This week, Country has taken hold of the charts... with no less than 3 country songs in the top 10. This one being the third: Tanya Tucker even squeaked in at #39 with "Lizzie and the Rainman"
The massive success of this faux-hillbilly hoedown on the pop charts remains a mystery. It's a little over three minutes long but feels more like five. I liked it well-enough as a kid - I'd grown up on country music, after all - but something about it now sets my teeth on edge. We'd pretty much reached peak-country on the pop charts for the 1970s, but this wouldn't be the last time country invaded the top of the pop charts. Usually it's a sign the material on the pop charts is really tired and weak.
I liked this song as a 14 year old.I posted this somewhere before...I remember going with my older brother to Peaches Records and Tapes in Denver Co. when this song was at the top of the charts.I saw the 45 and told my brother I liked that song.Got a swift punch in the arm.Message was...it wasn't too cool to like John Denver or this song as a teen back then.
I've never been a fan of this song. I don't identify with it. WRT John Denver in general, he lost me at his first single. He sings about West Virginia in "Take Me Home Country Roads" but then he mentions the Shenandoah River - which is only in WV for less than 20 miles, and that is in the one of the tamer parts of the state. When they say (in a slogan) Wild Wonderful West Virginia --- it really is --- but farther west than the Shenandoah --- more like in the area of the New River or the Lost River (but I realize they don't have the right number of syllables). There are a lot of parts of the state I've never been to, and I therefore don't consider myself an expert of the whole state, but just of the areas where I have been, which for the most part are stunning. My favorite John Denver songs are "Sunshine On My Shoulders" and "Calypso", but I'm not overly in love with those songs (I don't own them, for example).
The best thing he ever did was write "Leaving On A Jet Plane". It was all downhill from there, although I'm still very fond of "Take Me Home Country Roads" - transports me right back to 1971 and riding in a pickup with my dad. I've heard the complaint about "Country Roads" - I think the Blue Ridge Mountains don't run very far into in West Virginia, either - but I always interpreted it as the singer driving back to West Virginia from somewhere on the East Coast, in which case he might be passing over or by both the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River. Hey, at least it taught everyone how to pronounce "Shenandoah"...
Uggg....I hate this song. They play it for the 7th inning stretch of every Baltimore Orioles home game. I’ve heard it a bazillion times - I even saw John Denver sing it live at the 1983 World Series. The appeal of the song escapes me but the baseball fans in Baltimore love it. The Orioles stopped using it for several years but fans petitioned them to bring it back. Why? Uggghh!
I think it hit the top for a few reasons. He was on fire then, and it’s an awfully fun song but only because he made it that way by having an infectious fun time performing it. It’s certainly not a great song in and of itself imo. Had he simply performed it like he did any of his other songs, it wouldn’t have had a prayer! Makes me think he was probably pretty darn good live.
"Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (sorry to jump a bit ahead, but this was the third of six C&W #1's from '75 to top these here charts) was trimmed a bit on the 45, near the end: What color the labels were, depended heavily on where said copy was pressed. Orange labels were prevalent on pressings from RCA's Hollywood plant: Indianapolis pressings, meanwhile, were among the first to bear a new tan color which was an approximation of that used in combination with Portland orange on Capitol labels of the time: As point of reference, my own copy's the Hollywood.
Thank God I'm A Country Boy paved the way for the recent trend of country music lyrics that espouse the wholesome values of the country life at the expense of those that dwell in the metropolitan areas. It's not as obvious as the current batch of country songs that raise a middle finger to city-folk (who just don't get it), but it feels like a blueprint for songs like Mud On The Tires and Where I Come From. This is one of the rare Top 40 songs my dad loved. Denver certainly knew how to ride his reputation of being a good ol' country boy with his angelic looks and goody-two-shoes songs. I've always considered this to be one of his worst singles, and if it weren't a live recording with an overly enthusiastic audience (which is what really gives this record it's charm) then I think it wouldn't have even hit the top 10.
IINM, this is the first live #1 since "My Ding-A-Ling". I enjoy the track - John's exuberance is infectious, it's cool to hear a fiddle and dobro combo on a hit single and it brings back some good memories of the tiny mining village we lived in. There's a definite through line. Between this and Hank Jrs "A Country Boy Can Survive", many a recent country song was inspired. As someone with a foot in both worlds, I find the dichotomy stupid. Book learnin' and fishin' ain't mutually exclusive!
"Thank God, I'm A Country Boy" comes from his excellent live album, which is also his best album. It is infectious and it makes you sing along. It's a "Zip-a-dee-do-da", cast your cares away, kind of feel good song. John Denver was at his height of popularity and it's no surprise to me it was a number one.
This is a song no one would dare admit they liked at my school! It was mercilessly ridiculed. I absolutely hated it because of the cultural association. But, I like it today.
I see this, and other rural-type country songs of the era by the likes of Jim Stafford, Jerry Reed, and the "outlaws", as a kind of backlash against the urban/suburban vibe that was happening, especially on TV. After the rural purge on TV in the early 70s, the rural life struck back with The Waltons, and country music. Of course, it didn't last long, as even more urban sounds started to dominate along with sitcoms set in urban areas, like "Welcome Back Kotter" and "Three's Company".
...How " urban " was " Three's Company "? I didn't watch it...Where was it set? I suppose it may have been set in a city - But wasn't it just Generic Sitcomville, USA? Maybe vaguely El Lay or Noo Yawk...Maybe you're saying that its sorta-edgy-for 7ts TeeVee sexual references made it " urban ? I rather thought that it rather marked retreat from the " grown-up/urbaneedgy ' sitcoms from the MTM (wish there was a cat emoji)/Tandem stables that so dominated the mid-70s...This was before that 90s-popularized meaning for " urban ' as a euphemism)synonym for " black ' got popularized, too, I believe...
I liked John Denver when he first started to hit with Follow Me and Take Me Home Country Roads. This was the song that curdled my attitude into active dislike.
I think it was supposed to be set in Santa Monica, CA. Just want to say that I love TGIACB, it's probably my favorite live hit of all-time. The studio version is okay, but I have to be in the mood for it. This live version I can listen to anytime.
Neither the first nor the last instance of a live version, in certain cases, smiting a studio original. We'll get to another of 'em later in the year.
...TGIACB gives me this mental age of hairy-chested Burt Reynolds-tyoe football players, bare-chested, doing, these Cossack??-style kicks, one foot and the other, up and down, their arms folded. I once read of the Denver NFL team using it as a break time accompaniment song at games, y'see!
...Farrrr out!!!!!!!!! lack Thumb, post: 19597169, member: 70080"]John was getting some attention from the teen magazines by this time. [/QUOTE]
Thank you! alfjapanese, post: 19597200, member: 10438"]The Baltimore Orioles have used it during the 7th inning stretch for decades.[/QUOTE]
