Country Music

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Got back from the Kimberley (where I was mostly beyond any internet/phone reception) yesterday. This morning I turned on the tellie and there was none other than Orville Peck himself hosting Rage! It was Schauermann that first introduced him somewhere back in this thread. On Rage, from when I started watching, except for Tom Petty he played purely country 1980's and 90's videos - Chris Isaak, K.D. Lange, Shania Twain and Kenny Rogers' '.The Gambler' - not your usual Rage episode!

As for my "theory" that many of the best, or most authentic, country music these days come from musicians with punk and/or metal backgrounds, I think I can see reasons for it - but I'll leave that for another day as I have things to do (including finding time tomorrow to go to the 'G). Hopefully I'll also find time for some more history next week.
 
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Just caught this thread. I think there are several genres that people can't get a feel of or instantly block out.

Country, Metal leaning towards screamo, older rag time styles of music, jazz, and blues for a few.

I personally don't like any of the above genres when the songs are generic. Take Keith Urban for example, pre 2000 his music was rasonably good, but now it's utter garbage in my opinion.

Enrique Iglesias is another prime example of someone who's songs were incredible post 2000, and now they're garbage.

In terms of Country music, this is how I feel Country music should BE!

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Playing "Lera Lynn – Something More Than Love" atm. Good release but somehow a little more pop sound and feeling about it compared to others. Prefer the more country/folk/songwriter stuff she did. Also not as dark as some other material. I like the gig where she said something like: "I found out that this place used to be a morgue. And checked my setlist: 3/4 of my songs today are about death."
 
Schauermann said:
Playing "Lera Lynn – Something More Than Love" atm. Good release but somehow a little more pop sound and feeling about it compared to others. Prefer the more country/folk/songwriter stuff she did. Also not as dark as some other material. I like the gig where she said something like: "I found out that this place used to be a morgue. And checked my setlist: 3/4 of my songs today are about death."
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How do you explain the different styles of country music with respect to sub genres.

Sturgill Simpson VS Chris Stapleton Vs Keith Urban vs Lera Lynn (almost dream pop to me than country) reminds me of Lana Del Rey
 
Purple7x08_24 said:
How do you explain the different styles of country music with respect to sub genres.

Sturgill Simpson VS Chris Stapleton Vs Keith Urban vs Lera Lynn (almost dream pop to me than country) reminds me of Lana Del Rey
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For a very long winded answer, you could refer to post # 404, which is about the rise of The Nashville Sound in the
late 1950's (which later evolved even more into the Countrypolitan sound of the early/mid 1970's), post # 455 on the Bakersfield Sound and post # 527 about changes through the 1960's. And real soon now, I'll do a further rehash on the 1970's to introduce The Outlaws into the history.

For a real short answer - It's all about appealing to different markets. Though country music has its roots in the rural and/or blue collar market (which was still the majority of the U.S. population in 1950), country music, led by some crafty record producers like Chet Atkins) also set its sights on the more lucrative middle class/suburban/ mature age market, starting with the Nashville Sound - and this dichotomy in country music has pretty much continued in one form or another ever since. Thus, Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton appeal to your more traditional country or blue collar audience while Keith Urban is more for your mainstream suburban market.

Another factor is age - loads of country music last century targeted an older audience than the latest pop/rock hit, while The Outlaws went after a younger audience with hard core country, but over the last 20 years the big music companies have done a pretty good (or at least lucrative) job of dressing up a lot of pop/soft rock with puerile generic lyrics as "Country" and sold it to a younger audience who don't know any better. However, there are signs the wheel may be turning again for the better.
 
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Time to get back into the history again. Our next artist is among the most influential and popular country
music performers of the 1970s and 1980s. After finally making the switch to full on country music at age 30
after some 10 years of modest success at best withsoul and R&B, his smooth vocals and signature blend of country
with elements of pop, R&B, and rock'n'roll (notunlike Charlie Rich) resulted in phenomenal crossover success and
35 # 1 country hits – the third highest of alltime, topped only by George Strait and Conway Twitty. Two great
influences were Ray Charles (see posts 443-445), whom he met when still a student (and whose similarities
with each other are obvious, despite the colourdifference) and Charley Pride (see poss # 510-513).

Ronnie Milsap was born (dirt poor, of course) in 1943 in the Appalachian Great Smoky Mountains backwoods of
North Carolina near the Tennessee border. Blind since birth due to a congenital glaucoma, which his single mother
took as a sign God was punishing her for sins, he was turned over to his grandparents to raise, and they in turn
sent him, at age 5, to the State School for the Blind in Raleigh. The school was over 600 km's from his home, but
rather than languishing in homesickness, Milsap prospered in the educational environment. He learned to play the
violin from a sensitive teacher whom Milsap later described as "a consummate musician and a philosopher who
could communicate with a bewildered child". Milsap was given a thorough grounding in classical music, and, in
addition to the violin, he learned to play keyboards, woodwinds and guitar. He also experimented with a number
of different musical styles, forming a rock band with several other blind students and also playing R&B and jazz.

Milsap attended Junior College in Atlanta, studying pre-law, earning honour-rolls and offered a full scholarship to
Emory University. But, encouraged by blind R&B and soul pioneer, Ray Charles, Milsap turned down the scholarship
to chance his arm in a music career. He later recalled - "I went to a Ray Charles concert. His pilot got me back into
Ray’s dressing room. And Ray, he said, “Well, play me something.” So I played him a couple of songs I was working
on – songs that I was trying to write or songs that I’d been living with that I’d picked up from somewhere. And Ray
said, “It sounds like your heart is really into music. And if your heart is that much into music, that’s what you should do.”

After a spell playing with the Atlanta based R&B combo The Dimensions, during which time he released his debut
single 'Total Disaster' in 1963, a regional hit in Atlanta, Milsap was hired as the keyboardist for J.J. Cale's touring
band. Bitten by the Motown bug, Milsap signed with Scepter Records in 1965 and recorded early compositions by
Ashford And Simpson, including 'Never Had It So Good', reaching # 19 on the R&B chart, and the memorable
‘Let’s Go Get Stoned’, relegated to the b-side. A few months later it was a million-selling single for that other
blind pianist, Ray Charles. Following a residency at TJ’s nightclub in Memphis, playing all sorts of music - blues,
R&B, soul, jazz, country and pop, Milsap performed at the 1969 New Year’s Eve party for Elvis Presley. Presley
invited him to sing harmony on his sessions for ‘Don’t Cry Daddy’ and ‘Kentucky Rain’ - ironically the only time he
was part of a UK chart hit. in 1970 he finally got a charted song in the pop charts (albeit only # 86) with 'Loving
You Is a Natural Thing'.

Milsap had enjoyed country music as a child and when he discovered Merle Haggard's music, he fell in love with it
again. Fittingly, amongst his R&B and soul material, he performed Haggard's 'Today I Started Loving You Again' at
the LA Whiskey A-Go-Go nightclub in 1972. Charley Pride just happened to be in attendance and after the show,
advised Milsap he had perfect vocals for country music and strongly encouraged him to move to Nashville. Milsap
did just that, working with Pride’s manager. Within a year he had signed with RCA and released his first country
single, 'I Hate You' – which promptly became a Top 10 hit in 1973. The title suggest a simple song some ex's may
sing about me, but the lyrics are far more subtle, revealing the truth -
"... Between love and hate / there's a little thin line..." -


It's hard to imagine after hearing this that, now at age 30, Milsap had spent the previous 10 years mostly as a
pure R&B/Soul singer, laying gigs with the likes of James Brown and Stevie Wonder. With a classic vowel bending
and stretching country sound, Milsap took 'The Girl Who Waits On Tables' to # 11 in 1973. Although he had dozens
and dozens of bigger hits in the next 20 years, the classic country sound and lyrics makes this one of my favourite
Ronnie Milsap songs -


After a successful tour as Pride’s opening act, and now with 2 hits of historic own, vindicating Prides advice that Milsap's vocals were best suited to country music, Milsap began a long string of # 1's, starting with the Eddie Rabbitt penned song 'Pure Love', which also provided Rabbitt with his first # 1 hit as a songwriter. It was also the first of many romance songs (not my personal favourites) that Milsap took to # 1 -


Weepy, sentimental country music (being weepy and sentimental is often rightfully derided in many music genres
but in country music it's definitely a positive virtue) doesn't get much prettier than this great recording of a Kris
Kristofferson composition (see post # 667) that's since been covered by Bobby Bare, Willie Nelson, Joan Osborne
and even Sammy Davis Jr are among the other artists who have recorded this song, with it's classic country theme
of love doomed to end - but making the most of it while one still can. 'Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends'
delivered Milsap's second # 1 in 1974 -

'Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends' earned Milsap his first GRAMMY award (Best Male Vocal Performance, 1974) and contributed to his CMA nod as Male Vocalist of the Year for 1974.

In 1960, the king of heartbreak and loneliness, Don Gibson, had a minor hit with the self-penned '(I’d A Legend In My Time' (see post # 403). Then 14 years later, the song gave Milsap a major hit when he covered it on his 1974 album of the same name. A plaintive ballad sung from the perspective of a lovelorn man who’d be a legend “... If heartaches brought fame in love’s crazy game ..." the song features a crooning vocal, sweeping choral arrangements and some heartbreakingly sweet backing vocals from The Nashville Edition. Milsap’s version altered the song from its original 3/4 time signature to a 4/4 time signature, which, along with his superlative vocals, may explain why Milsap’s cover managed what Gibson’s hadn’t, and landed a # 1 hit in 1974 -


So we close off in 1975 with the career of the multi-talented blind singer from the Great Smoky Mountains now in
full swing, having already collected a Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance and the CMA Male Vocalist of the
Year. Back with more tomorrow as his stardom keeps ascending.
 
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Professor Knowall said:
For a very long winded answer, you could refer to post # 404, which is about the rise of The Nashville Sound in the late 1950's (which later evolved even more into the Countrypolitan sound of the early/mid 1970's), post # 455 on the Bakersfield Sound and post # 527 about changes through the 1960's. And real soon now, I'll do a further rehash on the 1970's to introduce The Outlaws into the history.

For a real short answer - It's all about appealing to different markets. Though country music has its roots in the rural and/or blue collar market (which was still the majority of the U.S. population in 1950), country music, led by some crafty record producers like Chet Atkins) also set its sights on the more lucrative middle class/suburban/
mature age market, starting with the Nashville Sound - and this dichotomy in country music has pretty much continued in one form or another ever since. Thus, Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton appeal to your more traditional country or blue collar audience while Keith Urban is more for your mainstream suburban market.

