Bradley Ruzicka

Lately, for a variety of reasons, I find myself searching for inspiration. I’m normally a very self motivated person but I’ve had a hard time these past weeks finding that incentive I need to keep moving forward. By now, it should be no surprise that I turn to music when I’m in need of comfort, answers to life’s questions, or, in this case, inspiration. And one artist I always gravitate towards when in need of inspiration is John Denver. A good topic for my fourth post in the “A Tribute to an Enduring Past” series!

John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. on December 31, 1943. In his late teens, Deutschendorf decided to change his name to John Denver when Randy Sparks, founder of The New Christy Minstrels, suggested that “Deutschendorf” wouldn’t fit comfortably on a marquee. Denver was an American singer-songwriter, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singer during the 1970s.

Considered one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade, by 1974 he was firmly established as America’s best-selling performer with AllMusic describing him as “among the most beloved entertainers of his era”. During his career, Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed, spanning 24 albums (twelve gold and four platinum) with total sales of over 33 million records.

After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver began his music career singing with a variety of folk music groups in the late 1960s. In 1969, Denver abandoned the band life to pursue a solo career and released his first album for RCA Records: Rhymes & Reasons.

Two years earlier, Denver had made a self-produced demo recording of some of the songs he played at his concerts. He included in the demo a song he had written called “Babe I Hate to Go” later renamed Leaving on A Jet Plane. Denver made several copies and gave them out as presents for Christmas. Producer Milt Okun, who produced records for the Mitchell Trio and the high-profile folk group Peter, Paul, and Mary, had become Denver’s producer as well. Okun brought the unreleased “Jet Plane” song to Peter, Paul and Mary. Their version subsequently hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1969.

Unfortunately for Denver, neither his first album, Rhymes & Reasons (1969), nor his next two albums, Take Me to Tomorrow (1970) and Whose Garden Was This (1970), were major sellers. However, his fourth album, Poems, Prayers, and Promises, was a breakthrough in the U.S. mainly due to the hit single Take Me Home, Country Roads which went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1971. Its success was due in part to the efforts of his new manager, future Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub, who signed Denver in 1970. Weintraub insisted on a re-issue of the track and began a radio airplay campaign starting in Denver, CO.

Denver’s career flourished from that point forward with a series of hits over the next four years. In 1972, he scored his first Top Ten album, Rocky Mountain High, with its title track reaching the Top Ten in 1973. Between 1973 and 1975, Denver continued his chart dominance with a string of four No.1 songs: Sunshine on My Shoulders (Pomes, Prayers, and Promises), Annie’s Song, Thank God I’m a Country Boy (Back Home Again), and I’m Sorry (Windsong) as well as three No.1 albums (John Denver’s Greatest Hits, Back Home Again, Windsong).

It was during this time that Denver also released such hits as Poems, Prayers, and Promises, My Sweet Lady (Poems, Prayers, and Promises – 1971), Starwood in Aspen, The Eagle and the Hawk (Aerie – 1971), Goodbye Again (Rocky Mountain High – 1972), I’d Rather Be a Cowboy (Lady’s Chains) (Farewell Andromeda – 1973), Eclipse, Sweet Surrender (Back Home Again – 1974), and Looking For Space, Fly Away, Calypso (Windsong – 1975).

Denver became a regular on television starting in the mid 70s appearing with entertainers as diverse as The Muppets and Frank Sinatra, hosting the Emmys and The Tonight Show, and appearing in several TV specials including 1975’s Emmy award winning live concert special, An Evening With John Denver. He also costarred with George Burns in the movie O God, the seventh highest grossing film of 1977.

Beginning in the mid 70s and throughout the reminder of his life, Denver would become one of the first artists in the rock & roll era to use his celebrity status to bring attention to, and build awareness of, conservation and humanitarian issues. He expressed his ecologic interests in his epic 1975 song Calypso which is an ode to the exploration ship of the same name and to the team of environmental activists led by Jacques Cousteau. In 1976, Denver founded the charitable Windstar Foundation in an effort to promote the concept of sustainable living building on his lifelong love of nature and the outdoors.

In 1977, Denver cofounded The Hunger Project with Werner Erhard and Robert W. Fuller, an organization which he served for many years and supported until his death. That same year, Denver was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve on the President’s Commission on World Hunger for which he wrote the anthem I Want to Live. During the 1980s, he visited Africa to witness first-hand the suffering caused by starvation and to work with African leaders toward solutions. Over the years, Denver supported and brought attention to a number of other charitable causes for the environmental movement, the homeless, the poor, the hungry, and the AIDS crisis.

