I’m listening to the Essential John Denver. As a girl I owned one audio tape of his and I adored it. I would dream up stories while listening to the melodies. His songs are perfect dream material. As I don’t listen to my tapes anymore, and did not own any CDs or LPs by him, I forgot how much joy his music used to bring me.
Last week I went for a shopping trip and found this CD set. All the songs I remember and many more are on it. Also there is a leaflet with a short bio included. This made me want to know more and I checked the entry on John Denver in Wikipedia.
It is amazing how perfectly his songs and his world view still fits me. To me he is a symbol of the good side of America. The country he writes about is the place I went to visit all those years ago (in 1992 and 1995), and which I was so lucky to find. Most of my friends have a very critical view of the US, and I completly agree with many of their arguments. But it is such a huge country, with big differences in landscapes and in people. And John Denver shows us the best and most beautiful part of it.
One of the songs I did not know is the song on Calypso, the ship Jean-Jacques Cousteau used on his trips around the seas of the world. My brother adored Cousteau, read all his books, watched the films and built this tiny model version of the Calypso.
Wow, music certainly can bring back the childhood memories! And also the feelings and dreams of old. This was the time when we still believed that we would change the world. I sure wish I could get back some of that pure and simple belief!
Filed under: music | Tagged: America, Calypso, childhood, Cousteau, John Denver, memories, music, USA
