We have around 3 inches of snow and about 9 degrees here. Will have to go out and shovel in a couple of hours. There will be Ice under the snow. First real snow and cold of the year. Well it is mid Nov.
I have found one campaign I could unhesitatingly support: Lee Zeldin for RNC Chair.
SHIREHOME, just be glad you’re not in Buffalo, NY, where up to four feet of snow are expected by Sunday.
Country Roads is not only popular in Malaysia, a couple of months ago I was at a small beer fest in Munich and they played it to a very enthusiastic audience. I think my wife and were the only residents of West Virginia in the crowd
We sang that in high school choir in late ’72 or early ’73. I thought that the song had been out there for a few years then, but it was released in April ’71.
I bumped into him once at a local golf course. His back was towards me initially, but once he began to speak I instantly knew it was him. His Final Destination was not far from there either.
I grew up in western MD, where you could walk from WV to PA. Had relatives all over the place there. I didn’t visit the mountains or hollers, but I know the people. I guess their thinking insulated me from going woke in the cities and after my move to Europe. Those country roads always take me home.
Doug Purdie,
Even odder, “Country Roads” is one of the top songs at Munich’s Oktoberfest!?
Great talent, great songwriter, and also seemed to be a good man. However, I have no idea why, but John Denver is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I think I’d rather listen to death metal or gangstarap than Denver (and I really don’t like death metal or gangstarap). I do sometimes sing his song, “Thank God, I’m a Countryboy” though. I always found that one funny and, coming from a city boy like me, I get a laugh when I sing it. I think I also saw him in one of the “Oh, God” movies with George Burns and liked him in that.
Shirehome, my brother reports about 7″ in Morrison. But I’m happy to report none here in northern Florida 😉
We live in a post-reality world. To document the daily examples would take far more than 24 hours.
Is it time to be mean? Seriously?
The teachers and the rest of the education monstrosity insist that they are the professionals and know more than parents about what should be taught. Isn’t about time to point out that the students who study to be teachers are, by far, the least intelligent people in college?
Just one of many examples of this type thing. I think those of us who are pro-reality need to stop trying to be nice. We need to be blunt with scientists — until you check your work like you were taught in first grade, we aren’t going to pay attention to your blathering.
Tell the news media — you’ve been caught lying beyond your limit, go away. You’re no longer credible.
Global warming wackos — you’re killing millions of people every year in order to lower the temperature by 0.02 degrees a century from now. You’re evil. Stop it.
No more Mr. Nice Guy. It doesn’t work. Diplomacy is just a nice word for lying. Be blunt. Be direct. Call liars liars and idiots idiots.
Stan,
Regarding the global warming wackos; cold kills far more people each year than heat. Bjorn Lomberg has very useful statistics on all of this.
WELL THAT IS A FIRST:
President Biden’s White House asks people NOT TO SUE the head of Saudi Arabia’s government, who is S.A.’s Crown Prince, over the KILLING of the reporter, Mr. Jamal Khashoggi.
It is believed by many people, including many nations + many reporters, that:
1) Jamal Khashoggi said critical things about Saudi Arabia’s government, then 2) people in Saudi arabia’s govt. lured Mr. Khashoggi into a Saudi Arabian embassy for a “meeting”, and then these Saudi Arabian agents MURDERED or killed Mr. Khashoggi, for saying or reporting- negative things about Saudi Arabia’s government.
And so Biden is now trying to protect Saudi Arabia, and its ruler, from- lawsuits over the killing.
Why shouldn’t people be able to sue over this crime?
It looks like a man was [murdered], Mr. Biden.
Is that more important than your White House, making the ruler of Saudi Arabia, your good friend?
Stan,
I do go on the offensive when confronted with the items you list. I pick and choose my tactic based on the audience. With sincere but poorly informed folks I always take a non-confrontational approach, pointing out science and statistics to help steer them towards more research and curiosity.
With more obtuse folks I choose something they’re emotionally tied to and use it as an in; “I love the environment also, and want to reduce pollution and man’s impact.
– Have you heard about modern nuclear reactor construction and waste management processes?”
or
– Mining and manufacturing processes of lithium ion batteries are so destructive, especially to third world countries. It’s great to see the U.S. expanding natural gas use.”
They don’t even know I’m arguing with them and, they don’t want me to know they don’t have as good a grasp of the facts as I do so they’ll typically start listening.
I like many of Denver’s songs, and play a couple. However, growing up in Colorado during that era, I can say that many Coloradoans blame him for the Californication of the state. Many wish the songs Rocky Mountain High and Starwood in Aspen were never published. Made way too many people head for Colorado.
Honestly, Kashoggi was scum and whoever did him in was probably doing the world a favor. However that reads like a ham-handed attempt to curry favor with the Saudis too transparently in order to compensate for alienating the Saudis in other ways.
… but John Denver is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Rufus T. Firefly:
I say, Go with it!
I don’t have that reaction to JD, but I do in some other cases.
You are as God made you.
My favorite John Denver song is “Leaving on a Jet Plane” as performed by “Peter, Paul and Mary.” Oh, PP&M!
He was a *serious* est graduate, i.e. disciple of Werner Erhard. He wanted to undergo the considerable rigors to become an est trainer, but saner heads prevailed.
Turtler,
I’ve read similar things about him: Muslim brotherhood supporter; Got his column ideas from Quatar. There are lots of liars from the Middle East.