Another factor is age - loads of country music last century targeted an older audience than the latest pop/rock hit, while The Outlaws went after a younger audience with hard core country, but over the last 20 years the big music companies have done a pretty good (or at least lucrative) job of dressing up a lot of pop/soft rock with puerile generic lyrics as "Country" and sold it to a younger audience who don't know any better. However, there are signs the wheel may be turning again for the better.
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Thanks for the summary, I'll read into it

FWIW I am more into the artists like Simpson, Stapleton, Doors, Jennings, Denver etc. Most of the newer stuff is so hard to get into it's become too off beat for my liking.

I'll also add this guy

 
From 1976 to 1978, Milsap became one of country music's biggest stars, scoring 7 consecutive # 1 singles, including the Grammy-winning '(I'm a) Stand by My Woman Man' and 'What a Difference You've Made in My Life'. The most significant of this series was 'It Was Almost Like a Song' in 1977, a dramatic piano-based ballad that showcased his soaring vocal range and became his most successful single of the 1970s.

But I'll start today's music list with another earlier hit, 'Daydreams' About Night Thing's', that provides some fun wordplay about daytime distractions and requited lust. Its clever lyrics made for a surefire radio hit in 1975 -


If you suddenly start humming Tammy Wynette’s classic 'Stand By Your Man' (see post # 504) when you hear '(I’m A) Stand By My Woman Man', don’t be surprised. It was written as an answer to that very song, and while there’s a lot
less pathos and a lot more humor here than there, it’s still a fine country tune, with some exuberant backing from The Holladay Sisters and an infectious melody. Milsap certainly excelled as a genre-defiant crossover crooner, but he really nailed it when he selected straight-up country songs like this homage to Tammy Wynette -


By the time the piano ballad, 'It Was Almost Like a Song' was released in 1977, Milsap was a force to be reckoned
with, having already scored 7 # 1 singles in a row and bagged 2 Grammy awards. The title song from his latest album continued his roll of success, topping the charts yet again and becoming his first major crossover success when it entered the pop chart at # 16 and the Adult Contemporary chart at # 7. It was at this stage stage mutterings arose about whether this romantic song, with its soulful delivery and lush strings accompanying, was actually at all country -


Taken from the 1977 album "It Was Almost Like a Song", 'What a Difference You’ve Made in My Life' is a straight-up ballad with a stirring string arrangement, sumptuous piano work, and (putting my positive hat on here) some gorgeously romantic lyrics - "What a change you have made in my heart / You replaced all the broken parts ...". There’s nothing complicated or challenging about the song, and therein lies its beauty for those who like this type of romantic stuff - tender, simple, gentle as a summer breeze, it’s the very definition of easy listening. But is it country? Just barely ... maybe -


Starting out with just a fabulous electric piano, a foretaste of what was to come in the 1980's, and a heartwarming
vocal by Milsap is 'Nobody Like Sad Songs, composed by Bob McDill and Wayland Holyfield. And sorry Milsap, I do
like this song. The song was released on the album "Images" in 1979 and was the only single released from the
album. The song was just another # 1 for Milsap, proving the ironic lie of the title -


The CMA name Ronnie Milsap Male Vocalist of the Year in both 1976 and 1977, a sign of his runaway popularity in the late '70s. Between 1974’s '(I’d Be) A Legend in My Time' and 1979′s 'Nobody Likes Sad Songs', he hit the top of the charts
10 times. When 'It Was Almost Like a Song' became his first single to crack the pop Top 40, climbing all the way to # 16 while reaching # 7 on the Adult Contemporary chart, it was a harbinger of what was to come in the first half of the 1980's with his crossover hits. So tomorrow we will voyage on into the 1980's, a period in which Milsap didn't just follow the latest music trends but, through his own innovations, defined the pop country sound of that era as his immense success continued unabated.
 
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During the early ’80s, Milsap subtly adopted some Urban Cowboy and soft rock production techniques, a move that consolidated his position at the top in both the country and adult contemporary charts. Beginning with the 1980's 'Why Don’t You Spend the Night', Milsap dominated the top position on country charts, reaching # 1 an incredible 13 times between 1980 and 1984. One of the rare times he missed the top slot was with 1983′s 'Stranger in My House', a song that went to eight on the Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at 23 on the Pop Top 40. It arrived after a streak when Milsap was crossing over into the pop charts with regularity, beginning with 1980′s 'Smoky Mountain Rain' which went to # 24 pop and # 1 AC. The following year brought “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” his biggest pop hit, reaching # 5 on the Pop and # 2 on the Adult Contemporary charts. He continuously released # 1 hits during this time.

'Smoky Mountain Rain' is a bittersweet tale of one man’s quest to find his lost love - with a big nod by Milsap to his Smoky Mountain heritage. A mid-tempo number that sandwiches soft rock with country-lite, it features a slick production, a singalong chorus, and, most appealingly of all, Milsap thumping away at the ivories in a fashion evocative of his work on Elvis Presley’s 'Kentucky Rain'. Included as one of the only new songs on his first ‘Greatest Hits’ collection, it took Milsap straight to # 1 on both the country and Adult Contemporary charts in 1980 -


Milsap has always prided himself on his inventive work in the recording studio. After he bought his own Nashville Music Row studio (from Roy Orbison), he enjoyed experimenting with creative instrumental and vocal effects on his recordings. This allowed him to expand both his artistic creativity and his commercial appeal.

Milsap flirted with pop on numerous occasions, but never did he do it so successfully than on '(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me', his most enduring pop/country crossover track. Sung from the perspective of someone who’s been dumped but knows he’ll be “... the dream that keeps you awake,...” the song oozes radio-friendly appeal. Strangely enough, it almost didn’t get made at all – his album was already recorded and the first single was already pressed before he heard it. Certain it would be hit, he convinced the record label to add it to the album and to also release it as the leading single. They did, and sure enough, the song landed Milsap another Grammy and his highest ever chart position. This jovial, pop-friendly tale of false bravado is the ironic inverse of a helpless romantic's musical pleas -


Following up Milsap’s huge hit single '(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me', was another pop- friendly, surefire hit 'I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World', written by Charles Quillen, Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan. This became Milsap’s 7th conservative # 1 single. It also hit the # 20 spot on the pop chart. It has a distinctly early 1980's style twangy pop sound, somewhat in the style of contemporary superstar Kenny Rogers -


Released on the album "Inside" in 1982, 'Any Day Now' was actually written by Burt Bacharach with Bob Hilliard and was first recorded by Chuck Jackson back in 1962. Elvis Presley also recorded a cover of it in 1969. However, the ultimate version of the song will always be this great recording done by Milsap in 1982, which provided yet another # 1 hit. This has it all - piano accompaniment, romantic lyrics, 1980's production experimentation and a another top vocal performance by Milsap, now at the peak of his career -


There's something so 1980's about the overall vibe of this Grammy-nominated hit that transports us to that era (whether we were once there or it was all before our time). The rock-influenced use of synthesizers and a guitar solo on this Mike Reid-penned classic about a jealous singer who has (or imagines he has) a lover with wandering eyes, drops us straight into 1983. Taken from the 1983 album “Keyed Up,” "Stranger in My House' is a surprisingly complex country-rock song with a gritty lyric about a man who suspects his wife is fantasizing about a secret lover, a stabbing guitar riff from Bruce Dees, and a risqué (back then) black and white promo video. One radio station went so far as to ban the track for, in their opinion, sounding too like Led Zeppelin (yes - that really happened!). He didn’t remotely sound at all like Led Zeppelin of course, but it did come as close to hard rock as Milsap ever got - too much, it seems for some of his fanbase, for after 10 consecutive # 1's from 1980 to 1982, this one, despite the video and all only reached # 5 (though it did reach # 1 in Canada, where Milsap's stardom had shone just as brightly as the U.S.). However, once again, Milsap's music reached beyond the country market, reaching # 8 on the Adult Contemporary Charts and # 23 on the Pop/rock Top 40 -


Although it failed to deliver a # 1, it did earn its songwriter, Mike Reid, a Grammy for Best Country Award the following year.

So we leave off Ronnie Milsap's career at its height in 1983, dominating the charts. Tomorrow we will trace his course through the remainder of the 1980's, as the neo-tradionalist reaction against pop-country emerged, and conclude with a potted outline up to the present day.
 
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Ronnie Milsap maintained his strength on the charts during the second half of the ’80s, scoring another 10 # 1 hits between 1984 and 1989, including the Kenny Rogers duet 'Make No Mistake, She’s Mine', which took home the Best Country Vocal Performance Duet Grammy in 1987. However, with the neo-traditionalist movement now starting to emerge in country music, led by emerging future country music mega-star, George Strait, Milsap, always up with the latest trends, reigned back his pop sound, going back to more traditional country.

Today's music starts in 1984 with what many would consider a surprising selection, for this isn't amongst 35 # 1 hits, only reaching # 6 in 1984 and having no crossover appeal. Instead, it's a straight out country number and a road song to boot with enduring appeal. Featuring one of Milsap’s greatest vocal performances – not to mention his finest keyboard playing – 'Prisoner
Of The Highway' sounds kinda like an authentic 1970's outlaw country song that’s been updated for the 1980's. Told from the perspective of a long-haul truckie with a love-hate relationship with the road, it’s an relatable piece of country (for those who travel the highway a lot) that’s since gone on to provide hits for both Mark Wills and Aaron Tippin -
"... Call me a prisoner of the highway / Driven on by my restless soul /
I'm a prisoner of the highway / Imprisoned by the freedom of the road ..." -


One of Milsap's best romantic songs and his 26th # 1 hit in 1985, 'She Keeps the Home Fires Burning' is the type of
open-ended story that might just represent true and lasting love - or maybe just lust? -
"Crack of dawn I hit the road / Set my shoulders for the heavy load / Coffee leaking through the paper sack /
The foreman says, "I'm late again" / He can't stand it when I only grin / He's got me 8 hours, she's got me after that ... -


Now for one of Milsap's very best. At Milsap's peak, in the 1980's, nostalgia for the past often pointed to the 1950s (just like these days, it's the 1990's), as presented in the top rating TV series of the day, "Happy Days" and the iconic movie "American Graffiti". Milsap fed this public need while revisiting his own childhood with this classic single. 'Lost In The Fifties Tonight', his 27th # 1 in 1985. Milsap effectively recreated that distinctive 1950's romantic ballad sound (right down to the shu-dup backing), which takes us back to the early 1950's work of Bobby Helms (see post # 377), Sonny James (# 474) or Conway Twitty (# 514) -


This 1965 Ray Price honky tonk classic, written by Hank Cochran, is my favourite Milsap song (as I love pretty much all things honky tonk). 'Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me' provided Milsap with his 34th, and second last, # 1 hit in 1989. Now I don't usually show live clips which have been obviously dubbed, but I made an exception here, as it shows Milsap performing this classic at the Grand Ole Opry, into which he was inducted in 1976. There is a version on YouTube with the actual live recording but the sound quality is terrible, whereas here we have the high quality studio version -

There's also a YouTube clip of Mo Pitney giving a magnificent live rendition of this song, which I think I've posted somewhere back in the thread.