In part due to his focus on advocacy, changing musical tastes, and personal problems, Denver’s commercial appeal began to wane by the end of the 1970s. Although he would continue to write and record new music throughout the 1980s and the 1990s (Autograph – 1980, Some Days are Diamonds – 1981, Seasons of the Heart – 1982, It’s About Time – 1983, Dreamland Express – 1985, One World – 1986, Higher Ground – 1989, Earth Songs & The Flower That Shattered the Stone – 1990, Different Directions – 1991, All Aboard – 1997), his albums would never again reach the Billboard Top 10 charts. His fifteenth and final Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart would be Shanghai Breezes in 1982.

Although an optimist at heart, Denver suffered from depression throughout most of his adult life, particularly after his marriage to Annie, one of his primary inspirations, ended in 1982. Never a favorite of the critics, Denver asked to participate in the singing of We Are the World in 1985 but he was turned down because, according to one of the producers, many people involved in the project felt his image would hurt the credibility of the song as a pop-rock anthem. His second marriage to Australian actress Cassandra Delaney ended in 1993 after only five years and he was twice arrested for DUI in 1993 and 1994.

Through it all, Denver’s love of flying would provide a sanctuary from which he could escape the world. His father taught him to fly in the mid-1970s ultimately leading to a reconciliation between father and son. He became an avid pilot with a passion for flying second only to his passion for music. He collected vintage biplanes and, in 1974, he bought a Learjet which he used to fly himself to concerts. He also bought an aerobatic plane, two Cessna planes, and, in 1997, an experimental, amateur-built Rutan Long-EZ.

His love of flying also attracted him to NASA and he became an avid supporter of America’s space program receiving the NASA Public Service Medal in 1985 for “helping to increase awareness of space exploration by the peoples of the world”, an award usually restricted to spaceflight engineers and designers. Also in 1985, Denver passed NASA’s rigorous physical exam and was a finalist for the first citizen’s trip on the Space Shuttle in 1986 but ultimately lost out to teacher Christa McAuliffe. After the Challenger disaster when McAuliffe and the rest of the crew were killed, Denver dedicated his song Flying for Me to all the men and woman who risked their lives in an effort to expand man’s knowledge of the universe and explore the wonders of the heavens.

On October 12, 1997, Denver took his newly purchased Rutan Long-EZ out for a series of flights around Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove, CA. Prior to his last flight of the day, a mechanic working with Denver noted that the fuel sight gauges were visible only to the rear cockpit occupant. Denver was flying alone. John asked him about the quantity of fuel shown and the mechanic told him he had “less than half in the right tank and less than a quarter in the left tank”.

The mechanic then provided Denver with an inspection mirror so that he could look over his shoulder at the fuel sight gauges. Denver told the mechanic he would use the autopilot inflight, if necessary, to hold the airplane level while he turned the fuel selector valve which was located behind, rather than in front of, the pilot’s seat. Denver declined an offer to take on additional fuel telling the mechanic he would only be flying for about an hour.

Less than 30 minutes after takeoff, witnesses reported that the airplane went into a steep nose-down descent just before it crashed into Monterey Bay. In the blink of an eye, at 53 years of age, John Denver was dead.

For me, John Denver’s legacy is that of a talented singer songwriter who felt he could make a difference not only through his music but through his willingness to use his celebrity to do whatever he could to improve the world for his fellow man. Like all of us, he was a flawed man who struggled throughout his life with the demons of depression, addiction, and failed relationships.

However, his songs, often criticized for being “lightweight” and out of step with the times, spoke of optimism and hope for the future tinged with a hint of personal sadness regarding our reluctance to properly care for the less fortunate and the land he loved. Perhaps it’s for these reasons that, after all these years and particularly during a time in our history when it’s so easy to be pessimistic about the future of our world, I continue to find inspiration in the music of John Denver.

I want to end this post with a video of the hit song Calypso which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart 40 years ago in 1975. Of all John Denver’s songs, I believe it best represents his spirit, his optimism, his love of nature, and his desire to both improve and bring wonder to our lives!

As always, your feedback is appreciated!

https://youtu.be/9GSqRtYVBqQ