Rufus…re “nails on a chalkboard”
For me… it’s the Boss’ fave, the Bee Gees. 8^D
So yeah…God made our tastes to his own perfection and we live with it until we are made perfect.
My girls are still addicted to Grandma’s Feather Bed. Every time we do a family bluegrass jam… that one must be done.
Kashoggi was no “journalist”. He was a propagandist for the Muslim Brotherhood. He was a burr under the Saudi saddle “forever”. I never understood why he would go to a Saudi facility to get a sanction for a marriage in another country. That ain’t smart. The Saudis don’t play nice with their opponents. Whatever, it isn’t any of our business.
The Saudis are not the only “murders” that we have to deal with. As a start, I am intrigued by Putin’s “windo-cide” or is it “gravity-cide”.
Speaking of my girls…
Oldest gets married a week from now.
Can’t describe how blessed we are.
I’m a country boy and have been a John Denver fan from the beginning of his career. Leaving On a Jet Plane was one of my faves. It was what I did for many years. It was a sort of theme song for my life.
I agree with Physics Guy that he made Colorado popular with all the wrong people. Once a solid red state, now Californicated.
We were in the Masai Mara in Kenya when he died. We hadn’t heard the news – no newspapers or TV out in the bush. We went on a walking tour of a game reserve. One of our guides was a Masai who had a radio. He had heard the news the night before. He was very compassionate when he told us the news. He thought maybe we knew him personally. (His thinking being that we rich Americans surely must know one another. His assumption being that only the rich showed up on safari in Africa. 🙂 ) He knew John Denver’s music and he knew Country Roads. We all sang it together as a farewell gesture. A faraway farewell to a man who touched many lives. Thank God his country boy music lives on.
In the country/ballad/soft rock area, I prefer Glen Campbell, and not just because of his guitar skills. Speaking of which, I used to have a vinyl “The Astounding Twelve String Guitar of Glen Campbell”. Liner notes said he might also have a future as a vocalist.
I dunno. Unless a guy is from “there”, wherever “there” may be, singing about wanting to get back to it rings not entirely true. Sinatra could sing about swingin’ lovers and you could smell the cigarettes and the gin.
Couldn’t picture Bob Dylan singing “Howl at the moon, shoot out the lights, small town Saturday night”.
Glen Campbell guitar break on “Gentle on My Mind”:
West Virginia seems not to have minded that he wasn’t from there. They made it one of their official state songs.
Air Force Brat
Wikipedia
“Because Denver’s father was in the military and his family moved often, it was difficult for him to make friends and fit in with other children of his own age. Constantly being the new kid was troubling for the introverted Denver, and he grew up always feeling as though he should be somewhere else, but never knowing where that ‘right’ place was.”
Now that is something that I identify with.
Richard Aubrey:
Nobody likes a pop-culture pedant, but here goes.
Bob Dylan was no city boy. He was born in Duluth and raised in Hibbing, on the Iron Range of northeast Minnesota. According to Wikipedia, Hibbing’s current population is 16,214, small enough for him to sing “Howl at the moon, shoot out the lights, small town Saturday night.”
Even so, I can’t imagine him doing that, except as parody.
John Guilfoyle, congratulations and best wishes to your daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law!
Kashoggi was not an American citizen, or even, as far as I can determine, a green card holder. He was murdered by agents of his home country in a third country, not here. I don’t see any reason why any American should be able to sue, certainly not in the U.S.
Meanwhile, our hyper-partisan Attorney General has appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump on the Mar-a-Lago raid results, and on Jan. 6. And the White House is denouncing investigations into what it calls “debunked conspiracy theories” about Hunter Biden’s dirty businesses and Joe’s connection to them.
Kate: The Washington Post is admitting that the FBI didn’t find nuclear secrets , or anything else in the Mar-A-Lago raid. Maybe Merrick Garland doesn’t real the local rag?
Nevermind ….. Part Deux
Attorney General Emily Garland didn’t get the Meuller memo.
I’ve always liked John Denver but I was never a fanboy. (He was a bit too much of a hippy for my taste.) “Take Me Home Country Roads” was one of the first songs of his I ever heard and I liked it immediately.
While it is true that the state of West Virginia has made that song one of it’s state songs, when it first came out there was some question about whether he was singing about the state of West Virginia or “west” Virginia. You see, except for a very small section where it runs into the Potomac, the Shenandoah River is almost entirely within the state of Virginia. The Blue ridge goes through several states, but again only a very small part of it is in the state of West Virginia. Most of it is in Virginia. (Fun Fact: The western panhandle of Virginia is farther west than any part of the state of West Virginia.)
Regardless, it is a good song and I like it the way it is. I have even been known to choose it on Karaoke night.
I always secretly liked Rocky Mountain High and Back Home Again.
Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
John Denver had one of those uniquely compelling voices. Like Elton John.
You knew it was him, every time, and usually wanted to keep listening even if everyone else in the car was going “nomygod, so corny, off, off, off.”
Hubert. Back in 68, I worked in a field project ‘way out of town. Couple of the women would mist up at “Gentle on My Mind”.
