Monday, March 16, 2009

The great JOHN DENVER !

Since the late 60's and early 70's, D2 and I have been huge fans of John Denver. I had his LP record and much later tapes,CDs, etc of all his top hits. We were not the only ones who love his songs and especially his singing. John Denver had such a unique voice quality that will be remembered and that will live on long in many people's hearts.
Whenever, we got into our car, his CD is one of the most played over many, many years. I still have the collection. And who can forget his John Denver TV specials " An Evening with John Denver " and all those special " John Denver and the MUPPETS !" He was such a huge world star, a truly gifted one of a kind born to sing singer.
Then in 1994, it was announced that he was embarking on an Asian Tour that included Singapore! He was scheduled to perform on 16 April 1994 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium at 8 pm. D2 and I bought our tickets through Sistic and considered ourselves most fortunate to have been able to see him perform in person. He sounded even better "Live".
The ticket stub for that John Denver " Heart to Heart Asia Tour" is pasted on page 59 of my special Songbook ( see photo ). I have the lyrics as well as chords of his top songs within too. I remember that performance well. It was the one and only time we got to see him "live". A few years late, the world was shocked when news broke that John Denver had died in a plane crash...flying alone in his new plane, off Monterey Bay, Los Angeles. The date was 12 October 1997. No more "live".... Country Road, Rocky Mountain High, Starwood in Aspen, Leaving on a Jetplane, Sunshine on my Shoulder, Annie's Song, You fill up my senses, Back Home Again...etc.






Did you know that he was probably the only Country Star that could sing in Mandarin? He surprised everyone while on a tour to China ( He had been there numerous times as he was very close to many of the top leaders, including former PM Zhou Enlai, who ordered 500 of his "Take Me Home Country Road" tapes) he sang this very hauntingly beautiful song," In A Far Away Land"...in Chinese! I was amazed then! Over the years, I had forgotten this episode until recently a friend sent me a timely reminder! It is on Youtube!
So, unk Dicko is putting it here that all you readers will be as mesmerised as many and I were listening to the incomparable John Denver singing one of the best loved songs written by Wang Luobin in 1939. It is about a young man longing to be with a nomadic girl in a far away land.

I Am A Song
I Live To Be Sung
I Sing With All My Heart

In memory of John Denver.....
unk Dicko

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although John Denver had passed on long time ago, his songs still live on forever. I love his songs.

Unk Dicko said...

That makes three of us! Well done.
Agree fully...his songs live on. The state of Colorado in USA has 2 official state songs.
And one of them is " ROCKY Mountain High "!
In West Virginia, many citizens there have been clamouring for years to make " Country Road" their official state song. It has yet to happen.

Lam Chun See said...

Oh yes he is one of my favourites. My favourite JD song is Perhaps Love which he performed with Placido Domingo. I copied this song from my cd into my pc and listen to it when I surf the net.

The other one is Annie's Song.