ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH

JOHN DENVER

SONGWRITERS: JOHN DENVER & MIKE TAYLOR

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH

LABEL: RCA RECORDS

GENRE: COUNTRY FOLK

YEAR: 1972

 

             Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, record producer, actor, activist, and humanitarian, whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singer. After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver began his music career with folk music groups during the late 1960s. Starting in the 1970s, he was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade and one of its best-selling artists. By 1974, he was one of America's best-selling performers, and AllMusic has described Denver as "among the most beloved entertainers of his era".

       Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed. He had 33 albums and singles that were certified Gold and Platinum in the U.S by RIAA certification with estimated sales of more than 33 million units. He recorded and performed primarily with an acoustic guitar and sang about his joy in nature, his disdain for city life, his enthusiasm for music, and his relationship trials. Denver's music appeared on a variety of charts, including country music, the Billboard Hot 100, and adult contemporary, in all earning 12 gold and four platinum albums with his signature songs "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Annie's Song", "Rocky Mountain High", "Calypso", "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", and "Sunshine on My Shoulders".

         Denver appeared in several films and television specials during the 1970s and 1980s. He continued to record in the 1990s, also focusing on environmental issues as well as lending vocal support to space exploration and testifying in front of Congress in protest against censorship in music. He lived in Aspen for much of his life where he was known for his love of Colorado. In 1974, Denver was named poet laureate of the state. The Colorado state legislature also adopted "Rocky Mountain High" as one of its two state songs in 2007.

       An avid pilot, Denver died at the age of 53 in a single-fatality crash while piloting his recently purchased light plane.

        "Rocky Mountain High" is a folk rock song written by John Denver and Mike Taylor about Colorado and is one of the two official state songs of Colorado. Recorded by Denver in 1972, it went to No. 9 on the US Hot 100 in 1973. Denver told concert audiences in the mid-1970s that the song took him an unusually long nine months to write. On April 10, 2017, the song was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 500.000 digital downloads.

       Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

He was born in the summer of his 27th year

Coming home to a place he'd never been before

He left yesterday behind him

You might say he was born again

Might say he found a key for every door

When he first came to the mountains

His life was far away

On the road and hanging by a song

But the strings already broken

And he doesn't really care

It keeps changin' fast, and it don't last for long

It's a Colorado Rocky Mountain high

I've seen it raining fire in the sky

The shadows from the starlight are softer than a lullaby

Rocky Mountain high, in Colorado

Rocky Mountain high

 

He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below

Saw everything as far as you can see

And they say that he got crazy once and that he

Tried to touch the Sun

And he lost a friend, but kept the memory

Now he walks in quiet solitude, the forest and the stream

Seeking grace in every step he takes

His sight is turned inside himself, to try and

Understand, the serenity of a clear blue mountain lake

 

And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high

I've seen it raining fire in the sky

You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply

Rocky Mountain high, in Colorado

Rocky Mountain high

 

Now his life is full of wonder

But his heart still knows some fear

Of the simple things he can not comprehend

Why they try to tear the mountains down

To bring in a couple more

More people, more scars upon the land

 

It's the Colorado Rocky Mountain high

I've seen it raining fire in the sky

I know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly

Rocky mountain high

It's the Colorado Rocky Mountain high

I've seen it raining fire in the sky

Friend around the camp fire and everybody's high

Rocky Mountain high, Rocky Mountain high

Rocky Mountain high

Rocky Mountain high.

WHERE DO THE CHILDREN PLAY

CAT STEVENS

SONGWRITER: CAT STEVENS

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: MONA BONE JAKON

LABEL: ISLAND RECORDS

GENRE: FOLK ROCK

YEAR: 1970

 

              Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; 21 July 1948), commonly known by his stage name Cat Stevens and later Yusuf Islam, Yusuf, and Yusuf/Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, in his later career, Islamic music, before returning to secular music in 2006. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

          His 1967 debut album and its title song "Matthew and Son" both reached top ten in the UK charts. Stevens' albums Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the Firecat (1971) were certified triple platinum in the US. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four spent weeks at the top of several major charts. He earned ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and the song has been a hit for four artists. His other hit songs include "Father and Son", "Wild World", "Moonshadow", "Peace Train", and "Morning Has Broken".