Conflour. I’m doing some casual research for nobody’s benefit but my own plus I like using google earth. Subject is the physical environment of rural culture. 16k is a big town in what I’m looking at. Some counties are smaller than that.
there is a hierarchy even within the kingdom, natural born saudis are first, those of armenian like prince talal or turkish like khashoggi are second class citizens, the latter are more directly of salafi orientation, even though they may not openly back terrorists, have litte quibble with their goals,
“He was a *serious* est graduate, i.e. disciple of Werner Erhard. He wanted to undergo the considerable rigors to become an est trainer, but saner heads prevailed.”
huxley, I was an est graduate, though not a serious one past about 2 weeks. When I first heard Denver’s “Looking For Space,” I knew right away he’d been through the training. I attended a weekend seminar in 1975-ish, when I was 19. It was quite the interesting experience! And boy, do I have stories about some of the people involved in it!
Hi Turtler,
Yeah, I agree with most of what you said.
This looks like a clumsy way of currying favor with the Saudis, by Mr. Biden.
I have no knowledge about what kind [moral behaviors] of Mr. Kashoggi has done, but I don’t mind if you + others have their own opinions on him.
This is just my opinion:
I am a FIRM believer in 1] the freedom of speech, and 2] the freedom of the press.
Such as- I don’t like [some] of the jokes by the comic, George Carlin.
However- just because I don’t like some of the jokes he said, that doesn’t mean I think he deserves: 1] life in prison [for what he said, or 2] that I want him executed/killed [for what he has said].
(p.s. -I know that George Carlin has passed on, but I just wanted to use him as an example, in my above comment.)
its surprising because robert malley (of whom I’ve referred often) is the no 2, but effectively one of the three centers of power in the administration, maybe blinken realizes how badly his former lycee class mate, has mislead him,
huxley, I was an est graduate, though not a serious one past about 2 weeks. When I first heard Denver’s “Looking For Space,” I knew right away he’d been through the training.
gwynmir:
No shame in it and that was a big Denver tell that he had done the Training.
I never wanted to be a trainer, but I was a serious est graduate myself for a fair number of years. I even returned in the 2000s to do the Landmark Forum, which is what the est Training morphed into.
I have no regrets, though I didn’t stick with Landmark either. There are sketchy aspects to est/Landmark, but I will say they teach some great Tough Love on being a victim and keeping agreements, of which America is currently in short supply.
Another Little Known Fact about John Denver:
He was a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio, a second-tier sixties folksinging group. Denver joined the group after Chad Mitchell went solo (yet they retained Mitchell’s name). Later Denver went solo.
A fun group. Best known for social satire. Here’s a cut with Denver in the middle singing a song about the KKK:
Richard Aubrey: my older brother and I used to listen to AM radio in our shared bedroom after lights out. Top 40 hits from the late 1960s were the soundtrack of my boyhood. Glen Campbell was a big part of that: “Gentle on My Mind”, but also “Wichita Lineman”, “Galveston”, and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”. Jimmy Webb was a great songwriter. Is.
Re: Glen Campbell
Hubert, Richard Aubrey:
I didn’t realize what a phenomenal guitar player Campbell was until I saw “The Wrecking Crew” doco about a key group of session musicians who played behind a sizable number of the hits that came out of LA in the 60s.
Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were the main Crew veterans who went on to solo careers. The rest were happy with getting paid regular and raising families.
A must-see documentary for aficionados of sixties pop.
Thanks Kate.
He’s a champion…she is too, but I might be biased on her part.
John Guilfoyle:
Congratulations!
Great, John! I’m glad for you.
John Guilfoyle–
What Neo said. May you have many more such blessings.
Huxley: thanks for the tip. Excerpts from the documentary are on YouTube, including clips of Glen Campbell. And girl bass player Carol Kaye, who said she made more money as a session musician than the president of the United States.
@ Gregory > “Country Roads is not only popular in Malaysia, a couple of months ago I was at a small beer fest in Munich and they played it to a very enthusiastic audience.”
I took a look at the comments and a huge number were in languages other than English. As one commenter noted: Theodoros Tsamis
“This song is not about people that left West Virginia only. It is about everyone that left back their home, their family, friends and the place where they spend their childhood.”
@ Rufus > “Even odder, “Country Roads” is one of the top songs at Munich’s Oktoberfest!?”
I can give personal testimony to the popularity of the song in Germany at Oktoberfest (October 2017, not in Munich, however).
This was posted at Not The Bee recently. Before you click the Tweet link – 3 guesses what the song is.
First two guesses don’t count.
What blows my mind the most is that everyone sings it in English – kind of like us singing “O Tannenbaum” in German instead of the usual translation.
Or maybe a better pop example would be “Lili Marleen (Vor der Kaserne)” from WWII, sung by Marlene Dietrich. Not quite the same substance as “Country Roads,” but the same longing for home and loved ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jlT_Jb2efU
?? Marlene Dietrich ? Lili Marleen ? Lyrics
“Written in 1915 during World War I, the poem was published under the title “Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht” (German for “The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch”) in 1937, and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 under the title “Das Mädchen unter der Laterne” (“The Girl under the Lantern”).”
I’ve never heard it in English, but apparently Dietrich recorded that as well. https://archive.org/details/78_vor-der-kaserne-lied-eines-jungen-wachtpostens_phyllis-heymans-original-teddies_gbia0011248a
“Written during the first world war by the poet Hans Leip in 1915 and originally sung by Lale Anderson it did not rise in international popularity until World War II when Marlene Dietich sang it in english in 1944.”
