End of One, Beginning of Another (part 16)

Now that I'm thinking about it, I take back what I said about John Denver just now! We all loved his music (at least I think we all did). After posting last night, I sat and listened to Follow Me, which took me right back to the fun and the innocence of 1974. I think it must be like that for our mother when she hears something like Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.

The 1970s were such a surprising phenomenon, following the 60's Rock and Roll, long hair, weed, acid, hippies, free love, and campus protests/fires/bombings. The 70s turned a corner almost immediately, just as soon as 1969 could become 1970.

I'm not sure if all my dear Readers will know, or have even heard as much of Mr. Denver as the SconeLady has. But try these - they are just a few of the songs he created and sang that wafted out from radios almost every single day of the 70s:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wordman/5190617692/

• Take Me Home, Country Roads (1971)
• You Fill Up My Senses ('Annie's Song', 1974)
• Leaving On A Jet Plane (covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary) 1969
• Sunshine On My Shoulders (1971)
• Rocky Mountain High (1974)
• Thank God I'm A Country Boy (1974)
• Follow Me (1970)
• The Eagle and the Hawk (1972)
• Calypso (1975)

There are so many more. But these, I recognize as tunes that became wildly famous and are immediately recognizable. They are the ones that bring it all back, in an instant.

And I'm sorry but not everyone was a fan. A few notable instances are:

• His CMA Entertainer of the Year award was actually burned on stage by the presenter! (I think Charlie Rich was mad about not having won it himself). 

• John Denver and Jerry Weintraub used to be best friends but John was thrown out of Jerry's office and called a Nazi because John quit Jerry's management company. 

•  'Annie's Song' was written for his first wife Annie, and we all thought how sweet it was to write something like that for your wife, but John almost choked her to death when he learned the extent of their divorce settlement. Hmm. It must have been a doozy.

But I think most people knew him as an icon of American music, and one of the world's biggest selling recording artists. The Guild Jumbo F-50 guitar you see on this page is my own favorite guitar. The two of them together made some pretty spectacular stuff, right up until his death in a plane crash in 1997. 

But the songs will remain on, and we won't forget them.

So kiss me and smile for me,

Tell me that you'll wait for me,

Hold me like you'll never let me go.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane,

Don't know when I'll be back again.

Oh babe, I hate to go.

Copyright J.Denver, 1969

But I'll see you along the way!

the SconeLady

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wordman/5190617692/">wordman1</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>