           In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam and adopted the name Yusuf Islam the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all of his guitars for charity. He has since bought back at least one of these guitars as a result of the efforts of his son Yoriyos, and left his musical career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He was embroiled in a long-running controversy regarding comments he made in 1989 about the death fatwa on author Salman Rushdie. His current stance is that he never supported the fatwa: “I was cleverly framed by certain questions. I never supported the fatwa." He has received two honorary doctorates and awards for promoting peace as well as other humanitarian awards.

            In 2006, he returned to pop music – releasing his first new studio album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. With that release and subsequent ones, he dropped the surname "Islam" from the album cover art – using the stage name Yusuf as a mononym. In 2009, he released the album Roadsinger and, in 2014, he released the album Tell 'Em I'm Gone and began his first US tour since 1978. His second North American tour since his resurgence, featuring 12 shows in intimate venues, ran from 12 September to 7 October 2016. In 2017, he released the album The Laughing Apple, now using the stage name Yusuf/Cat Stevens, using the Cat Stevens name for the first time in 39 years. In September 2020, he released Tea for the Tillerman 2, a reimagining of his classic album Tea for the Tillerman to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

          "Where Do the Children Play?" is a song by British folk rock musician Cat Stevens, released as the opening track on his November 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman.

           In 2017, Garbage recorded a cover of the song for United Nations charity album, Music To Inspire: Artists UNited Against Human Trafficking.

Well, I think it's fine

Buildin' jumbo planes

Or takin' a ride

On a cosmic train.

Switch on Summer

From a slot machine.

Yes, get what you want to, if you want,

'Cause you can get anything.

 

I know we've come a long way.

We're changin' day to day,

But tell me, where do the children play?

 

Well, you roll on roads

Over fresh green grass

For your lorry loads

Pumpin' petrol gas

And you make them long

And you make them tough,

But they just go on and on, and it seems

That you can't get off.

 

Oh, I know we've come a long way.

We're changin' day to day,

But tell me, where do the children play?

 

Well, you've cracked the sky.

'Scrapers fill the air,

But will you keep on buildin' higher

'Til there's no more room up there?

Will you make us laugh?

Will you make us cry?

Will you tell us when to live?

Will you tell us when to die?

 

I know we've come a long way.

We're changin' day to day,

But tell me, where do the children play?

Do, do, do, do, do.

Do, do, do, do, do.

Do, do, do, do, do.

Do, do, do, do, do.

DON’T THINK TWICE IT’S ALRIGHT

BOB DYLAN

SONGWRITER: BOB DYLAN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: DON’T THINK TWICE IT’S ALL RIGHT

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: COUNTRY FOLK

YEAR: 1963

 

               Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture.

              Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which mainly comprised traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the following year. The album features "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". For many of these songs, he adapted the tunes and phraseology of older folk songs. He went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966). Commenting on the six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965), Rolling Stone wrote: "No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time."

            In July 1966, Dylan withdrew from touring after a motorcycle accident. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were released as the collaborative álbum The Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes in John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969), and New Morning (1970). In 1975, he released Blood on the Tracks, which many saw as a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s. Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind marked the beginning of a renaissance for his career. He has released five critically acclaimed albums of original material since then, the most recent being Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). He also recorded a series of three albums in the 2010s comprising versions of traditional American standards, especially songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour.

           Since 1994, Dylan has published eight books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize Board in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

        "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, recorded on November 14 that year, and released on the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and as a single.

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

If you don't know by now

An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

It'll never do somehow

When your rooster crows at the break of dawn

Look out your window and I'll be gone

You're the reason I'm trav'lin' on

But don't think twice, it's all right

 

It ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

That light I never knowed

An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

I'm on the dark side of the road

But I wish there was somethin' you would

Do or say

To try and make me change my mind and stay

But we never did too much talkin' anyway

But don't think twice, it's all right

 

So it ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

Like you never done before

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

I can't hear you anymore

I'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' walking down the road

I once loved a woman, a child I'm told

I give her my heart but she wanted my soul

But don't think twice, it's all right

 

So long, honey bee

Where I'm bound, I can't tell

But goodbye's too good a word, babe

So I'll just say fare thee well

I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind

You could have done better but I don't mind

You just kinda wasted my precious time

But don't think twice, it's all right.