(Despite the typos and some broken links, that site has a great discography.)
No one seems to have cared that she was singing a soldier’s romantic ode to his girlfriend.
I’ve also heard men singing songs with texts that should be sung by a woman.
The song itself is what matters.
John Denver (birth name Deutschendorf) sang his heart out.
Congratulations, John Guilfoyle!
The Welsh language actually has a word for “longing for home” – hiraeth.
Lots of Welsh poems and songs revolve around that theme.
Wikipedia: “The University of Wales, Lampeter, likens it to a homesickness tinged with grief and sadness over the lost or departed, especially in the context of Wales and Welsh culture.[2] It is a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past.[3]
The Cornish and Breton equivalents are hireth[4] and hiraezh. It is associated with the German concept of Sehnsucht, the Portuguese saudade or the Romanian dor.[5]”
The lyrics are on the screen in both Welsh and English.
One of my favorites.
In the interest of expanding international cultural appreciation, here is a more traditional setting of “Hiraeth” by the men of the Welsh National Opera Chorus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX-pIq2IgL8
Hubert
I never cared for the Top Forty genre, whichever songs were in it.
Then, on the way home from a casual reunion in the mid-Ninetes of college friends…classes of roughly 63-68…I got a radio station playing those songs. Got really into it.
Coincidentally, at his blog “Anecdotal Evidence,” Patrick Kurp has just written a good post about nostalgia, homesickness, and poetry (https://tinyurl.com/5budd3xa).
I think it’s relevant to the appeal of this John Denver song.
Maybe even more relevant would be Kurp’s conclusion, in which he cites Terry Teachout, who wrote this: “The English language needs a word whose definition would be ‘nostalgia for that which one has not experienced.’”
Thanks for that Giorgia Meloni video, Banned Lizard.
And Glen Campbell was a Beach Boy for a short while!
You are welcome, Kate. BTW, Neo’s post, Voting in Italy, helps explain how it was possible for Meloni to be elected. The mainstream media can snipe at her all they want, but they need US/Brazilian style election fraud to stop the rise of such wonderful leaders.
AesopFan,
German for “longing for home” is “Heimweh.” Maybe, “home ache” would be a good translation, or “Home pain.”
Weirder than Germans singing “Country Roads” in English is Bobby Darrin singing, “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” in English. 😉 https://youtu.be/X7eO7MKEZAY
AesopFan: “This song is not about people that left West Virginia only. It is about everyone that left back their home, their family, friends and the place where they spend their childhood.”
That’s my take. My childhood home was the mountains of Colorado. I don’t live there now for reasons I don’t want to go into. But my heart is still in the mountains of Colorado. The first John Denver song I remember hearing was Colrado, Rocky Mountain High. Yep, I was on board.
I’d heard Denver helped the Chad Mitchell Trio clean up some debts owing.
As to nostalgia, I’d go with some subliminal connections. Something reminds you of something you don’t quite recall which reminds you of something you miss but you don’t consciously recall the actual thing. But you get a “feeling” for a few moments.
Some of my errands take me out to the “country”, at least with lots of trees and homes some hundreds of yards apart. From time to time, a well-kept home possibly up a slight grade, set back, sparks a very mild sense of….possibly nostalgia. No idea what I’m missing or what the possible connections to it might be.
@ Jordan Rivers > “John Denver (birth name Deutschendorf)”
Then it is satisfactorily fitting that his “ode to home” is a hit in his ancestral homeland!
The worst recommendation for Denver’s “Country Roads” was its ironic use in “Alien: Covenant,” Ridley Scott’s sequel to the “Prometheus” prequel intended to resuscitate the ailing “Alien” flim franchise.
See, the idea is that the latest luckless “Alien” space crew, in this case sent out to colonize some planet somewhere in the galaxy, gets awakened from hypersleep by a solar flare, then after they catch their breath, they pick up a radio transmission of “Country Roads” from a nearby planet and decide, “Hey, waitaminnit, that’s a much better planet to colonize” and scrap their original mission.
Of course, it’s a nightmare planet inhabited by prequel versions of the hideous “Alien” xenomorph predator.
But it’s really cute that they get lured in by a John Denver song.
II don’t get why but this is the #1 requested song at karaoke bars in Malaysia.
I just love this song. My husband and I were John Denver fans in our youth.
My favorite John Denver song. Bet you have never heard of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDGMYilfia8
My aunt was fond of John Denver. Her husband had it played at her wake.
See ya and raise ya:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqISqqbMhls
We have around 3 inches of snow and about 9 degrees here. Will have to go out and shovel in a couple of hours. There will be Ice under the snow. First real snow and cold of the year. Well it is mid Nov.
I have found one campaign I could unhesitatingly support: Lee Zeldin for RNC Chair.
SHIREHOME, just be glad you’re not in Buffalo, NY, where up to four feet of snow are expected by Sunday.
Country Roads is not only popular in Malaysia, a couple of months ago I was at a small beer fest in Munich and they played it to a very enthusiastic audience. I think my wife and were the only residents of West Virginia in the crowd
We sang that in high school choir in late ’72 or early ’73. I thought that the song had been out there for a few years then, but it was released in April ’71.
I bumped into him once at a local golf course. His back was towards me initially, but once he began to speak I instantly knew it was him. His Final Destination was not far from there either.
