Post by erik on Jan 16, 2021 18:49:31 GMT -5
Besides rural living in Colorado, John Denver's song philosophy was far more expansive than a lot of critics were willing to admit; it extended into cosmic spirituality, as can be gleaned from his 1976 hit that is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
LOOKING FOR SPACE (John Denver; RCA; 1976)—Given his clean-cut image, which made him a target of critics in both rock and country circles for most of his career, it might seem that John Henry Deutschendorf, known to the world as John Denver, might have deserved a lot of that criticism. As with a lot of criticism of other musical artists, however, much of it is not deserved. Few artists have ever been as big advocates for environmental protection as Denver, who became a resident of Aspen, Colorado in 1971, was during his lifetime. So many of his hits reflect his love of life and the natural world, including “Take Me Home (Country Roads)”, “Sweet Surrender”, and “Rocky Mountain High”, and even his early composition “Leaving On A Jet Plane”, which became a #1 hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary in late 1969. Denver was also a huge advocate for NASA and manned space exploration; and on his 1975 album Windsong, his last chart-topping album, he wrote a song that reflected, however obliquely, a place in the universe for the human race, called “Looking For Space”. According to him, it is a song about finding out who a person is, not in a physical way but in a mental and emotional one. While “Looking For Space”, which reflected his folk/country approach, was not quite the hit that the other three singles on Windsong (“I’m Sorry”; “Calypso”; “Fly Away”) had been, it nevertheless reached a respectable #29 on the Hot 100 in April 1976, also topping the Adult Contemporary chart (the seventh time for Denver), and #30 on the country chart. While his popularity would decline into the 1980’s, Denver would nevertheless continue to be heavily involved in politics, including his mid-1980’s opposition to putting warning labels on any pop music albums because of what might be regarded as “offensive” lyrics, until his tragic early death in a plane crash in Monterey, California on October 12, 1997.
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LOOKING FOR SPACE (John Denver; RCA; 1976)—Given his clean-cut image, which made him a target of critics in both rock and country circles for most of his career, it might seem that John Henry Deutschendorf, known to the world as John Denver, might have deserved a lot of that criticism. As with a lot of criticism of other musical artists, however, much of it is not deserved. Few artists have ever been as big advocates for environmental protection as Denver, who became a resident of Aspen, Colorado in 1971, was during his lifetime. So many of his hits reflect his love of life and the natural world, including “Take Me Home (Country Roads)”, “Sweet Surrender”, and “Rocky Mountain High”, and even his early composition “Leaving On A Jet Plane”, which became a #1 hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary in late 1969. Denver was also a huge advocate for NASA and manned space exploration; and on his 1975 album Windsong, his last chart-topping album, he wrote a song that reflected, however obliquely, a place in the universe for the human race, called “Looking For Space”. According to him, it is a song about finding out who a person is, not in a physical way but in a mental and emotional one. While “Looking For Space”, which reflected his folk/country approach, was not quite the hit that the other three singles on Windsong (“I’m Sorry”; “Calypso”; “Fly Away”) had been, it nevertheless reached a respectable #29 on the Hot 100 in April 1976, also topping the Adult Contemporary chart (the seventh time for Denver), and #30 on the country chart. While his popularity would decline into the 1980’s, Denver would nevertheless continue to be heavily involved in politics, including his mid-1980’s opposition to putting warning labels on any pop music albums because of what might be regarded as “offensive” lyrics, until his tragic early death in a plane crash in Monterey, California on October 12, 1997.
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