I love John Denver!!!

I enjoy the Windsong cd.

 

His digital output suffers badly. Be nice to get remasters that were easy on the ears.

 

He was a great talent. I also liked him in Oh, God!

 

John had a fabulous bass player...Dick Kniss! I had a great conversation with him years back at Peter Yarrows apt in NYC about the touring years he did with John...he said they were incredible!

 

I find that the sound on the Complete RCA Albums Collection mastered by Greg Calbi sounds as good as 1970's transistorized, multi-mic'd recordings can sound.

 

Yep, sad for such a plane down to earth guy.

 

I have nearly all the Japanese import JD CDs and they sound wonderful...

 

@Darrin L. brings up a good point. John Denver had his own TV show in 1973, produced very much like TV shows from Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Sonny & Cher, etc. The show ran during the height of his career and seemingly took him to the next level. He continued to be a staple on TV throughout the seventies, as he released the albums "Back Home Again", "An Evening With John Denver", "Windsong" and "Rocky Mountain Christmas". Looking at his discography, 1975 was a pivotal year. "Windsong" contains some of Denver's biggest hits and "Rocky Mountain Christmas" was a monster success as well but from about 1976 on is where his over exposure took a toll. In 1976, he made the film "Oh, God!" with George Burns, which brought him to Hollywood. It's a fine comedy, and it totally suited Denver's own good guy persona, but didn't win him any new fans. In 1977 he teamed up with Jim Henson and The Muppets for an hour long holiday special and companion LP which was a massive success but also took it's toll, even his loyal fanbase was taken aback. He divided his fans at that point, ones that love him for his unbelievable voice, sincerity and song craft and those who saw him as a guy who sang with puppets. Perhaps it's that we're on the cusp on the 20 year anniversary of John Denver's death that he deserves serious reconsideration as a true songwriting genius. "Leaving On A Jet Plane" was only the fifth song he had ever written. Some have mentioned his early albums contained too many cover songs, which can be said for many other artists at the time. Revisionists will have you believe that the 1970s were ruled by monsters of rock, if you lived during the 1970s you know better.

 

he was wonderful in this as well...one of my favorite Christmas movies!

 

Fake. Great voice but an uncool person. Waited with my two Sisters after the concert at the San Diego Sports Arena for two hours with 12 other people. Limo just drove right past us.....not even awave of the hand.
Lost me right there. Albums went into the trash the next day.
Dick.
Big one.
The beave

 

Brilliant overview.

 

I am a huge John Denver fan (my avatar probably gave that away). I think his popularity in the '70's ultimately worked against him--his TV specials gave him a goofy persona that I don't think he ever completely overcame. From 1971-73, he had a string of terrific (mostly) acoustic albums, with original songs and covers of Prine, the Beatles, and Kristofferson, among others. He had great taste in covers. His melancholy songs often get overlooked in favor of tripe like "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." I met him once in 1991--he was very accommodating and attentive. He was an exceptional live performer. He could play the 12-string like nobody's business. With the possible exception of John Lennon, no other celebrity death has affected me as profoundly as Denver's.

 

I've heard nothing but good things about him. And anyway - does it matter? If you're going to exclude every musician who ever drove past fans in their limo without stopping, you're not going to have a lot to listen to...

 

Thank you!
The color is called "Clear Blue Mountain Lake"... taken from the song, "Rocky Mountain High".

 

Got all his stuff but that Greatest Hits vol 2 lp is hard to beat

 

...

Maybe the guy didn't see your sisters. Maybe he had other things on his mind. Maybe he wanted to get to his plane to get something important done.

Sheesh...

 

Have heard these (and I'm usually a digital guy) but they can't touch the LPs fidelity.

 

As a good son, I would also try to defend indefensibly ugly things my father did.

 

I think "Annie's Song" is awesome. Have you never been head over heels in love?

 

You're easily upset, aren't you? I hope nobody else has ended up in the trash for not waving at you.
Was there some kind of announced 'meet-n-greet' after the show?
Was he or is anyone obligated to stop for all fans at all times?
Ridiculous.

 

I think this didn't really happen.

 

Good post!
I'm not a huge fan, but I certainly appreciate considerably original talents. It is indeed too bad in retrospect Denver's TV and movie stardom eclipsed that.
Some of his music is indeed unflinchingly earnest- that was the times.
Perhaps some hip movie director/writer can help raise John Denver's profile in a hopefully non-ironic fashion!

 

I ran around with a girl in the seventies that had all of his albums - I didn't really care for him much then. As the years went on, I came to appreciate him more and more, and was actually saddened to find out he was a very unhappy person despite his public persona - he just seemed so likeable and carefree.

Several years ago, my wife and I walked into a convenience store after buying some gas and heard (very softly) John Denver playing behind the counter. I hadn't heard him in years and asked the young woman working there if that was John Denver playing? She said it was and went on to practically gush about how much she enjoyed his music. I was pretty impressed and said, "Far out!" My wife laughed, but I don't believe the young woman quite got it.