I grew up in western MD, where you could walk from WV to PA. Had relatives all over the place there. I didn’t visit the mountains or hollers, but I know the people. I guess their thinking insulated me from going woke in the cities and after my move to Europe. Those country roads always take me home.
Doug Purdie,
Even odder, “Country Roads” is one of the top songs at Munich’s Oktoberfest!?
Great talent, great songwriter, and also seemed to be a good man. However, I have no idea why, but John Denver is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I think I’d rather listen to death metal or gangstarap than Denver (and I really don’t like death metal or gangstarap). I do sometimes sing his song, “Thank God, I’m a Countryboy” though. I always found that one funny and, coming from a city boy like me, I get a laugh when I sing it. I think I also saw him in one of the “Oh, God” movies with George Burns and liked him in that.
Shirehome, my brother reports about 7″ in Morrison. But I’m happy to report none here in northern Florida 😉
We live in a post-reality world. To document the daily examples would take far more than 24 hours.
Is it time to be mean? Seriously?
The teachers and the rest of the education monstrosity insist that they are the professionals and know more than parents about what should be taught. Isn’t about time to point out that the students who study to be teachers are, by far, the least intelligent people in college?
Just one of many examples of this type thing. I think those of us who are pro-reality need to stop trying to be nice. We need to be blunt with scientists — until you check your work like you were taught in first grade, we aren’t going to pay attention to your blathering.
Tell the news media — you’ve been caught lying beyond your limit, go away. You’re no longer credible.
Global warming wackos — you’re killing millions of people every year in order to lower the temperature by 0.02 degrees a century from now. You’re evil. Stop it.
No more Mr. Nice Guy. It doesn’t work. Diplomacy is just a nice word for lying. Be blunt. Be direct. Call liars liars and idiots idiots.
Stan,
Regarding the global warming wackos; cold kills far more people each year than heat. Bjorn Lomberg has very useful statistics on all of this.
WELL THAT IS A FIRST:
President Biden’s White House asks people NOT TO SUE the head of Saudi Arabia’s government, who is S.A.’s Crown Prince, over the KILLING of the reporter, Mr. Jamal Khashoggi.
Here’s a link to this news:
https://www.koat.com/article/us-moves-to-shield-saudi-crown-prince-in-lawsuits-filed-for-journalists-killing/41999295
It is believed by many people, including many nations + many reporters, that:
1) Jamal Khashoggi said critical things about Saudi Arabia’s government, then 2) people in Saudi arabia’s govt. lured Mr. Khashoggi into a Saudi Arabian embassy for a “meeting”, and then these Saudi Arabian agents MURDERED or killed Mr. Khashoggi, for saying or reporting- negative things about Saudi Arabia’s government.
And so Biden is now trying to protect Saudi Arabia, and its ruler, from- lawsuits over the killing.
Why shouldn’t people be able to sue over this crime?
It looks like a man was [murdered], Mr. Biden.
Is that more important than your White House, making the ruler of Saudi Arabia, your good friend?
Stan,
I do go on the offensive when confronted with the items you list. I pick and choose my tactic based on the audience. With sincere but poorly informed folks I always take a non-confrontational approach, pointing out science and statistics to help steer them towards more research and curiosity.
With more obtuse folks I choose something they’re emotionally tied to and use it as an in; “I love the environment also, and want to reduce pollution and man’s impact.
– Have you heard about modern nuclear reactor construction and waste management processes?”
or
– Mining and manufacturing processes of lithium ion batteries are so destructive, especially to third world countries. It’s great to see the U.S. expanding natural gas use.”
They don’t even know I’m arguing with them and, they don’t want me to know they don’t have as good a grasp of the facts as I do so they’ll typically start listening.
I like many of Denver’s songs, and play a couple. However, growing up in Colorado during that era, I can say that many Coloradoans blame him for the Californication of the state. Many wish the songs Rocky Mountain High and Starwood in Aspen were never published. Made way too many people head for Colorado.
Honestly, Kashoggi was scum and whoever did him in was probably doing the world a favor. However that reads like a ham-handed attempt to curry favor with the Saudis too transparently in order to compensate for alienating the Saudis in other ways.
… but John Denver is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Rufus T. Firefly:
I say, Go with it!
I don’t have that reaction to JD, but I do in some other cases.
You are as God made you.
My favorite John Denver song is “Leaving on a Jet Plane” as performed by “Peter, Paul and Mary.” Oh, PP&M!
–Peter, Paul and Mary, “Leaving on a Jet Plane”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr1sTloviTQ
Little Known Fact about John Denver:
He was a *serious* est graduate, i.e. disciple of Werner Erhard. He wanted to undergo the considerable rigors to become an est trainer, but saner heads prevailed.
Turtler,
I’ve read similar things about him: Muslim brotherhood supporter; Got his column ideas from Quatar. There are lots of liars from the Middle East.
Rufus…re “nails on a chalkboard”
For me… it’s the Boss’ fave, the Bee Gees. 8^D
So yeah…God made our tastes to his own perfection and we live with it until we are made perfect.
My girls are still addicted to Grandma’s Feather Bed. Every time we do a family bluegrass jam… that one must be done.
Kashoggi was no “journalist”. He was a propagandist for the Muslim Brotherhood. He was a burr under the Saudi saddle “forever”. I never understood why he would go to a Saudi facility to get a sanction for a marriage in another country. That ain’t smart. The Saudis don’t play nice with their opponents. Whatever, it isn’t any of our business.