We close out our Ronnie Milsap songs with his beautiful remake of 'Since I Don’t Have You', a 1958 hit for the doo-wop group the Skyliners. Which Milsap released from the album "Back to the Grindstone" in 1991. The song peaked at # 6,
his second last top 10 single -


As the 1990's began, Milsap still remained a reliable hitmaker, reaching the top 10 another 4 times in 1990 and 1991, but, as commercial tastes kept changing, country radio began to embrace the new generation spearheaded by Garth Brooks and around the time Milsap left his longtime home of RCA for Liberty. "True Believer," the title song of his 1993 debut for Liberty, proved to be his last Top 40 hit, peaking at 30.

As neotraditional country music stars began to dominate the field in the 1990’s, Ronnie Milsap’s fame began to slowly but steadily decline as he reached 50 years of age. Throughout the 2000’s, though few and far in between, he has continued to perform and release albums. Though he announced in 2014 that he would be retiring, he abandoned that idea altogether. Milsap released "The Duets", a 2019 collection that paired him with old friends like Willie Nelson and new stars like Kacey Musgraves. Milsap cut versions of several of his favorite songs for the album "A Better Word for Love", released in April 2021.

Over his career, Milsap has won 6 Grammies, 5 of which were for Best Male Vocalist. He has also won 4 ACM awards and 8 CMA awards, including 3 for Best Male Vocalist and the prestigious Entrertainer Of The Year Award in 1977. In 2016, Milsap was selected as one of 30 artist to perform a mashup commemorating the 50th anniversary of the CMA Awards. After being previously inducted into the Country Music HoF in 2014, in March 2022, Milsap was also inducted into the Memphis Music HoF, the place where he worked for 10 years before he relocated to Nashville.

In recent years, Milsap has had to recently endure personal tragedies, with his only child and son being found dead at age 49 on a Nashville houseboat in 2019 and then his one and only wife of 55 years died of cancer in 2021. But at 79 years old, Ronnie Milsap is still going. He remains one of county music’s most iconic and successful artists.
 
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CliffMcTainshaw said:
What!!!!!
No Australians Prof. How could you?
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I've had a change of heart, after reflecting on recent sad news.

I confess I didn't have Olivia Newton-John marked down to be featured in this country music history series on the grounds her country music career had limited longevity (as opposed to her total career) and in that time, she didn't have any songs that could be described as classics or became country standards. However, reflecting on her passing, I thought I should include at least a mention here - and as I looked into her country music career, now I think I was shortchanging her achievements. And by sheer coincidence, right now is the perfect time to include Olivia into this series, concentrating on her country flavoured hits.

Born in Cambridge, England, Newton-John was raised in Melbourne from age 5, where her father was the headmaster of Ormond College (her grandfather, Max Born, won the Nobel Prize for physics. but Olivia, from childhood, was drawn to the stage. In 1962, at age 14, she formed an all-female vocal group with 3 school friends. In 1964, after starring in her Unversity High School play, she was runner-up in the Young Sun's Drama Award best schoolgirl actress. At age 15 she then became a regular on local Melbourne TV variety shows, including HSV-7's "The Happy Show", where she performed as "Lovely Livvy". She also appeared on "The Go!! Show" where she met her future duet partner, Pat Carroll, and her future music producer,, James Farrar. She starred in the 1965 musical telemovie, "Funny Things Happen Down Under", alongside then boyfriend, Ian Turpie.

At age 16, Olivia entered a TV talent contest hosted by Johnny O'Keefe, winning the grand prize of a trip to London. Once there, after an initial bout of intense homesickness, she formed a duo with Pat Carroll, another Australian-based vocalist, and worked her way into the music industry. Though her partnership with Carrol was short-lived (Carrol was sent back to Australia once her visa expired), Olivia was making inroads in the business and shortly afterward, she became a member of Toomorrow, a bubblegum group assembled n hopes of creating a British version of the Monkees.

Toomorrow appeared in a science fiction movie of the same name but only had one minor hit in 1970 before disbanding. Olivia then became part of Cliff Richard's popular touring show, appearing both as an opening act at his concerts and on his top-rating British TV series, "It's Cliff!" The exposure as a singer and comedienne on the show helped her career immeasurably. All she needed was the right song.

Dylan first wrote 'If Not For You' as a love song for his first wife, Sarah Dylan, and was first released on Dylan’s 'New Morning' album in 1970 - but in truth, Dylan (not for the first or last time) made a mess of the song. Just a few months after Dylan’s release, George Harrison (fresh off of The Beatles’ breakup) released his own much superior cover recording of the song, using a dobro for the first time (it then became his standard guitar of choice for the remainder of his career), its distinctive slide guitar riff giving the song a pronounced country flavour (Harrison was always a huge country music fan - see post # 291).

Anyway, Olivia recorded "If Not for You" on the suggestion of her manager after he had heard Harrison's treatment of the song, despite her reservation that it was not "her type of song". The producers John Farrar and Bruce Welch arranged the song closer to Harrison's version than Dylan's, with the slide guitar used in Harrison's version featuring prominently, and in 1971 it became Olivia's breakthrough international hit, reaching # 7 in both the U.K. and Australia, # 3 in Canada and even reached # 25 on the U.S. pop chart and topped the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart, despite her having no previous exposure in the U.S. -


Olivia recorded her follow-up single, 'On The Banks Of The Ohio' in 1971 for her album "If Not for You", and it became her first # 1 hit in Australia. It was also successful in the UK, peaking at # 6. Dating from the 19th century (writer unknown), the traditional song seems to start as a sweet and tender love song- before quickly devolving into a ballad of cold blooded murder - all the while the backing vocals get ever more cheerful sounding, while the singer bewails her fate. The distinctive bass backing vocals were provided by English musician and vocal session arranger Mike Sammes. This video, where Olivia is obviously miming to the studio recording amongst a confused looking bunch of teens, is quite amusing -


Despite the success of 'Banks Of The Ohio' outside North America, in the U.S., Olivia's career was stalled - it barely scraped the Top 100, at # 94 - the old murder ballad was probably a bit too strange for U.S. tastes. For the next 2 years, Olivia's success was primarily contained to the U.K, where she remained living, and had a string of lesser hits with covers of George Harrison's 'What Is Life' and John Denver's 'Take Me Home Country Roads'. On the other hand, she didn't release a full-length album in the U.S. until 1973, when the pop-country 'Let Me Be There' appeared. The title track from the record, with Mike Sammes again providing the distinctive bass lines, became a big crossover hit, in 1974 and peaking at # 7 in the country charts and did even better in the pop charts at # 6 -

'Let Me Be There' was so successful it won the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance, much to the consternation of many members of Nashville's music industry and traditional country fans, who had assumed Dolly Parton would win ahead of Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker. Olivia came from the clouds - and the world of pop - to beat these country music superstars.

Olivia stuck with the winning formula, including the bass vocal of Mike Sammes yet again, with 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)', written by John Rostill. This became another international hit, including reaching # 2 in Australia and # 1 in Canada. It was her second release to hit the top 10 in the U.S. - but this times it crossed over 3 charts, reaching # 5 on the pop chart, # 2 on the AC chart and also reached # 2 on the country chart, thus proving Olvia's appeal to both pop and country fans with her agreeable blend of pop-country. It was nominated for the 1974 CMA Award for Single of the Year -


'I Honestly Love You' was written by Jeff Barry and Australian singer/songwriter, Peter Allen. It was recorded by Olivia in 1974 and became a worldwide pop hit, her first # 1 single in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as # 1 in Australia and U.S. AC chart. It remained her signature solo song until her cringeworthy but hugely popular, 1981 pop hit "Physical". Here, Olivia is drifting more towards pop than country, and it "only" got to # 6 on the country chart, yet the convincing emotion she puts into this performance is more reminiscent of a heart wrenching country song than the usually shallow world of pop -


Olivia moved to Los Angeles late in 1974, and early the following year, she won the Female Vocalist of the Year award from the CMA, a shock win ahead of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker. As a protest against what they perceived as a pop "takeover" of country music, a number of CMA members quit and formed the ultimately short lived Association of Country Entertainers (ACE). Ironically, Olivia, who in interviews in the U.S. revealed a lack of country music basic knowledge - she hadn't even heard of the Appalachians - and her pop background, was already planning to move out of country. But tomorrow will have more on Olivia Newton John's pop-country career.
 
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Professor Knowall said:
I've had a change of heart, after reflecting on recent sad news.

I confess I didn't have Olivia Newton-John marked down to be featured in this country music history series on the grounds her country music career had limited longevity (as opposed to her total career) and in that time, she didn't have any songs that could be described as classics or became country standards. However, reflecting on her passing, I thought I should include at least a mention here - and as I looked into her country music career, now I think I was shortchanging her achievements. And by sheer coincidence, right now is the perfect time to include Olivia into this series, concentrating on her country flavoured hits.

Born in Cambridge, England, Newton-John was raised in Melbourne from age 5, where her father was the headmaster of Ormond College (her grandfather, Max Born, won the Nobel Prize for physics. but Olivia, from childhood, was drawn to the stage. In 1962, at age 14, she formed an all-female vocal group with 3 school friends. In 1964, after starring in her Unversity High School play, she was runner-up in the Young Sun's Drama Award best schoolgirl actress. At age 15 she then became a regular on local Melbourne TV variety shows, including HSV-7's "The Happy Show", where she performed as "Lovely Livvy". She also appeared on "The Go!! Show" where she met her future duet partner, Pat Carroll, and her future music producer,, James Farrar. She starred in the 1965 musical telemovie, "Funny Things Happen Down Under", alongside then boyfriend, Ian Turpie.

