady's pleasures
had myself some friends
spent a time or two in my own home.

I have to say it now it's been good life all in all,
it's really fine to have a chance to hang around.
and lie there by the fire and watch the evening tire,
while all my friends and my old lady
sit and pass a pipe around
and talk of poems and prayers and promises
and things that we believe in,
how sweet it is to love someone,
how right it is to care,
how long it's been since yesterday
what about tomorrow
and what about our dreams
and all the memories we share,

Days they pass so quickly now,
the nights are seldom long
time around me whispers when it's cold.
The changes somehow frightens me,
still I have to smile
it turns me on to think of growing old.
For tho' my life's been good to me
there's still so much to do
so many things my mind has never known
I'd like to raise a family
I'd like to sail away
and dance across the mountains on the moon.

I have to say it now it's been good life all in all,
it's really fine to have a chance to hang around.
and lie there by the fire
and watch the evening tire,
while all my friends and my old lady
sit and pass a pipe around
and talk of poems and prayers and promises
and things that we believe in,
how sweet it is to love someone,
how right it is to care,
how long it's been since yesterday
what about tomorrow
what about our dreams
and all the memories we share

[OzarkDem]

21. Thought of him the other night during the Perseid meteor showers

He wrote about them in Rocky Mountain High

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dnIxbi7TwQ&mode=related&search=

[lizziegrace]

22. I never knew that.

:)

[OzarkDem]

23. He went camping w/ friends

up at Lake Williams to watch the meteor showers and got the inspiration for it ("I've seen it raining fire in the sky"). I think they passed the pipe around, too ("everybody's high"). He also said the line "and they say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun" was about the first time he ever took acid - also with a friend camping out in the Rockies that summer.

Those were fun days, all the kids I hung out with in high school and college loved to go out in the wilderness to camp and canoe in the rivers. The first time I ever took acid was on a whitewater canoe trip during high water in the Black River in the Ozarks.

Its a very autobiographical song according to him, he put a lot of personal stuff in it.

[wildhorses]

31. is this the one you are talking about...with the Muppets?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f5Pmzkp43M

[hyphenate]

19. It was John Denver

who influenced me to get involved in things like the environment in the first place. I miss him, too.

[Katina]

24. I was going to post today

about John Denver & Nat King Cole...I have them on my Ipod and I was listening to them both as I did my walking today. I LOVE both of them. Denver's Bells of Rhymmny is really good, but I think the Byrds did it better.

[Pendrench]

25. I was lucky enough to see him in concert once...

at the Meriwether Post Pavilion (Columbia, MD).

It was a great show, and his encore was "Calypso" (my favorite song).

By the way, even now, they play "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the 7th inning stretch at Orioles games here in Baltimore.

Tim

[JI7]

28. his love for those things can be heard and felt in his music

you can tell it's coming from his heart. it goes beyond just having a good voice and a good song.

i always watch the pbs specials on him when it comes on.

[distantearlywarning]

29. I spent my childhood in Colorado

My parents were huge John Denver fans. "Annie's Song" is "their song", and they had all his albums. My mother used to sing the Tools song about the rabbit to me before bed at night. John Denver played an important part in my very happy Rocky Mountain childhood, and I listen to his stuff even now (otherwise I'm primarily a heavy metal/prog rock fan).

His music makes me sentimental and and sweet and feel good inside in a way that nothing else does. Every time I am channel surfing and a PBS special or whatever is on about him, I always watch it. I wept when he died. John Denver is the bomb, and I don't care if other people think his music is silly or sappy.

[wildhorses]

32. after reading this post,I thought you might enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROehKS6GBMc

[Vidar]

30. He was a very decent man & a nice refuge from heavy metal.