The Saudis are not the only “murders” that we have to deal with. As a start, I am intrigued by Putin’s “windo-cide” or is it “gravity-cide”.
Awwwww
Speaking of my girls…
Oldest gets married a week from now.
Can’t describe how blessed we are.
I’m a country boy and have been a John Denver fan from the beginning of his career. Leaving On a Jet Plane was one of my faves. It was what I did for many years. It was a sort of theme song for my life.
I agree with Physics Guy that he made Colorado popular with all the wrong people. Once a solid red state, now Californicated.
We were in the Masai Mara in Kenya when he died. We hadn’t heard the news – no newspapers or TV out in the bush. We went on a walking tour of a game reserve. One of our guides was a Masai who had a radio. He had heard the news the night before. He was very compassionate when he told us the news. He thought maybe we knew him personally. (His thinking being that we rich Americans surely must know one another. His assumption being that only the rich showed up on safari in Africa. 🙂 ) He knew John Denver’s music and he knew Country Roads. We all sang it together as a farewell gesture. A faraway farewell to a man who touched many lives. Thank God his country boy music lives on.
In the country/ballad/soft rock area, I prefer Glen Campbell, and not just because of his guitar skills. Speaking of which, I used to have a vinyl “The Astounding Twelve String Guitar of Glen Campbell”. Liner notes said he might also have a future as a vocalist.
I dunno. Unless a guy is from “there”, wherever “there” may be, singing about wanting to get back to it rings not entirely true. Sinatra could sing about swingin’ lovers and you could smell the cigarettes and the gin.
Couldn’t picture Bob Dylan singing “Howl at the moon, shoot out the lights, small town Saturday night”.
Glen Campbell guitar break on “Gentle on My Mind”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETkzK9pXMio
Richard Aubrey:
West Virginia seems not to have minded that he wasn’t from there. They made it one of their official state songs.
Air Force Brat
Wikipedia
“Because Denver’s father was in the military and his family moved often, it was difficult for him to make friends and fit in with other children of his own age. Constantly being the new kid was troubling for the introverted Denver, and he grew up always feeling as though he should be somewhere else, but never knowing where that ‘right’ place was.”
Now that is something that I identify with.
Richard Aubrey:
Nobody likes a pop-culture pedant, but here goes.
Bob Dylan was no city boy. He was born in Duluth and raised in Hibbing, on the Iron Range of northeast Minnesota. According to Wikipedia, Hibbing’s current population is 16,214, small enough for him to sing “Howl at the moon, shoot out the lights, small town Saturday night.”
Even so, I can’t imagine him doing that, except as parody.
John Guilfoyle, congratulations and best wishes to your daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law!
Kashoggi was not an American citizen, or even, as far as I can determine, a green card holder. He was murdered by agents of his home country in a third country, not here. I don’t see any reason why any American should be able to sue, certainly not in the U.S.
Meanwhile, our hyper-partisan Attorney General has appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump on the Mar-a-Lago raid results, and on Jan. 6. And the White House is denouncing investigations into what it calls “debunked conspiracy theories” about Hunter Biden’s dirty businesses and Joe’s connection to them.
Kate: The Washington Post is admitting that the FBI didn’t find nuclear secrets , or anything else in the Mar-A-Lago raid. Maybe Merrick Garland doesn’t real the local rag?
Nevermind ….. Part Deux
Attorney General Emily Garland didn’t get the Meuller memo.
I’ve always liked John Denver but I was never a fanboy. (He was a bit too much of a hippy for my taste.) “Take Me Home Country Roads” was one of the first songs of his I ever heard and I liked it immediately.
While it is true that the state of West Virginia has made that song one of it’s state songs, when it first came out there was some question about whether he was singing about the state of West Virginia or “west” Virginia. You see, except for a very small section where it runs into the Potomac, the Shenandoah River is almost entirely within the state of Virginia. The Blue ridge goes through several states, but again only a very small part of it is in the state of West Virginia. Most of it is in Virginia. (Fun Fact: The western panhandle of Virginia is farther west than any part of the state of West Virginia.)
Regardless, it is a good song and I like it the way it is. I have even been known to choose it on Karaoke night.
I always secretly liked Rocky Mountain High and Back Home Again.
Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
John Denver had one of those uniquely compelling voices. Like Elton John.
You knew it was him, every time, and usually wanted to keep listening even if everyone else in the car was going “nomygod, so corny, off, off, off.”
Hubert. Back in 68, I worked in a field project ‘way out of town. Couple of the women would mist up at “Gentle on My Mind”.
Conflour. I’m doing some casual research for nobody’s benefit but my own plus I like using google earth. Subject is the physical environment of rural culture. 16k is a big town in what I’m looking at. Some counties are smaller than that.
there is a hierarchy even within the kingdom, natural born saudis are first, those of armenian like prince talal or turkish like khashoggi are second class citizens, the latter are more directly of salafi orientation, even though they may not openly back terrorists, have litte quibble with their goals,
“He was a *serious* est graduate, i.e. disciple of Werner Erhard. He wanted to undergo the considerable rigors to become an est trainer, but saner heads prevailed.”
huxley, I was an est graduate, though not a serious one past about 2 weeks. When I first heard Denver’s “Looking For Space,” I knew right away he’d been through the training. I attended a weekend seminar in 1975-ish, when I was 19. It was quite the interesting experience! And boy, do I have stories about some of the people involved in it!