At age 16, Olivia entered a TV talent contest hosted by Johnny O'Keefe, winning the grand prize of a trip to London. Once there, after an initial bout of intense homesickness, she formed a duo with Pat Carroll, another Australian-based vocalist, and worked her way into the music industry. Though her partnership with Carrol was short-lived (Carrol was sent back to Australia once her visa expired), Olivia was making inroads in the business and shortly afterward, she became a member of Toomorrow, a bubblegum group assembled n hopes of creating a British version of the Monkees.

Toomorrow appeared in a science fiction movie of the same name but only had one minor hit in 1970 before disbanding. Olivia then became part of Cliff Richard's popular touring show, appearing both as an opening act at his concerts and on his top-rating British TV series, "It's Cliff!" The exposure as a singer and comedienne on the show helped her career immeasurably. All she needed was the right song.

Dylan first wrote 'If Not For You' as a love song for his first wife, Sarah Dylan, and was first released on Dylan’s 'New Morning' album in 1970 - but in truth, Dylan (not for the first or last time) made a mess of the song. Just a few months after Dylan’s release, George Harrison (fresh off of The Beatles’ breakup) released his own much superior cover recording of the song, using a dobro for the first time (it then became his standard guitar of choice for the remainder of his career), its distinctive slide guitar riff giving the song a pronounced country flavour (Harrison was always a huge country music fan - see post # 291).

Anyway, Olivia recorded "If Not for You" on the suggestion of her manager after he had heard Harrison's treatment of the song, despite her reservation that it was not "her type of song". The producers John Farrar and Bruce Welch arranged the song closer to Harrison's version than Dylan's, with the slide guitar used in Harrison's version featuring prominently, and in 1971 it became Olivia's breakthrough international hit, reaching # 7 in both the U.K. and Australia, # 3 in Canada and even reached # 25 on the U.S. pop chart and topped the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart, despite her having no previous exposure in the U.S. -


Olivia recorded her follow-up single, 'On The Banks Of The Ohio' in 1971 for her album "If Not for You", and it became her first # 1 hit in Australia. It was also successful in the UK, peaking at # 6. Dating from the 19th century (writer unknown), the traditional song seems to start a series a sweet and tender love song- before quickly devolving into a ballad of cold blooded murder - all the while the backing vocals get ever more cheerful sounding, while the singer bewails her fate. The distinctive bass backing vocals were provided by English musician and vocal session arranger Mike Sammes. This video, where Olivia is obviously miming to the studio recording amongst a confused looking bunch of teens, is quite amusing -


Despite the success of 'Banks Of The Ohio' outside North America, in the U.S., Olivia's career was stalled - it barely scraped the Top 100, at # 94 - the old murder ballad was probably a bit too strange for U.S. tastes. For the next 2 years, Olivia's success was primarily contained to the U.K, where she remained living, and had a string of lesser hits with covers of George Harrison's 'What Is Life' and John Denver's 'Take Me Home Country Roads'. On the other hand, she didn't release a full-length album in the U.S. until 1973, when the pop-country 'Let Me Be There' appeared. The title track from the record, with Mike Sammes again providing the distinctive bass lines, became a big crossover hit, in 1974 and peaking at # 7 in the country charts and did even better in the pop charts at # 6.

'Let Me Be There' was so successful it won the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance, much to the consternation of many members of Nashville's music industry and traditional country fans, who had assumed Dolly Parton would win ahead of Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker. Olivia came from the clouds - and the world of pop - to beat these country music superstars.

Olivia stuck with the winning formula, including the bass vocal of Mike Sammes yet again, with 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)', written by John Rostill. This became another international hit, including reaching # 2 in Australia and # 1 in Canada. It was her second release to hit the top 10 in the U.S. - but this times it crossed over 3 charts, reaching # 5 on the pop chart, # 2 on the AC chart and also reached # 2 on the country chart, thus proving Olvia's appeal to both pop and country fans with her agreeable blend of pop-country. It was nominated for the 1974 CMA Award for Single of the Year -


'I Honestly Love You' was written by Jeff Barry and Australian singer/songwriter, Peter Allen. It was recorded by Olivia in 1974 and became a worldwide pop hit, her first # 1 single in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as # 1 in Australia and U.S. AC chart. It remained her signature solo song until her cringeworthy but hugely popular, 1981 pop hit "Physical". Here, Olivia is drifting more towards pop than country, and it "only" got to # 6 on the country chart, yet the convincing emotion she puts into this performance is more reminiscent of a heart wrenching country song than the usually shallow world of pop -


Olivia moved to Los Angeles late in 1974, and early the following year, she won the Female Vocalist of the Year award from the CMA, a shock win ahead of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker. As a protest against what they perceived as a pop "takeover" of country music, a number of CMA members quit and formed the ultimately short lived (ACE). Ironically, Olivia, who in interviews in the U.S. revealed a lack of country music basic knowledge - she hadn't even heard of the Appalachians - and her pop background, was already planning to move out of country. But tomorrow will have more on Olivia Newton John's pop-country career.
Click to expand...

That's really good stuff Prof. I remember seeing Pat and Olivia perform together a number of times at Qclub (a dance in Kew) and was greatly disappointed when they left for overseas. They were very cute. I played pool with Ian Turpie many times at the Burvale. He would turn from filming up the road at Channel 0 which eventually became 10. He was known as Turps, which really was appropriate because he could drink like a fish. He could also play pool like a pro.
Personally my favourite Australian Country singer from around that time was Digby Richards with his ripper album "Harlequin", that had "A Little Piece of Peace" and "People Call Me Country". Sadly, just as he was establishing himself in the US he got pancreatic cancer and shortly after passed away aged 42.
 
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CliffMcTainshaw said:
That's really good stuff Prof. I remember seeing Pat and Olivia perform together a number of times at Qclub (a dance in Kew) and was greatly disappointed when they left for overseas. They were very cute. I played pool with Ian Turpie many time at the Burvale. He would turn from filming up the road at Channel 0 which eventually became 10. He was known as Turps, which really was appropriate because he could drink like a fish. He could also play pool like a pro.
Personally my favourite Australian Country singer from around that time was Digby Richards with his ripper album "Harlequin", that had "A Little Piece of Peace" and "People Call Me Country". Sadly, just as he was establishing himself in the US he got pancreatic cancer and shortly after passed away aged 42.
Click to expand...
Thank you - and wow, you have lived and seen some history first hand that I can only ever read and write about!

As for Dig Richards, he has a (albeit indirect and fleeting) part in this history, for as a young rocker he supported Crash Craddock on his first Australian tour (post # 721). They were good songs you listed. Another gone way too soon
 
We left off with Olivia Newton-John yesterday in 1974 with a backlash from US country fans, and some performers, annoyed at her pop-style music being considered on a par with Nashville's finest but, with the support of established country stars, she was eventually accepted. Stella Parton, Dolly's sister, even recorded a song defending Olivia's country credentials - 'Ode to Olivia' - and Olivia recorded her 1976 album, "Don't Stop Believin'" in Nashville. Nevertheless, Olivia was at heart a pop artist who had kinda accidentally fell into the world of country music. But to pop she was always bound to return - some would say she never really left it - and where her greatest popularity lay. But today will complete her country music career.

'Have You Never Been Mellow' (a song mellow by name and nature) was the first hit written by Olivia's long
time producer, John Farrar, as the title song for her 1975 fifth studio album. In the U.S., it became Olivia's 2nd
consecutive # 1 hit on the pop chart. It also topped the AC chart and continued her success as a crossover artist
when it peaked at # 3 on the country chart - not quite emulating its pop success. The single also reached # 1 in
Canada, and peaked at # 10 in Australia (proof we are less mellow?) -


'Please Mr. Please' was written by Bruce Welch and John Rostill, both members of Cliff Richard's backing band, The
Shadows. Welch had originally recorded the song himself in 1974 with no commercial success. Released as the 2nd
single from the "Have You Ever Been Mellow" album in 1975, it reached the Top 10 on all 3 major U.S. charts. On
the pop chart, the song peaked at # 3, Olivia's 5th consecutive Top 10 hit (it also marked her last appearance in the
pop top 10 for 3 years. On the country chart, the song reached #5.

The song, despite its British origins, has a thoroughly country music theme, beginning as an apparent tribute to
the jukebox and how one can listen to a lot of great music for a small price. But instead of continuing along those
lines, the song picks up on how some songs on the jukebox can trigger bad memories. This happens when the
protagonist - at a tavern with friends, trying to get over a just-broken relationship—sees another customer at the
jukebox, trying to play "B-17", which is coded to a song the woman does not want to hear. The song, she cries,
was special to the now-broken relationship. It now triggers sorrowful memories to the point that she never wants
to hear the song again. The refrain sees the woman begging the "button-pushin' cowboy" not to play that evocative song -


'Let It Shine' is a 1973 single written by Nashville songwriter Linda Hargrove. In 1975, Olivia recorded a version from her 6th studio album, "Clearly Love". In 1976, the single but, with its distinctly country sound, only went to # 30 on the pop chart while, in contrast, it peaked at # 5 on the country chart and went to # 1 on the US AC chart -


‘Come On Over’ is a ballad written by Barry and Robin Gibb and recorded by the Bee Gees for their 1975 album "Main Course". In 1976 Olivia recorded her country flavoured version and released it as the lead single from her 7th studio album of the same name. This decidedly country sounding cover by Olivia only peaked at #23 on the pop chart, but was her 6th conservative #1 on the AC chart. It peaked at #5 on the US country chart and # 3 in New Zealand, but only # 55 in Australia, where a rather vicious critic led reaction had set in against Olivia and her music, with only solid rock, disco and ABBA now deemed acceptable by the critics -


'Hopelessly Devoted To You' was the second big hit written and produced by personal producer, John Farrar and was originally performed by Olivia in the film version of the musical "Grease" in 1978. Halfway through shooting Grease, Olivia's contractually-entitled vocal solo had yet to be written. Farrar wrote and submitted the song to the film's production team. They were reluctant, as the song was very stylistically different than the rest of the musical, having a pop-country flavour that Olivia by now had all but abandoned, but they hesitantly approved it. Shooting and recording took place after all the other parts of the film had been completed. It reached # 3 on the US pop chart and # 7 on the AC chart. On the country chart, 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' peaked at # 20, Olivia's first top 20 country hit in 2 years, having now fully embraced the world of pop, with big hits like 'Same' "Grease" revived Olivia's popularity in Australia and the song peaked at # 2 -


Newton-John performed the song at the 21st Grammy Awards in 1979. Interestingly, the song, being very non-musical theatre in style, was dropped by the stage musical in 1994, but was reinstated due to public demand in 2007.

