Music Album Review: The Essential John Denver
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| © 2007 Sony BMG/Legacy Records |
The Artist
John Denver (real name, Henry John Deustchendorf Jr.) was an "Air Force brat" who started his musical career in 1963 after dropping out of the Texas School of Engineering and entering the folk music scene in Los Angeles. He had learned how to sing in the Tucson (Arizona) Boys' Chorus while his father (a stern pilot who, according to Denver, was distant and didn't show his children much affection) was stationed at a nearby Air Force base. Before dropping out of college, Denver had become proficient as a guitarist and singer, so he often performed at local clubs before seeking his fortune in California.
The young singer changed his name from Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. to "John Denver" at the suggestion of a friend who pointed out that Deutschendorf was too long to fit in a venue's marquee. Colorado was the singer's favorite state of the Union, so he chose the name he is best known as in honor of Denver, the state capital.
Over the 31 year span of his career, which also included stints as an actor, session musician, record producer, political activist, and humanitarian, Denver wrote over 200 songs, most of which he performed himself but also for established acts such as Peter, Paul, and Mary, Frank Sinatra, The New Christy Minstrels, and Cass Elliot. Yet, most of his "greatest hits" that made it to the Top 30 or better in the music charts were composed and performed during his peak years - 1970 to 1980.
Although Denver was still recording and touring well into the 1990s, he had relatively few hit songs after 1977. A man of many passions, including flying (which helped him reconcile with his father), humanitarian work, enviromentalism, and political activism, Denver died on October 12, 1997, when his homebuilt Rutan Long EZ experimental plane crashed into Monterey Bay, off the coast of California.
The Essential John Denver
The Essential John Denver two-CD album was released almost a decade after Denver's tragic death. It contains songs that cover a 26-year-long time span, from 1969's Leaving on a Jet Plane to 1995's Is It Love?
As noted earlier, Denver wrote mostly in the folk-country music genres, although he had some crossover success with Annie's Song, which he wrote for his first wife, Annie Martell-Denver. He co-wrote (with Fat City's Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert) Take Me Home, Country Roads, and (with Dick Kniss and Mike Taylor) the top-charting song for 1973, Sunshine on My Shoulders.
TRACKLIST:
Disc 1 (01:09:19)
1. John Denver – Leaving on a Jet Plane (03:38)
2. John Denver – Rhymes & Reasons (03:15)
3. John Denver – Take Me Home, Country Roads (03:10)
4. John Denver – Poems, Prayers, and Promises (04:05)
5. John Denver – I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado (02:07)
6. John Denver – Friends with You (03:22)
7. John Denver – Rocky Mountain High (04:43)
8. John Denver – Goodbye Again (03:36)
9. John Denver – I'd Rather Be a Cowboy (Lady's Chains) (04:25)
10. John Denver – Farewell Andromeda (Welcome To My Morning) (04:03)
11. John Denver – Sunshine On My Shoulders (05:11)
12. John Denver – Back Home Again (04:44)
13. John Denver – Matthew (03:42)
14. John Denver – Thank God I'm a Country Boy (03:20)
15. John Denver – Annie's Song (03:00)
16. John Denver – Sweet Surrender (05:28)
17. John Denver – Looking For Space (03:59)
18. John Denver – I'm Sorry (03:31)
Disc 2 (01:05:58)
1. John Denver – Calypso (03:36)
2. John Denver – Fly Away (04:09)
3. John Denver – Baby, You Look Good To Me Tonight (02:47)
4. John Denver – Like a Sad Song (03:42)
5. John Denver – How Can I Leave You Again (03:08)
6. John Denver – It Amazes Me (02:37)
7. John Denver – I Want To Live (03:47)
8. John Denver – My Sweet Lady (04:48)
9. John Denver – Autograph (03:37)
10. John Denver – Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stone) (03:59)
11. John Denver – The Cowboy and the Lady (04:36)
12. John Denver – Seasons of the Heart (03:48)
13. John Denver – Shanghai Breezes (03:12)
14. John Denver & Plácido Domingo – Perhaps Love (02:56)
15. John Denver & Emmylou Harris – Wild Montana Skies (04:03)
16. John Denver – Love Again (02:52)
17. John Denver – Dreamland Express (04:06)
18. John Denver – Is It Love? (04:15)
My Take
Although my musical tastes tend to favor instrumental classical music and film scores, my stints as a chorus singer in elementary and high school gave me some appreciation for other musical styles and genres. And because John Denver was at the peak of his musical career when I moved back to the States from Colombia with my mother and (later) my older half-sister, his songs were practically omnipresent on easy-listening and adult contemporary radio from 1972 to around 1977.
Interestingly, one of the songs we had to learn and perform when I was a singer at Tropical Elementary during the 1976-77 school year was Take Me Home, Country Roads. Our chorus teacher, Mr. Richard Back (pronounced like Bach) included it in the school's first Spring Concert (Tropical had never had a school chorus before then), along with Mandy and I Write the Songs, which you may remember as big hits for Barry Manilow.
I've never been a huge fan of country music, but for some reason, I really liked Take Me Home, Country Roads. The lyrics were well-written, evocative, and fairly easy to learn and the melody is catchy, which perhaps explains its lasting popularity. So if you were to ask me if I had a favorite John Denver song, Country Roads would be my choice.
Another of my favorite songs by Denver is Leaving on a Jet Plane, which he originally wrote for Peter, Paul and Mary. Their version, which was originally released in 1967's Album 1700, was the trio's last big hit and was their only No. 1 song ever on the Billboard Hot 100. Denver would include it in his first solo album, Rhymes & Reasons, released in 1969 by RCA Records.
I chose The Essential John Denver because it is a fair encapsulation of his long career as a singer-songwriter; it contains all of his "greatest hits," as well as songs that got quite a bit of airplay at the twilight of his touring and recording days. Denver's music, which evokes memories of his boyish looks, his long blond hair, and his trademark "granny" glasses, tends to be mellow and optimistic. (It also tends to be an ironic counterpoint to Deutschendorf's sometimes dark and tragic life; both of his marriages ended in divorce, and his troubles with alcohol abuse affected other aspects of his life, including his passion for flying.)
If you're a long-time fan, chances are that you might already own The Essential John Denver. But if you don't have this compilation because you have all of his other releases, you should at least consider getting it anyway. It's the perfect 2-CD set to take on a long road trip because it has, as its title implies, the essential bits of Denver's impressive discography and catalog of songs.
And if by chance you've never heard a John Denver album in your life, well, this is the perfect introduction for all the reasons I listed above, and more.
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