JUST A SONG BEFORE I GO

CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH

SONGWRITER: GRAHAM NASH

COUNTRY: U. S. A. & U. K.

ALBUM: CSN

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: FOLK ROCK

YEAR: 1977

 

          Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) is a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills, and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member, they are called Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY). They are noted for their intricate vocal harmonies, often tumultuous interpersonal relationships, political activism, and lasting influence on American music and culture.

             CSN formed in 1968 shortly after Crosby, Stills and Nash performed together informally in July of that year, discovering they harmonized well. Crosby had been asked to leave The Byrds in late 1967, and Stills' band Buffalo Springfield had broken up in early 1968; Nash left his band The Hollies in December, and by early 1969 the trio had signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records. Their first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash, was released in May 1969, from which came two Top 40 hits, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" [#21] and "Marrakesh Express" [#28]. In order to tour the album, the trio hired drummer Dallas Taylor and session bassist Greg Reeves, though they still needed a keyboardist; Ahmet Ertegun suggested Neil Young, who had played with Stills in Buffalo Springfield, and after some initial reluctance, the trio agreed, signing him on as a full member. The band, now named Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, started their tour, and played their second gig at Woodstock Festival in the early morning hours of August 18, 1969. The first album with Young, Déjà Vu, reached number one in several international charts in 1970, and remains their best selling album, going on to sell over 8 million copies with three hit singles. Four singles were released from the album including "Woodstock", "Teach Your Children", and "Our House". The group's second tour, which produced the live double álbum 4 Way Street (1971), was fraught with arguments between Young and Taylor, which resulted in Taylor being replaced by John Barbata, and tensions with Stills, which resulted in his being temporarily dismissed from the band. At the end of the tour the band split up. The group have since reunited several times, sometimes with and sometimes without Young, and have released eight studio and four live albums.

             Crosby, Stills & Nash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and all three members were also inducted for their work in other groups (Crosby for the Byrds, Stills for Buffalo Springfield and Nash for the Hollies). Neil Young has also been inducted as a solo artist and as a member of Buffalo Springfield but not as a member of CSN. They have not made a group studio album since 1999's Looking Forward, and have been inactive as a performing unit since the end of 2015. Whether or not this break is permanent remains to be seen, as the group has often been inactive for years at a time.

           "Just a Song Before I Go" is a song by Crosby, Stills and Nash that appeared on the 1977 album CSN. It was also released as a single and reached number seven on the Billboard singles charts, becoming the band's highest charting hit.

           The song was written by Graham Nash about leaving loved ones behind before going on a concert tour. It was written in Hawaii in about 20 minutes at the piano while Nash and Leslie Morris were staying with a friend, later revealed to be a rather "low-level drug dealer". Nash had a little while to get to the airport to head back to his home in LA. The dealer queried Nash something along the lines of "You're a big shot song writer, I bet you can't write a song just before you go." After Nash asking how much the dealer was betting, he responded $500. In a February 25, 2016, interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Nash stated that he still has that $500. This song came in the nick of time, because an upcoming hurricane was about to wreak havoc on the island.

           Billboard Magazine praised the "hypnotically soothing orchestration" and the vocal harmonies.

          Crosby, Stills and Nash arranged "Just a Song Before I Go" as a straight ballad, with mostly acoustic textures anchored by two electric guitar solos from Stephen Stills.

          In 2008, drummer Russ Kunkel and the group Chateau Beach covered the song on their album "Rivage."

[Intro. (Electric Guitar)]

Just a song before I go

To whom it may concern

Travelling twice the speed of sound

It's easy to get burned

 

When the shows were over

We had to get back home

And when we opened up the door

I had to be alone

 

She helped me with my suitcase

She stands before my eyes

Driving me to the airport

And to the friendly skies

 

Going through security

I held her for so long

She finally looked at me in love

And she was gone

 

[Instrumental (Electric Guitar)] 

Just a song before I go

A lesson to be learned

Travelling twice the speed of sound

It's easy to get burned

 

[Ending (Acoustic Guitar)]