During 1976 and 1977, Olivia had a number of minor hits with soft rock songs. Though none of these were big pop successes, they began to establish her as a pop singer, not a country-pop singer. Her transformation into a mildly sexy pop singer was complete in 1978, when she starred in the movie version of the popular Broadway musical Grease, alongside John Travolta. The movie was an international hit and spawned 3 huge hit singles, including Olivia's' final pop-country charting hit 'Hopelessly Devoted to You'. During 1979, Olivia released the successful "Totally Hot" album, which boasted a mixture of soft rock and light disco. Early in 1980, she starred in the roller-disco fantasy film "Xanadu". While the movie was an unqualified bomb, the soundtrack was a huge hit, with 'Magic' topping the U.S. pop charts. Then came her most successful period with 'Physical' and other pop/soft rock hits, but all that is beyond the scope of this country music history

After learning she had breast cancer in 1992, Olivia became an ardent advocate for research into the disease. Her Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund is dedicated to researching cancer treatments and she opened a cancer research and wellness facility under her name at the Austin Hospital. Despite her own treatments, she continued to release albums, tour and act in movies and TV.

In May 2017, she disclosed that her cancer had returned and that it had metastasized to her lower back. She published a memoir, “Don’t Stop Believin,’” in 2018. To the end Olivia firmly believed in her audience-friendly pop approach to music, once telling Rolling Stone - “It annoys me when people think because it’s commercial, it’s bad. It’s completely opposite. If people like it, that’s what it’s supposed to be.”

Olivia Newton-John, who always identified as Australian despite spending most of her life in the U.S., was a most beautiful person - in more ways than one.

R.I.P.

Country roads will take me "home" to West Victoria for the next 2 weeks or so - but I will then be back with more history - and the next artist makes a good match with Olivia.
 
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I'm back from my latest travels, which were meant to be through the familiar country roads of the Wimmera but somehow ended up I never Townsville. Ready now for some more history.

In the early 1970s, with the U.S. having been torched (often literally) by racial and anti-Vietnam war riots, many were beginning to long for a simpler way of life – as evidenced by the success of TV series "The Waltons" and "Little House On The Prairie". At the heart of that era, seemingly dominated by rock'n'roll from a musical standpoint, emerged an artist who personified an unassuming, easy-going, even gentle sound that struck a chord across the nation - even, at least for a couple of years, in the South. Whether it be emotional love songs, simple nostalgia, or paying tribute to the area where he was from, with his clear tenor voice, he became one of the biggest-selling acts of the seventies, dominating Pop, Adult Contemporary and, finally, the Country charts. But, just like Olivia Newton John, this artist, with his musical background grounded in folk, was very much an outsider to the country mainstream, aloof from Nashville and the South, a political activist - and so an inevitable, fierce, very public, country music backlash, saw him rapidly fall from favour as the seventies drew to an end.

Born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. on New Years Eve 1943, in the military town of Roswell, New Mexico, hisfather was a tough, edgy Air Force test pilot, known for his willingness to test planes to their utmost limits (and whose hard-drinking ways were transferred to his son) and for always wanting to move. Annual new Air Force postings took the family to various southern and southwestern states, and even temporarily to Japan. The constant moving meant young Henry never really had a sense of home and deprived of any long term childhood friends, being an "outsider" wherever he moved. He often clashed with his stern, conservative father, and once tried to run away from home. He particularly detested his year in the hardline, thoroughly segregated, Montgomery, Alabama.

But, significantly, young Henry's happiest times were holidays on his grandmother's grain farm in md-western Oklahoma, the one constant of his childhood, where he rode a horse, helped work on farm and heard the classic country music of the 1950's on the radio. His other grandmother also shaped his musical education by giving him an antique but high quality Gibson guitar when he was 11. In 1957 the family settled in Fort Worth, Texas (another place he didn't like), before he attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock and sang in a folk-music group called the Alpine Trio while pursuing architecture studies.

California's folk and rock music scenes were growing rapidly in the early 1960's. In 1963 Deutschendorf Jr., inspired by Bob Dylan and J Baez, struck out on his own, moving to LA to be in the heart of the burgeoning music scene. It was then that he was urged by his manager to change his name if a recording career was to be in his future. He took his stage name, John Denver, from the capital city of his favorite state, Colorado, where his love for the Rocky Mountains inspired many of his songs. He began performing at Ledbetter's nightclub and signed on as lead vocalist for the Back Porch Majority. In 1965 he scored a breakthrough when he replaced Chad Mitchell as vocalist, guitarist, and banjoist for the Chad Mitchell Trio, a prime attraction on college campuses and folk-oriented coffeehouses nationally (except in the South, where the folk scene was seen as a northern, western or communist thing). Denver beat 250 other performers who auditioned for the job.

Performing with the group at a college in Minnesota, Denver met student, Annie Martell and they married the following year, later adopting 2 children. Denver began to focus on songwriting, and he released a solo album, "Rhymes and Reasons" in 1968 after the Mitchell Trio disbanded. The album included 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', a song Denver wrote
in an evening back in 1966 after he locked himself in his room at a Washington DC hotel, as he later recalled, with
a slab of salami and a six-pack of beer. It was originally titled 'Babe, I Hate to Go'. The young couple's finances
were boosted when "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was recorded by folk superstars Peter, Paul & Mary and became their
biggest ever # 1 pop hit, its depiction of a sweet but slightly ominous separation of 2 lovers striking a chord at the
height of the Vietnam War. Denver's own recording of the song, with an annoying percussion accompiament, failed
to chart, but his fully acoustic and heartfelt 1973 re-recording for his "Greatest Hits" album is now regarded as the
definitive rendition of this song.

The song’s main inspiration was Denver's then live-in girlfriend and future wife, Annie. Denver said he found a home within her and wherever she was he was at peace, the one person who finally grounded him. However, when one is forced to travel often and leave the person you find shelter in, it's a challenging feat for many. Denver, like so many other frequent travellers, turned to other women, alcohol, and drugs for company and assistance. The lyrics reveal the truth - 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' was actually his way of apologizing and begging Annie to stay with him -
"... There's so many times I've let you down / So many times I've played around / I tell you now, they don't mean a thing Every place I go, I'll think of you / Every song I sing, I'll sing for you / When I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring /
So kiss me and smile for me / Tell me that you'll wait for me / Hold me like you'll never let me go ..." -


Now for the title track from Denver's first commercial album, released in 1969. I'll let Denver himself explain this one in his own words (sounding like a 1960's hippie) - "'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".

Make of that what you can. The song is one of several of Denver’s that seems to attempt to revive in us what we left behind as children. The chorus phrase “... It is written from the desert to the mountains they shall lead us ...” echoes the Old Testament biblical passage from Isaiah - “... and a child shall lead them” -

Denver's debut 'Rhymes And Reasons' album in 1969 had its problems - I think it was poorly produced, the musical accompiament don't suit the songs and his own delivery all over over the shop (perhaps Denver should've gone to Nashville, which had the best producers, instead of L.A) and it bombed in the U.S., reaching only # 148, though interestingly it did much better in the U.K., reaching # 21. It didn't chart at all on the country charts. It was his 1973 acoustic re-recording (his reason being that he now sang much better) for his "Greatest Hits' album that really made the song get noticed.

'Follow Me' was first released on his unsuccessful 1970 album "Take Me to Tomorrow", but, like the others here, his 1973 acoustic re-recording for his "Greatest Hits" album is by far the best rendition. Denver’s vocals, to a sweet melody, sounds effortless, genuine, and sincere as he glides over a calm and smooth acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment. You can feel the love he’s expressing for his (then) wife, Annie, as he invites her on to his life's journey. However, the lyrics also reveal, at lest to me, a rather self-centered approach to this love -
"Follow me where I go, what I do, who I know / Make it part of you to be a part of me /
Follow me up and down / All the way and all around ..."


The reflective song 'Poems, Prayers and Promises', is from the 1971 album of the same name. The music sounds like a cross between folk, country and easy listening. The mellow song is about going down memory lane as well as looking forward to the future. He sings about growing older and takes the listeners back to an easier time in life. The lyrics are moving and can have you thinking about life. Here, Denver sings about growing older, but he never got the chance to do it. The string section is lush and sentimental, but the piano and the acoustic guitar stand out the most. Denver’s tender and sweet vocals sell the song. He has a little countrytwang in his voice, a nod to his country roots. He also tries his hand at vibrato. He doesn’t shout or hold big notes - he didn’t need to do it as the song didn't require it. Strangely, no-one seemed to notice the clear dope smoking reference in the lyrics -
"... I have to say it now, it's been a 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 the pipe around ..." -

"Poems, Prayers and Promises" was Denver's first really commercially successful album, reaching # 15 on the pop charts, as well as the Top 10 in Canada and Top 20 in the U.K. and also finally cracking the U.S. country chart, peaking at # 6. Denver's career, which up to now had been precarious, now, at 29, really took off.

Now for Denver's most enduring song, 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'. Had married song-writing couple, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert, proceeded with their original plans, this song would have had a much different sound. The 2 had written the prototype song, still lacking a bridge between verses and chorus, inspired by the backroads of Maryland while visiting family. The Danoffs had initially wanted Johnny Cash to record it! But just after Christmas 1971 the duo they were playing in, Fat City, opened for Denver at the famous Cellar Door club in Washington, DC. The trio were involved in a minor car accident afterwards on the way to the couple's apartment, in which Denver broke his thumb. After they got back to their house (via the hospital), they started an impromptu jam - and Denver, still, by his own admission, “wired” from the pain killers, was struck by the sincerity of the lyrics. They decided to complete the song with the bridge, staying up until 6am reading encyclopedias (for none of them had even visited West Virginia, let alone lived there), together re-writing some of the lyrics. The next evening, New Year's Eve (Denver's 28th birthday), they were singing it together on stage - and received a 5 minute standing ovation. After realizing he had a hit song, Denver brought the Danoffs to New York and recorded it, with the Danoffs providing the backing -

Listening to this, even after just returning to my city home, makes me feel like hitting those country roads again! 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' propelled Denver into stardom, reaching # 2 on the pop charts, # 3 on the AC charts in 1972 - but, showing the cultural gulf in country music at the time to a person like Denver, only reaching # 50 on the country charts. But the song has endured to become a country classic, with a combined downloads tally exceeding a billion on YouTube, and still increasing by about a million monthly. It was named as the official anthem of West Virginia in 2014 - ironic given neither Denver or the Danoffs had ever been to West Virginia when they had first written and performed it, and had only chosen the state as the subject of the song as its 4 syllables best suited its lyrical rhythm, sounding better than the other 4 syllable contender, Massachusetts!