Hi Turtler,
Yeah, I agree with most of what you said.
This looks like a clumsy way of currying favor with the Saudis, by Mr. Biden.
I have no knowledge about what kind [moral behaviors] of Mr. Kashoggi has done, but I don’t mind if you + others have their own opinions on him.
This is just my opinion:
I am a FIRM believer in 1] the freedom of speech, and 2] the freedom of the press.
Such as- I don’t like [some] of the jokes by the comic, George Carlin.
However- just because I don’t like some of the jokes he said, that doesn’t mean I think he deserves: 1] life in prison [for what he said, or 2] that I want him executed/killed [for what he has said].
(p.s. -I know that George Carlin has passed on, but I just wanted to use him as an example, in my above comment.)
its surprising because robert malley (of whom I’ve referred often) is the no 2, but effectively one of the three centers of power in the administration, maybe blinken realizes how badly his former lycee class mate, has mislead him,
huxley, I was an est graduate, though not a serious one past about 2 weeks. When I first heard Denver’s “Looking For Space,” I knew right away he’d been through the training.
gwynmir:
No shame in it and that was a big Denver tell that he had done the Training.
I never wanted to be a trainer, but I was a serious est graduate myself for a fair number of years. I even returned in the 2000s to do the Landmark Forum, which is what the est Training morphed into.
I have no regrets, though I didn’t stick with Landmark either. There are sketchy aspects to est/Landmark, but I will say they teach some great Tough Love on being a victim and keeping agreements, of which America is currently in short supply.
Another Little Known Fact about John Denver:
He was a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio, a second-tier sixties folksinging group. Denver joined the group after Chad Mitchell went solo (yet they retained Mitchell’s name). Later Denver went solo.
A fun group. Best known for social satire. Here’s a cut with Denver in the middle singing a song about the KKK:
–“Mitchell Trio feat. John Denver- “Your Friendly Liberal Neighborhood KKK” 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3TcUA5jE6o
Richard Aubrey: my older brother and I used to listen to AM radio in our shared bedroom after lights out. Top 40 hits from the late 1960s were the soundtrack of my boyhood. Glen Campbell was a big part of that: “Gentle on My Mind”, but also “Wichita Lineman”, “Galveston”, and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”. Jimmy Webb was a great songwriter. Is.
Re: Glen Campbell
Hubert, Richard Aubrey:
I didn’t realize what a phenomenal guitar player Campbell was until I saw “The Wrecking Crew” doco about a key group of session musicians who played behind a sizable number of the hits that came out of LA in the 60s.
Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were the main Crew veterans who went on to solo careers. The rest were happy with getting paid regular and raising families.
A must-see documentary for aficionados of sixties pop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(2008_film)
Thanks Kate.
He’s a champion…she is too, but I might be biased on her part.
John Guilfoyle:
Congratulations!
Great, John! I’m glad for you.
John Guilfoyle–
What Neo said. May you have many more such blessings.
Huxley: thanks for the tip. Excerpts from the documentary are on YouTube, including clips of Glen Campbell. And girl bass player Carol Kaye, who said she made more money as a session musician than the president of the United States.
@ Gregory > “Country Roads is not only popular in Malaysia, a couple of months ago I was at a small beer fest in Munich and they played it to a very enthusiastic audience.”
I took a look at the comments and a huge number were in languages other than English. As one commenter noted: Theodoros Tsamis
“This song is not about people that left West Virginia only. It is about everyone that left back their home, their family, friends and the place where they spend their childhood.”
@ Rufus > “Even odder, “Country Roads” is one of the top songs at Munich’s Oktoberfest!?”
I can give personal testimony to the popularity of the song in Germany at Oktoberfest (October 2017, not in Munich, however).
This was posted at Not The Bee recently. Before you click the Tweet link – 3 guesses what the song is.
First two guesses don’t count.
https://notthebee.com/article/the-crowd-at-the-bucs-seahawks-game-in-munich-got-down-to-some-john-denver-and-its-one-of-the-most-satisfying-videos-youll-see-all-week
What blows my mind the most is that everyone sings it in English – kind of like us singing “O Tannenbaum” in German instead of the usual translation.
Or maybe a better pop example would be “Lili Marleen (Vor der Kaserne)” from WWII, sung by Marlene Dietrich. Not quite the same substance as “Country Roads,” but the same longing for home and loved ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jlT_Jb2efU
?? Marlene Dietrich ? Lili Marleen ? Lyrics
“Written in 1915 during World War I, the poem was published under the title “Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht” (German for “The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch”) in 1937, and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 under the title “Das Mädchen unter der Laterne” (“The Girl under the Lantern”).”
I’ve never heard it in English, but apparently Dietrich recorded that as well.
https://archive.org/details/78_vor-der-kaserne-lied-eines-jungen-wachtpostens_phyllis-heymans-original-teddies_gbia0011248a
“Written during the first world war by the poet Hans Leip in 1915 and originally sung by Lale Anderson it did not rise in international popularity until World War II when Marlene Dietich sang it in english in 1944.”
(Despite the typos and some broken links, that site has a great discography.)
