John Denver - underrated?

Denver actually struggled with quite a few personal demons, and he laid it bare in his autobio Take Me Home. During the peak of his career, however, much of it was hidden from the public eye to maintain his wholesome country boy facade.

 

He did have addictions. Take "Sunshine On My Shoulders", a song, at the time, pointed out as "dreck" You can hear pain in that song, longing in his voice.

 

I agree.

 

I could care less about Charlie Rich or John Denver.... I was commenting on Charlie Rich's behavior in the video....he looked like a damn drunken fool and I stand by it !

 

I loved Charlie's 'The Most Beautiful Girl' and 'Behind Closed Doors' singles, but I agree with you on this. That was embarrassing to watch.

 

I am a fan of both Rich and Denver. I do think that Rich was a much greater artist than Denver. That's not meant as an attack on Denver. I do think this episode needs to be looked at in context. A. Rich was an alcoholic and appeared to be inebriated. B. Denver was not a country artist. I repeat, Denver was not a country artist and really should not have been nominated for CMA entertainer of the year. Denver was a pop artist, with much more of a folk background then country.

 

One of the purest voices ever recorded. His vibrato control was incredible.

 

That's completely subjective. Though rooted in folk, Denver had plenty of country songs. He was a crossover artist. But he was a regular on both the U.S. and Canadian Country music album and singles charts. Similar complaints have been made about others (The Eagles, Shania Twain and Taylor Swift come to mind), but there are unquestionably Country songs in their catalogs, whether or not they are "true" country artists.

 

In interviews, John Denver himself said that he did not consider himself to be a country singer. "More of a Western singer", referring to the nature that inspired him. I agree with the view that he was grounded in folk, and influenced by country, easy listening and pop. Nothing wrong with that.

And yes, Charlie Rich was a great artist. He just made an ass of himself on that occasion. Nothing unusual in that. (I love his re-recording of his own "There Won´t Be Anymore" - love it!)

 

I scanned the thread and a couple of comments.........

1. His deluxe edition, An Evening With John Denver, is as good as an album you will get from any artist........any!
2. Rocky Mountain High is as good as it gets
3. I saw him in the round in the early 80's. It was one of the best performances that I have ever seen.
4. Living close to West Virginia, I could do without Take Me Home Country Roads. The Baltimore Orioles have been playing Thank God I'm a Country Boy in their 7th inning stretch since old Memorial Stadium. Gotta love it too...........
5. I am a fan and he was pretty huge in the 70's. He is right about where he should be. I think maybe he has been some what forgotten, but not underrated at all.

 

I wasn't a huge fan at the time with so much else to listen to. But it's become clearer to me over the years that he was a considerable and unique talent and he wrote some truly great songs. I can feel a good sounding compilation coming on.

 

He was big when I was a child. Listening to his music takes me back to that simpler time.

Darryl

 

I just watched a John Denver documentary on Netflix that my wife put on - I was like - ok time to get up and do stuff but then I started watching it and was absolutely glued to it. I'm in no way a fan and have always been like 'that music is so goofy/corny' and he is a major goofy dude. Now that I'm older I can certainly appreciate it. It was a very touching story and you could tell that he was a really great man and an extremely talented musician. In the future I will definitely add his music to my library.

 

I saw that documentary and it was great, but I have always been a huge fan. Especially the early albums the first 7 or 8 are very good and among my all time favorites. Aerie and PPP are always in my rotation.

 

Saw him live a few times, and the guy was an incredibly talented musician and entertainer (imo).

 

Not underrated at all. A fine commercial songwriter, fine singer and musician, a superstar as big as they came in his time, as a good post mentioned above said (and I agree too that his fame and related obligations overshadowed his abilities to an extent).