We leave off in 1972 with John Denver, with his blending of folk, country and pop, now something of a star - but not yet so in the country charts. His best years are still ahead. Stay tuned.
 
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In 1973, John Denver's career ascended to major stardom with the pivotal release of his compilation "Greatest Hits" album - a genius move considering he had only charted 2 actual hits with 'Country Road' at that time. The album is important historically because it contained new, revisionist recordings of several songs. Notable new versions included 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', 'Starwood in Aspen', 'Follow Me', 'Rhymes and Reasons', 'The Eagle and the Hawk', 'Sunshine On My Shoulders' and 'Poems, Prayers, and Promises'. Denver explained this himself in the liner notes by saying that he had picked the numbers most requested in his concerts, but that "I felt that some of these songs had grown a bit, that I am singing better than I was four or five years ago, and that I would like to treat some of the songs a little differently than I had in the original recordings."

After its release these versions were used for airplay despite differing in important ways from the original versions,
being generally more polished, featuring a more mature-sounding Denver, included strings, much better accompiament, including a tight check on percussion, and were extended somewhat. Shortly after its release, "Greatest Hits", despite containing only 2 actual hits, climbed to the top of the pop albums chart, went platinum 9 times over, and was one of the very first albums worldwide to sell over 10 million copies. It remains easily the best-selling album of Denver's career and still sells well to this day.

Denver wrote 'The Eagle And The Hawk' for a TV special he filmed in the Rocky Mountains called The Eagle and the
Hawk. The special never aired, but Denver originally released the song on his 1971 album "Aerie", before recording the much improved version for his "Greatest Hits" album, where his vocals, let loose from his normal restraint, soar like the proverbial eagle in the song. On his radio special "The John Denver Show", he said - "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".

However, perhaps by then Denver had forgotten something, for the lyrics clearly go beyond his explanation , the hawk showing us resilience - "... I am the hawk and there's blood on my feathers / But time is still turning, they soon will be dry ...", and the soaring eagle and hawk serving as symbols of freedom to challenge us to be our best selves -
"... Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops / Sail o'er the canyons and up to the stars /
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future / And all that we can be and not what we are" -


The opening track to Denver's 5th studio album "Aerie", 'Starwood In Aspen' is about his home in Colorado. As outlined yesterday, Denver grew up in a military family and moved around a lot from a young age. Because of this, he always struggled to find a place to call home, apart from holidays at his grandmas Oklahoman farm. However, he eventually found that feeling in Colorado in his 27th year, and after meeting the love of his life, Annie, the pair bought some land in Starwood in Aspen, inspiring this sentimental song. Denver always said moving to Colorado was like coming home. They built a 5 bedroom environmentally friendly home and a guest house on the 7.6 acre plot, moving in at Christmas 1970. So this openly sentimental, heart warming composition is Denver's coming home song. It brings to mind all the friends and memories we all have back home -

Denver loved the house and area where he lived. After he was killed in 1997, many fans wanted a museum on the property. Sadly, it was put on the market and sold for 4 million.

Another one of the Denver songs about his love for the state of Colorado, 'Rocky Mountain High' took 9 months to complete after he wrote the opening line - "... He was born in the Summer of his 27th year / Coming home to a place he'd never been before ...", which describes his own discovery of the Rockies as his new home. This became Denver's second top 10 pop charted pop hit, and also reached # 3 on the AC chart (and # 8 and 2 respectively in Canada and an Australian Top 40). In his autobiography, Denver remembers the moment whilst camping which initiated the writing of the song - “I remember, almost to the moment, when that song started to take shape in my head. In mid-August, Annie and I and some friends went up to Williams Lake to watch the first Perseid meteor showers. Imagine a moonless night in the Rockies in the dead of summer and you have it. I had insisted to everybody that it was going to be a glorious display. Spectacular, in fact.” As an environmentalist, Denver spent much of his adult life advocating for the protection of the natural world, hence the third verse of the song which questions the corporate practice of "... moving mountains to
bring in a couple more, more people, more scars upon the land ..."
'Rocky Mountain High' 1972 -

The song briefly became controversial when it was left off playlists by radio stations after the Federal Communications Committee was allowed to censor music deemed to promote drug use - and this song was duly cited! Denver had to publically explain that the "high" he was singing about was his innocent description of the sense of peace that he found
in the Rockies. He testified before the U.S. Senate on the topic of censorship in the 1980's – alongside Frank Zappa and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister - in opposition to the policy. However, I ain't so convinced about his political performance. In 1976, on one of his Australian tours, Denver told reporters at a press conference in Sydney - "Sure I enjoy hashish. I use it. I have a lot of fun with the stuff. But it's like alcohol. You shouldn't let it get out of hand". So when Denver sang about "... everybody's high ...", he meant it both ways.

After years as an unofficial anthem for Colorado, in 2007, the Colorado General Assembly made 'Rocky Mountain High' the official state song of Colorado.

"Rocky Mountain High" is Denver's 6th studio album, released in 1972', and became his first top 10 album in the pop charts. It also reached # 1 in Canada and # 11 in the UK. However, still regarded as a folk/pop artist than genuine country, it only got to # 40 on the country chart. Another single from the album, Denver wrote 'Goodbye Again' while thinking about his childhood and family places since his dad was in the military. Early in his life, leaving so often helped give him a stronger sense of home, a theme that appeared in countless songs. Additionally, when he and his wife were still married, he suffered a lot of separation anxiety every time he left her. Even though he felt like she grounded him
and loved her, he frequently overindulged in drugs, alcohol, and extramarital affairs (which at the time was completely unknown to his fanbase). Hence the lyrics -
"... It seems a shame to leave you now, you lay so soft and warm / I long to lay me down again and hold you in my arms / I long to kiss your tears away and give you back your smile / But other voices beckon me and for a little while / It's goodbye again, I'm sorry to be leaving you / Goodbye again, as if you didn't know, it's goodbye again /
And I wish you could tell me, why do we always fight when I have to go? ..."


In 1973, 'Sunshine On My Shoulders' became the first Denver song to go to # 1 on both the Pop and AC charts. It also topped the Canadian Pop and AC charts and even snuck into the more rock dominated Australian Top 40 - but alas, only got to # 42 on the U.S. country chart. Denver later recalled he - "I wrote the song in Minnesota at the time I call 'late winter, early spring'. It was a dreary day, gray and slushy. The snow was melting and it was too cold to go outside and have fun, but God, you're ready for spring. You want to get outdoors again and you're waiting for that sun to shine, and you remember how sometimes just the sun itself can make you feel good. And in that very melancholy frame of mind I wrote 'Sunshine on My Shoulders'". As the music evolved, the lyrics also started to be about love.

The song actually first appeared on the 1971 album “Poems, Prayers, & Promises". Two years later, a movie called Sunshine featured this track, making it a huge impact. The song was slightly remixed for single release, with the addition of strings and woodwinds to enhance the background of the song. The album version features an extra verse, not heard on the Singles charts, due to the song's length. In addition to Denver's first verse describing if he had a day and a song, the second verse mentions Denver's describing if he had a tale and a wish. The song ends with the words - "Sunshine almost always ..." (instead of "Sunshine always..."), being held on until the song's end. The full length single mix with the second verse has been released on most of Denver's hits compilations. With the Vietnam War winding down and America embroiled on Watergate updates on the evening news, listeners clung to Denver’s inspirational lyrics of hope -


So we end 1973 with Denver's stardom still ascending, topping the Billboard pop and AC charts. But can he capture the seemingly elusive country market, or will he continue to be regarded by country music fans as a pop/folk singing outsider? All will be revealed tomorrow as we enter 1974.
 
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We left off in 1973 with John Denver's music propelling him into stardom - at least in the pop and Adult Contemporary charts. But despite clearly blending and blurring the lines between country, folk and pop in his music, he was still regarded with suspicion in the mainstream country music market - too much of a hippie, too folksy. His public
persona, with his longish blond hair and oversized granny glasses, along with his folksy acoustic music seemed
a 10 year throwback to the peak folk era of the early sixties.

But in 1974, despite still steering clear from Nashville, Denver's sound and persona swung much more towards country - with a western touch. He became the caricature of the ideal all-American boy, from the clarity and purity of the voice
to the songs which all seem to revolve around rocky mountains, being just a country boy, loving his lady and living free.
The release of his album "Back Home Again", with a host of country themed hits, finally broke through the country music market, no longer able to resist his simple, wholesome "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth" charm (successfully hiding
a darker private side of alcohol, drugs and womanising) and his now more country flavoured music. The album was an astonishing success, topping both the pop and country charts in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as going to # 2 on
the Australian album chart and # 3 in the U.K.

It was the first single from the "Back Home Again" album, 'You Fill Up My Senses' that finally saw Denver climb
high in the country music charts - even though he still avoided Nashville and remained an outsider to the country
music establishment. Written as an ode to his wife at the time, Annie Martell, “in about ten-and-a-half minutes one
day on a ski lift”, again supporting the Hank Williams adage that the best songs are written in less than 20 minutes
(and can come anytime, even on a mountain in Colorado after completing an exhilarating ski run). Overwhelmed by
the beauty of the natural world around him and, yet again, thinking of his wife, Denver came up with this timeless,
easy listening tearjerker. The song went all the way to # 1 on both the pop and AC charts. and became one of
Denver’s biggest international hits, topping the charts in the UK, Canada and Ireland and # 5 in Australia. But
not only that, it went to # 5 on the country music charts, Denver's first hit on the country chart -

His heartfelt tribute to his first wife also remains one of the most enduring wedding songs of that period, perfect since the songs lyrics don’t actually mention “Annie” by name. Ironically, Denver's marriage to his beloved Annie was hanging by a thread when this song was released, due to his behaviour behind the scenes.