Here’s Dietrich singing in English, with a distinct German accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnv2ZcVUkJ4
No one seems to have cared that she was singing a soldier’s romantic ode to his girlfriend.
I’ve also heard men singing songs with texts that should be sung by a woman.
The song itself is what matters.
John Denver (birth name Deutschendorf) sang his heart out.
Congratulations, John Guilfoyle!
The Welsh language actually has a word for “longing for home” – hiraeth.
Lots of Welsh poems and songs revolve around that theme.
Wikipedia: “The University of Wales, Lampeter, likens it to a homesickness tinged with grief and sadness over the lost or departed, especially in the context of Wales and Welsh culture.[2] It is a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past.[3]
The Cornish and Breton equivalents are hireth[4] and hiraezh. It is associated with the German concept of Sehnsucht, the Portuguese saudade or the Romanian dor.[5]”
Here’s a modern group singing an old traditional song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOmM9fvDprs
Hiraeth – ALAW – official lyric video [Welsh folk song] 2021
The lyrics are on the screen in both Welsh and English.
One of my favorites.
In the interest of expanding international cultural appreciation, here is a more traditional setting of “Hiraeth” by the men of the Welsh National Opera Chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX-pIq2IgL8
This post has videos of all the songs mentioned in the text; they are all outstanding and I’ve sung all of them.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/fun-stuff/8-welsh-songs-achingly-beautiful-11693991
However, one of the most popular Welsh songs is actually written in English, and is a staple in pubs and at rugby matches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipuMIOo7I4U
Hymns and Arias (Live at Treorchy) by Max Boyce
In case you couldn’t follow the story, here are the words.
You don’t have to know all the popular & musical references to get the idea.
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/max-boyce-hymns-and-arias-lyrics.html
Hmmm….
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/11/fbi-and-air-force-raid-area-51-researchers-homes/
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni demonstrates why globalist elites fear populists.
Hubert
I never cared for the Top Forty genre, whichever songs were in it.
Then, on the way home from a casual reunion in the mid-Ninetes of college friends…classes of roughly 63-68…I got a radio station playing those songs. Got really into it.
Coincidentally, at his blog “Anecdotal Evidence,” Patrick Kurp has just written a good post about nostalgia, homesickness, and poetry (https://tinyurl.com/5budd3xa).
I think it’s relevant to the appeal of this John Denver song.
Maybe even more relevant would be Kurp’s conclusion, in which he cites Terry Teachout, who wrote this: “The English language needs a word whose definition would be ‘nostalgia for that which one has not experienced.’”
Thanks for that Giorgia Meloni video, Banned Lizard.
And Glen Campbell was a Beach Boy for a short while!
You are welcome, Kate. BTW, Neo’s post, Voting in Italy, helps explain how it was possible for Meloni to be elected. The mainstream media can snipe at her all they want, but they need US/Brazilian style election fraud to stop the rise of such wonderful leaders.
AesopFan,
German for “longing for home” is “Heimweh.” Maybe, “home ache” would be a good translation, or “Home pain.”
Weirder than Germans singing “Country Roads” in English is Bobby Darrin singing, “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” in English. 😉
https://youtu.be/X7eO7MKEZAY
AesopFan: “This song is not about people that left West Virginia only. It is about everyone that left back their home, their family, friends and the place where they spend their childhood.”
That’s my take. My childhood home was the mountains of Colorado. I don’t live there now for reasons I don’t want to go into. But my heart is still in the mountains of Colorado. The first John Denver song I remember hearing was Colrado, Rocky Mountain High. Yep, I was on board.
I’d heard Denver helped the Chad Mitchell Trio clean up some debts owing.
As to nostalgia, I’d go with some subliminal connections. Something reminds you of something you don’t quite recall which reminds you of something you miss but you don’t consciously recall the actual thing. But you get a “feeling” for a few moments.
Some of my errands take me out to the “country”, at least with lots of trees and homes some hundreds of yards apart. From time to time, a well-kept home possibly up a slight grade, set back, sparks a very mild sense of….possibly nostalgia. No idea what I’m missing or what the possible connections to it might be.
@ Jordan Rivers > “John Denver (birth name Deutschendorf)”
Then it is satisfactorily fitting that his “ode to home” is a hit in his ancestral homeland!
oh noes
https://tinyurl.com/nhbv4trz
The worst recommendation for Denver’s “Country Roads” was its ironic use in “Alien: Covenant,” Ridley Scott’s sequel to the “Prometheus” prequel intended to resuscitate the ailing “Alien” flim franchise.
See, the idea is that the latest luckless “Alien” space crew, in this case sent out to colonize some planet somewhere in the galaxy, gets awakened from hypersleep by a solar flare, then after they catch their breath, they pick up a radio transmission of “Country Roads” from a nearby planet and decide, “Hey, waitaminnit, that’s a much better planet to colonize” and scrap their original mission.
Of course, it’s a nightmare planet inhabited by prequel versions of the hideous “Alien” xenomorph predator.
But it’s really cute that they get lured in by a John Denver song.
–“Alien: Covenant Take Me Home Trailer Official”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAkp4zIxBJo
Here’s the Critical Drinker’s epic takedown of “Alien: Covenant”:
–“Alien Covenant – Why Does This Movie Exist?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO0TUESAL5Y
Huxley Bob says, check it out.
Congratulations, John Guilfoyle!
😀