"Country" Boy
The other day I was attempting to drive one of my kids to distraction, so I broke out into a medley of John Denver songs. "That ought to do it," I thought.
What was odd was how many of the lyrics to those songs were still retained somewhere in a dusty corner of my brain. I cannot remember my own cell phone number - really - but I still know all the words to "Country Roads" and "Rocky Mountain High". Crazy. Especially considering Denver and his "music" was always pretty much anathema to me.
My only explanation is I grew up at a time when Top 40 radio was still prevalent, and I probably heard Denver's songs, willingly or unwillingly, close to a gazillion times between about 8th grade and my senior year. Those bland melodies and namby-pamby lyrics are etched into my brain.
I always thought it was funny that a guy with such a scrubbed public image who drew the post-Lawrence Welk crowd to his later concerts in droves was also apparently a vicious drunk, who racked up several DWI's and other alcohol-related public altercations before finally auguring his homemade airplane into the Pacific Ocean about ten years ago, doing himself in for good. One of his arrests came after he registered a 2.0+ on the breathalyzer after being stopped for driving erratically on the roads outside his large Colorado spread. I guess life on the farm wasn't all that laid back, after all.
Or, as a friend of mine e-mailed me the week after Denver bought it, "Crabmeeeaaaaat in the ocean makes me happpppyyyyyyy!!!!"
2 comments:
I could have written that second paragraph myself. I can't remember my cell number OR my home number, I remember all the lyrics to most of John Denver's songs and he was definitely not my type of music back in the '70s. My sister loved him though and our whole family even took a summer vacation to Colorado because of his sappy music...which I kind of like now, by the way.
I'm guilty, too. I involuntarily spout lyrics better than my wife, and she played his songs on the guitar and sang. Unfortunately, he was part of the music I listened to in the '70s (puhleaze don't tell anyone); but I have to admit that I do like some his re-dos after he got older. Related to image, his mis-deeds still pale in comparison to just about anybody today. Just like Janis Joplin in PA, after he died, everybody here in Fort Worth went to school with him.
And you're right, he will drive off children.
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