Many of Denver’s compositions are openly nostalgic, with lyrics that consistently reminisce about simpler days and times. But with the distinctly country themed and country sounding 'Back Home Again', Denver crafted a lyrical masterpiece
that speaks to anyone that has to spend long lonely hours on country roads, with only music for company, about the
safe harbour of going back home - and what makes a house a home. His use of simple everyday items and snippets
of conversation woven into the song makes this lyrically his best composition. The laidback, soothing ballad with its unmistakable country earned Denver his first # 1 on the country chart in 1974 - in addition to topping the AC chart,
# 1 on the Canadian country and AC charts, # 5 on the U.S. pop chart and a top 20 hit in Australia. Denver taps
into his country persona, both lyrically and musically. If you listen closely, you can hear him slip into a vocal rural
twang: a rarity for Denver -
"... It's the sweetest thing I know of, just spending time with you / It's the little things that make a house a home /
Like a fire softly burning and supper on the stove / The light in your eyes that makes me warm ..."

Despite still being a stranger to Nashville, 'Back Home Again' netted Denver the Song of the Year award from the CMA, showing Denver had finally broken down the barriers to the country music market.

Also written Denver and recorded for his 1974 album "Back Home Again", but then chosen as the lead single from
the live concert album "An Evening with John Denver". 'Sweet Surrender' reached # 7 on the country chart, # 13 on
the pop chart in early 1975. It also rose to # 1 on the AC chart, his fourth AC # 1. 'Sweet Surrender' is quintessential John Denver - a bit pop, a bit country, a bit folk and both catchy but inspiring with its call to set your cares away. Some find a religious message here, others might see it as an old hippie call to drop out and chill and others to find happiness and fulfilment by getting away to nature. This was his style - the soaring sounds of wide open spaces. The best version I found was a live performance at the Sydney Opera House in 1994 with an outstanding accompiament, led by pianist Chris Nole -


Also from the album "Back Home Again" is 'This Old Guitar'. Here, in another song dripping with sentiment and nostalgia (the dominant themes of the whole album), Denver tells the story of his first guitar, his grandmother's 1910 Gibson
"F-hole" acoustic jazz guitar, at age 11. The guitar is now on display at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix -


The Appalachian hillbilly hoedown sounding 'Thank God I'm A Country Boy', with its rapid fire vocal delivery to an
upbeat fiddle and guitar accompiament isn't one I like, but it's one of Denver's most commercially successful and further cemented his place amongst some of the country music market - even though the song seems more like a comical parody of simple country life than adenver's usual sincerity. Schoolyard hand claps transform this John Martin Sommers’ written song into a lighthearted celebration of a simple life down on the farm. All he needs to live a fulfilled life is a fine wife, an old fiddle and his farming tool. The song was originally included on the "Back Home Again" album. A version recorded live in August 1974, at the Universal Amphitheatre in LA was included on his 1975 album "An Evening with John Denver". The live version was released as a single and went to # 1 on both the Country and Pop charts in the U.S. and Canada. The instrumental breaks in the song incorporate a violin playing the old fiddle tune 'Sally Goodin', which is also referenced
in the song's lyrics -
"... I'd play Sally Goodin all day if I could / but the Lord and my wife wouldn't take it very good ..." -


Seemingly finally cementing himself as a bona fide country singer, Denver won not only the Song of the Year
award from the CMA in 1975 for 'Back Home Again', but also won the CMA's most prestigious award, being named Entertainer of the Year, which ruffled more than a few feathers in Nashville, as Denver was most definitely not one
of the Nashville establishment and seemed to deliberately avoid the town, never recording there despite being with
RCA - and he didn't even attend the CMA awards, being on tour in Australia and accepting the awards via a satellite
link. This was the night that Charlie Rich famously set alight the wnning envelope with Denver's name on it, much
to the amusement of Waylon Jennings, though others were outraged (the full story, with the video clip, is told on
post # 710 - scroll down to after the song selections).

By 1975, with Denver now riding higher than ever, not just on the mainstream pop charts but now at the forefront
of country music and the biggest selling music star in the U.S. period, a reaction was starting to set in against him
- but not before more major career successes, but private tribulations - as will be seen tomorrow.
 
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By the end of 1974 and through 1975, Denver was America’s, and the world's, best-selling performer, and AllMusic
has described Denver as “the most beloved entertainer of his era”. However the divide between popular taste and the attitudes of the way too often very highly snobbish music critics was widening in the early 1970s. With such self-penned songs as 'Rocky Mountain High', Denver was initially regarded very much as a thoughtful singer-songwriter, held in high esteem by those music lovers who didn’t follow the pop charts. However, he was never a critical favorite, particularly with the narrow minded rock writers, who worked hard to make it uncool for rockers to appreciate Denver's positive take on life and nature. Denver's image, with his mop-top haircut and wire-rimmed "granny" glasses, was about 15 years out of date at the peak of his fame, harking back to the collegiate-folk stage of his very early career, and his predominantly optimistic lyrics ("Some Days Are Diamonds" being an exception) were ignorantly derided as sentimental or over-sweet.

Denver responded mildly to such criticisms, telling People that "some of my songs are about very simple things in life.
But those simple things are meaningful to me and have obviously meant something to people all over the world, even if it's only in a karaoke bar." His music was later defended by country singer Kathy Mattea - "A lot of people write him off
as lightweight. But he articulated a kind of optimism, and he brought acoustic music to the forefront, bridging folk, pop, and country in a fresh way…. People forget how huge he was worldwide." His 1973 "Greatest Hits" album remained on Billboard magazine's chart of top album sellers for 3 years. In 1975 and 1976, Denver won four American Music Awards - honours that measured the sentiments of ordinary, everyday music lovers and buyers, rather than that of the prejudiced, image conscious, music writers.

Denver being a natural entertainer as well as musician, the time was perfect for a live album. Denver’s concerts with the acclaimed Lee Holdridge full orchestra at the Universal Amphitheatre in L.A. Were recorded and the resulting double LP "An Evening With John Denver" was released in February 1975 and was a massive success. It also aired on T.V. winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Special. Denver had already hosted his own primetime TV show, "The John Denver Show".

Denver released his acclaimed "Windsong" album in 1975, at the very height of his career, and it duly went straight to # 1 on both both the Pop and Country charts. Taken from his "Windsong" album, his huge 1975 hit 'I'm Sorry' was Denver’s crowning commercial achievement - owning the top spot on the Pop, on the Country and made its way to # 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, telling testament to the broad, all-embracing appeal of Denver at his peak. ‘I’m Sorry’ is the sort of delicately sad pop-country song he had become famous for, cut through with a seemingly childlike wonder at adult heartbreak.

The lyrics and accompaniment evoke a strong sense of sorrow, regret, and gentle remorse - in short, like another apology song to his wife, Annie (as was 'Leaving On A Jetplane). Despite the song’s lyrical sadness, the choral hums that emerge several times throughout the song manifest those melancholy emotions into a soft sound, freeing those feelings to flow through closed lips. Beyond apologizing to a lost lover, Denver explicitly apologizes to the world in his lyrics - “... I’m sorry for the way things are in China ...” - reflecting on the loss of humanity and freedom In that country’s Cultural Revolution. The regret-filled ballad made an impact with many listeners at the time, and proved to be one of his more enduring songs -


Denver was a close friend of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the RV Calypso, the name of his ship that sailed around the
world for marine conservation, inspired the song 'Calypso'. Calypso, was bought by Cousteau and converted to an oceanographic research ship as he wanted to understand "The silent world" better, in order to protect it - "To live on
the land we must learn from the sea". Cousteau was the first to do research on the effects of pollution on the sea and received many honors for his accomplishments. Denver cared deeply about nature and the ocean and this song was his tribute to the ship Calypso, her captain and crew and their valuable work. Denver spent time on the ship along with Cousteau and wrote the song’s chorus on board the ship, but the rest was more difficult since he wanted to create backing sounds reminiscent of the sea.

Denver struggled to complete the song, spending months trying to write classical-sounding verses to a sea shanty chorus. He was about to abandon the song altogether when, ironically, he got the idea for the words when he was skiing. Denver got off the slopes quick, jumped in his Jeep and drove home to take advantage of his sudden inspiration, getting his ideas on paper to complete the song. The instrumental introductions before both 2 verses features the sounds of ship bells, while Milton Okun's orchestral arrangement, featuring strings and winds, are heard impersonating the sounds of the oceans and seas -

Released as the B-side of 'I'm Sorry', "Calypso" received substantial airplay, enabling it to chart and after 'I'm Sorry'
fell out of the #1 position, "Calypso" began receiving ever more airplay, thus causing Billboard to list 'Calypso' as the
new A-side. Hence, 'Calypso' itself became a #2 hit on the pop chart and also an international hit. This song was just the beginning of Denver's lifelong involvement in environmental activism. In many ways he was ahead of his time, began to focus more on humanitarian and sustainability causes as the seventies went on.

I did say that Denver was the perfect artist to follow Olivia Newton-John in this history series. On paper, a collaboration between Denver and Olivia simply couldn’t miss in 1975 when both were at the peak of their popularity. As it turned out, this sweetly nostalgic number, 'Fly Away' - featuring her soothing harmonies - was a sure-fire piece of ear candy, with the lyrics again touching on a familiar Denver theme of escaping the rat race to a simpler life. A # 12 Pop and # 13 Country hit, it quickly found its’ way to the top of the AC chart. Denver said he felt the song would have appeal to his average listeners, and his forecast turned out to be very much accurate. I've chosen the original video clip here for its historic interest rather than it's sound quality -


'Looking For Space' was released as a single from his "Windsong" album the song peaked at # 29 on the pop chart in 1976 and also reached # 1 on the AC chart, his 7th single to top this chart. Probably his most poignant song, maybe revealing the turmoil that was hidden beneath his usually cherry exterior and one that seemingly foretold so much -


From the mid-seventies on, Denver served as host for numerous TV specials. One of them, 1975's "Rocky Mountain Christmas", was released as an album and also won him an Emmy Award.

Even though, or more probably because, Denver’s albums and singles were dominating the pop as well as the country and AC charts, his integrity and credibility with the music critic snobs was called into question. Suddenly Denver was relegated by these influential critics to easy-listening and it became no longer cool for young people to say that you listened to his music. So, after a stellar run as one of the biggest artists in Pop and Country in the 1970s, by the early 1980's, John Denver’s star was on the wane. He was still a global superstar, but he hadn’t had a Top 10 pop hit for over half a decade, MTV was just around the corner and his brand of wide-eyed, well-mannered optimism was about to feel old fashioned and out of step with post-punk, new wave and the overblown, overhyped, production of arena rock.