He reminds me, not in style usually but just in terms of a certain type of pop music, of Glen Campbell, Captain and Tennille, Foreigner or Boston, Neil Diamond after 1968, Eric Carmen after he went solo, Eric Clapton after he went solo, Journey, Jefferson Starship, John Mellencamp, Steve Miller, CCR, etc.: all very talented and professional acts who had highly successful recording and concert careers. And there is nothing wrong with that, there aren't as many such artists today...

In contradistinction, many equally successful artists had a more "artistic" edge, in this group I'd place Linda Ronstadt, John Lennon solo, Bob Dylan of course, Hendrix, the Band, CSNY, Thin Lizzy, The Who and Kinks, Queen, Zeppelin, etc.

 

Yea as a Teenager in the late 70's early 80's his music was just not cool to listen too and as the documentary points out the early rock magazines like Rolling Stone were very harsh to him. Very sad but he did have a very good life.

 

Underrated? Probably. So much of his innate talent was subsumed by his cheesy "entertainer" persona that he cultivated and rode to massive popular success, mostly in America, in the mid-70s. Setting all of that aside, however, there is a wealth of great material on his albums from that period. My personal belief is that the downward slide began when the brilliant guitarist Mike Taylor departed from Denver's band following the Rocky Mountain High album. Following that, Denver began moving more toward pop than folk, with the addition of strings and the far less distinctive guitar work of Taylor replacements Steve Weisberg and John Sommers. I would love to have heard how the pre-1973 band would have performed such songs as "Sweet Surrender", "Rocky Mountain Suite", "Windsong", and "Come And Let Me Look In Your Eyes".

 

I underwent a similar conversion about two years ago. For the longest time I had a feeling he was pretty cheesy. Then I took a couple newly purchased albums on a long trip to Yellowstone. Needed some good music for the road trip. I was floored by how good that stuff was. Since then I've been gradually acquiring all of his recorded works. Some of it is too saccharine fir my tastes but the vast majority is truly excellent. Especially the double-CD version of An Evening With John Denver. And he's also was one of those rare artists whose voice improved with age. He was a great artist.

 

This is an excellent summary of Denver's career. I think Mike Taylor was a major factor in Denver's early sound, and I think Taylor pushed Denver as a guitarist in ways that no one would ever do again. I always preferred Denver's solo shows to the shows with the big late 70's/early 80s band with back-up singers and multiple guitarists. Alone, Denver's talents really revealed themselves. I wish someone would release a CD or a DVD of Denver from the early days with Taylor and Dick Kniss on bass.

 

I love his voice. Possibly the best male voice in pop music. Great songs. Great presence.
Definitely underrated but not by me.

And his voice got better with age.

 

He was definitely big but considered kind of "lightweight" back in the day, especially by the rocker crowd. I was one of those that fit that category I suppose, and it took me quite a bit of time to come around to his approach and style. In my case, it really came from first discovering Gordon Lightfoot, another folk balladeer. Considering John Denver is only a half step (or more literally, a half border) removed, it wasn't hard. But I should add I was always aware of his bigger numbers and hits due to their heavy radio play, and appreciated them to at least a certain extent even when I was in my teens.

I was surprised to discover years later that famed guitarist James Burton chose to tour with Denver basically since the time of Elvis Presley's demise, and would do so right up until his Wildlife Concert in 1995 (the one that aired on PBS). That alone indicates just how respected the man was as a singer and songwriter, considering any artist worth their salt would jump to acquire the services of Mr. Burton with his illustrious resume, and yet he signed on with John Denver after Elvis.

Still can't believe how he went down in that experimental aircraft. I was truly stunned when I heard the news.

 

The first time I saw Denver in concert in 1978, he had the new band with Burton, Jim Horn, Hal Blaine, Herb Pedersen, Emory Gordy, and Glen d Hardin, among others. It was an impressive band to be sure. Unfortunately, Denver's guitar tended to get lost in the mix.

 

Not sure it would matter. That's a Grade A outfit there (to say the least).

 

I couldn't agree more. You guys hit the nail on the head. I still like almost all of his music, but the few albums with Mike Taylor are my favorites, musically anyway.