In 1981, however, Denver finally made his long overdue track to the one place he always avoided - Nashville - to record the 1981 single, 'Some Days Are Diamonds', written by Deena Kaye Rose (aka Richard Feller) and produced by Larry Butler - who was on a roll at the time due to his record-breaking run with Kenny Rogers. Denver took this sweetly melancholic song all the way to # 6, a year after Bobby Bare had included it on his "Down And Dirty" album. Denver, dropping an octave, handled the earthier sound well, and the result was one of his most “country” sounding songs -


Denver became a short-lived film star, when he starred in the 1977 Carl Reiner film, Oh, God, with George Burns in the titular role. The box-office hit was the year’s 9th biggest. He never made another movie but starred in several TV series, including Walking Thunder and, being a good friend with Jim Henson, Denver and the Muppets.

As the 1970's headed in to 1980's, Denver became more and more involved in political activism and humanitarian causes, often at the cost of his professional career, spending less or even no time on the usual rounds of promoting his concerts and albums. He became a prominent Democrat, campaigning for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and still supporting him even as his popularity plummeted due to economic mismanagement and his weak, feckless international leadership. He then criticized the popular Ronald Reagan's conservative policies during the 1980s. He co-founded the pro-sustainable living Windstar Foundation in 1976 and The Hunger Project in 1977, and he devoted much of the remainder of his life to humanitarian causes.

Denver's career and life will be concluded tomorrow.
 
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Today we will follow John Denver through the 1980's and on to his end. The articulate and confident Denver was a constant presence on T.V. and hosted many award shows and TV specials of his own, often collaborating with his close friend, Jim Henson, appearing on the Muppets. Though his days of achieving hit albums and singles were now over, he was still chosen to host the Grammy Awards telecast several times.

Still, he was never embraced by music business insiders, who perhaps found issue with his somewhat goofy, unhip looks defined, in part, by his wire-rimmed glasses, as well as his saccharine repertoire, and his earnest, proselytising on his favourite causes like looking after the enviromens. Denver was even vindictively rebuffed in his attempt to contribute to the recording of 'We Are the World'. The song was recorded in L.A. in the hours just after he hosted the Grammy Awards in 1985, and his exclusion, after all the work he had put into ending hunger over many years, stung him to the core - while a host of rock and pop performers duly performed their song and quickly dispersed, Denver had founded the nonprofit World Hunger Project back in 1977 and had been actively involved since, so that in 1987 he received the Presidential World Without Hunger Award from Ronald Reagan.

Denver is, to this day, all too often inaccurately written off as a pop-country lightweight, but people forget just how wide-reaching his appeal was in the early and mid 1970's. He bridged country, pop and adult contemporary like no-else before or since, in an entirely new way, offering a refreshingly naïve optimism and wholehearted sincerity in a music industry used to pedalling the myth of the misunderstood, tortured artist - and yet, ironically, in private, Denver had his demons with drug and, in particular, alcohol abuse and continual womanising, causing the love of his life, Annie, to leave him, followed by another short-lived failed marriage.

At the same time, he was a political activist at a time when to overtly stand for anything was have been commercially ill-advised - especially in country music. He was a supporter of the Democratic Party under the unpopular Jimmy Carter and of a number of charitable causes for the environmental movement, the homeless, the poor and the hungry, all the while being publically outspoken and critical of the popular Reagan administration in the eighties. That was followed by an Albert Schweitzer Music Award for humanitarian activity in 1993, making Denver the first musician from outside the classical sphere to earn the award. (Albert Schweitzer was a world-famous humanitarian, theologian, and classical organist who served as a medical relief worker in Africa.)

But it's time now for Denver's late career music - and one thing often commented on, and is clearly shown in video clips of his live performances as well as recordings, is that as Denver moved into middle age, his vocals just kept getting better - stronger, with greater timbre, adding a deeper octave to his range.

'Perhaps Love' was written by Denver and addressed to his wife while they were separated and moving towards a divorce. The song was recorded as a duet by Denver with Opera superstar, Plácido Domingo and appeared in the album by Domingo with the same title. The orchestra is conducted by Denver's long time music arranger, the acclaimed Lee Holdridge. 'Perhaps Love' is the only song on the album with Denver's vocals alongside Domingo. Denver however also appeared in Domingo's cover version of 'Annie's Song" where he accompanies Domingo on guitar. This peeked at # 22 on the AC chart and # 59 on the Pop chart in 1982. And yeah - this hardly counts as country, but ... it's Placido Domingo, so here it is -


'Wild Montana Sky' is a single from Denver's 1983 album "It's About Time", featuring vocals from Emmylou Harris. The song itself is an ode to the American Frontier, telling the story of the Wild West, personified as a young man. The final verse refers to the end of the Wild West (New Mexico and Arizona becoming states in 1912) and some people being that the violent days of the Old West were over while others would miss the era that was and the legends that rode the West. In 2010, the Western Writers of America rated 'Wild Montana Skies' as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. In 2013, 'Wild Montana Skies' won a poll as the "best song about Montana" run by the Great Falls Tribune newspaper. Though unfortunately featuring Pat Hawke (the sister of skate boarding legend Tony Hawke) instead of the great Emmylou Harris (thus this may seem heretical), I consider this live version from Denver's acclaimed 1995 Wildlife concert (which was released as a live album) as the best on YouTube -


'Falling Out Of Love', also from the "It's About Time" album, must've been such a personal song for Denver. Denver's personal life during his later years was less happy. After what he admitted were multiple episodes of infidelity and even a couple of episodes of drug and alcohol fuelled domestic violence, Denver's wife and the love of his life, Annie, left and divorce in 1982. Many say Denver was never the same person afterwards, more introspective, not cheerily positive in public as he was previously and spending most of his time on his social causes than his professional career. A second marriage in 1988 to young Australian actress Cassandra Delaney produced a daughter, Jesse Belle, but soon collapsed ending in divorce after just 2 years. This song was released in 1983, just a year after the love of Denver's life, Annie, left him - all due to his own errant behaviour -


'Eagles And Horses' appears on 5 albums, but was first released on the 1990 "The Flower That Shattered The Stone" album. A live version (this one) also appears on the "Wildlife Concert" album. The lyrics of this song (the music was composed by singer-songwriter, Joe Henry) are typically Denver and probably would've provided him with another hit had it been performed at his career peak 15 years earlier -


'For You' was written this for his then (briefly) Australian wife Cassandra in 1986 while she was in Australia working on a film. John debuted it on his Australian tour that year and, recorded in Sydney, was released in 1988, reaching # 22 in Australia, where Denver retained a sizeable loyal fan base from his multiple Australian tours. But the reason I've included it here - and again the version I've chosen a performance from his 1995 Wildlife concert, just 2 years before his untimely death - is to "prove", in the final Denver song in this history, that his voice just kept getting better as he aged. Here, at age 51, Denver's vocal is stronger, richer, more complex and resonant than ever -


When Denver did perform or record during the 1980's and early 1990's, his music often served activist ends. Becoming more radical in his beliefs, advocating for a global "One World Government to replace nations, saw support for his views in communist Soviet Union and China. He toured the USSR and recorded a song, "Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)," with Russian vocalist Alexandre Gradsky, and in 1992 he became one of the very first Western pop artists to tour in modern-day Communist China. Denver also gave a concert in the USSR to benefit survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear-plant disaster. However, the downfall of the communist USSR in 1991 saw the end of his ties their.

However, Denver's insistence on recording activist songs in preference to more commercial material eventually saw RCA dumping him, refusing to renew his long-standing contract with them. Denver was then troubled by his inability to get any major label recording contract - his last several albums were issued on his own Windstar label. Before his death, Denver was quoted as saying - "There's a thing they call the Dark Night of the Soul. I've been through that, and I've survived it". Twice in the early 1990s Denver was arrested on charges of driving drunk.

One bright spot for Denver came from his aviation hobby, which he took up in the mid-1970s. Denver's father taught him to fly, and the experience helped bring about a reconciliation between father and son. He became an experienced pilot, flying his own planes in Colorado, on tour, and in California's Monterey Peninsula area, where he rented a home in Carmel. It was there he purchased a Long EZ aircraft in 1997. The plane model was classified as experimental, but it was well known among aviation enthusiasts, and Denver experienced no problems during lessons in Santa Maria, California. And after all, his hard-drinking father had survived a whole dangerous career living on the edge, as an air-force test pilot known for really testing the limits.

On October 12, 1997, Denver played golf with friends and looked forward to an hour of flying his new aircraft over the ocean. Several practice takeoffs and landings went off uneventfully, but apparently drained one of the plane's two fuel tanks. Late in the afternoon, onlookers saw Denver's plane plummet into the ocean after what appeared to be an engine failure. He was probably killed instantly. Due to his drunk-driving arrests, Denver was banned from flying at the time , but toxicology tests run on his remains, came back negative. Denver is thought to have lost control of the plane while fumbling with a lever that shifted the engine's fuel supply from one tank to the other. A strong outpouring of fan emotion followed his tragic death, and a musical featuring his songs, Almost Heaven , had its premiere in 2005. The show, noted Variety - "pays excellent tribute to an artist who remains great at making people feel good." He was just 53 and singing better than ever.

Of Denver's 24 albums released on the RCA label during his lifetime, 14 were certified gold (for sales of 500,000 copies), and 8 of those reached the platinum or million-seller mark. There was no bigger music star in the 1970's. He wrote over 300 songs and was inducted into the Songwriters HoF in 1996. However it seems that his music is too folk/country for him to be admitted to the Rock and Roll HoF, too pop/country for the Folk HoF and too folk/pop - or too much a stranger to the Nashville establishment - for induction into the Country Music HoF. At least he's in the Colorado Music HoF, inducted posthumously in 2011. He's also the only musician to have 2 official state anthems - 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' for West Virginia and 'Rocky Mountain High' for Colorado.
 
On the Alt side that crosses the lines of rock, punk and country but I've really fallen in love with American Aquarium and especially their lead BJ Barham.


49 Winchester another band I've started to listen


Vandoliers are another alt band that blends punck rock with country
 
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Artists that had few great songs but produced a lot of mediocre music
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The Casey Cat
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