Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

John Denver (December 31, 1943 – October 12,
1997), born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., was an
United States|American singer, songwriter,
musician, and actor. Denver died at the age of 53
off the coast of Monterey, California while
piloting a Rutan Aircraft Factory|Rutan Rutan
Long-EZ|Long-EZ, an experimental fiberglass
airplane. 

==Early years==
John Denver was born in Roswell, New Mexico.  His
father, Henry Deutschendorf, Sr., was an U.S. Air
Force|Air Force officer and flight instructor. 
Denver was born while his father was stationed at
the Roswell Army Air Field. He grew up on a number
of military bases in the Southwest United
States|American southwest.  Denver attended high
school in Fort Worth, Texas and later enrolled at
Texas Tech where he was a member of Delta Tau
Delta Fraternity. 

His introduction to playing music came at the age
of twelve when his grandmother gave him a 1910
Gibson acoustic guitar.  Denver began performing
at local clubs while in college.  He dropped out
of college in 1964 and moved to Los Angeles to
join the Chad Mitchell Trio, a folk music|folk
group.  He left the group, by then known as
Denver, Boise and Johnson, in 1969 to pursue a
solo career. 

That same year he released his debut LP, Rhymes
and Reasons.  Within the next four years, albums
such as Whose Garden Was This, Take Me to
Tomorrow, and Poems, Prayers and Promises
established him as one of America's popular
recording stars.

==Career==
Denver had a successful singing and songwriting
career, and a minor career as an actor—his
most notable film credit being in 1977 in
film|1977's Oh, God! opposite George Burns. In
1994 Denver wrote an autobiography entitled Take
Me Home.  He moved to Aspen, Colorado in 1970
following his first solo success with song
"Leaving on a Jet Plane".  

Denver was recognized not only for his musical
ability but also for his humanitarian work.  He
worked extensively on conservation projects and
helped to create the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska.  He also founded his own
environmental group called the Windstar
Foundation.  Denver had a keen interest in the
causes of and solution to hunger, and visited
Africa during the 1980s to witness first-hand the
suffering caused by starvation and also to work
with African leaders towards a solution. Denver
testified alongside Frank Zappa and Dee Snider on
the topic of censorship during a PMRC hearing in
1985.


After an enjoyable experience as a guest on The
Muppet Show, he recorded two Muppet television
specials: John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas
Together (1979) and John Denver and the Muppets:
Rocky Mountain Holiday (1982).

Defying all conventional labels, John Denver held
a singular place in American music: a songwriter
whose immensely popular work was suffused with a
deep and abiding kinship with the natural world.
Songs such as 'Take Me Home, Country Roads',
'Leaving on a Jet Plane', 'Rocky Mountain High'
are popular the world over. His songs are
characterised by their sweet melodies, elegant
guitar-strumming and his soulful rendition of the
lyrics. He became one of the few western singers
widely known in the non-European world including
Africa, India and South-East Asia.

In the months just prior to his death in a plane
accident in 1997 at the age of only 53, Denver was
filming an episode of the Nature series, centering
on the natural wonders that inspired many of his
best-loved songs. The result is a poignant and
melodic film that records his final journeys into
the wilderness and contains his last song,
"Yellowstone, Coming Home", composed while rafting
along the Colorado River with his son and young
daughter.



==Death==
Denver had two passions in life: song, and flying.
 An experienced pilot, Denver owned and flew his
own Lear Jet, gliders, flew aerobatically, and
even had some time in an F-15.  However, it was
this passion for the air that cost Denver his life
when he crashed his newly acquired Rutan Long-EZ
aircraft into the ocean on October 13 1997.

The mass media published inconsistent versions for
the cause of the crash where in fact there were
multiple, serial causes of the crash (as is
commonly the case in aircraft accidents), which
ultimately reduce to pilot error in not adequately
preparing for the flight in the unfamiliar
aircraft, and pilot error when attempting to
switch to the right tank and inadvertadly putting
the aircraft into a steep bank.

The accident report highlighted the following
factors:

* Denver began the flight knowing that the tanks
were low on fuel but neglected to fill the tanks
prior to takeoff as he thought there would be
enough for the solo familiarisation flight in the
aircraft which he estimated would be an hour long.
* The fuel selector was installed in a
non-standard location which was difficult for the
pilot to reach.
* The fuel selector was installed to function in a
counterintuitive fashion (up for off, down for
right, and right for left) and was unmarked.
* The fuel sight gauges were unmarked and
non-linear, as a result they did not give an
intuitive measure of fuel available.
* It is likely that the fuel in the left tank of
the aircraft was consumed during the first
half-hour of the flight.
* Denver would have had to loosen his harness and
twist his body in the seat in order to reach the
fuel selector.
* In doing this it is likely that Denver
inadvertently depressed the right rudder pedal.
* With the rudder pedal depressed the aircraft
would have rolled into a steep bank.
* Denver was preoccupied with trying to change to
the other tank and regain engine power; in doing
so the bank was not detected or corrected in time.
* The aircraft impacted the ocean before Denver
was able to regain control.

The Denver crash has led to improved safety
standards for small, custom aircraft.

==Related artists==
Denver started his recording career with the Chad
Mitchell Trio; his distinctive voice can be heard
where he sings solo on Violets of Dawn.  He
recorded three albums with the Mitchell Trio,
replacing Chad Mitchell himself as lead singer. 
His group Denver, Boise and Johnson released a
single before he moved on to a solo career.

Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert appeared as singers
and songwriters on many of Denver's albums up
until forming the Starland Vocal Band in 1976 in
music|1976.  The band's albums were released on
Denver's Windstar label.

Denver's early solo success was largely due to a
recording of his Leaving, on a Jet Plane which was
recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary.  It became a
number 1 hit for the group.

Denver recorded songs by Tom Paxton, Eric
Andersen, David Mallet, and many others in the
folk scene.



==Discography==
In chronological order, 1969 in music|1969-1991 in
music|1991 (U.S. Releases)

===RCA Records===
*Rhymes & Reasons - 1969 †
*Take Me To Tomorrow - 1970
*Whose Garden Was This? - 1970
*Poems, Prayers, and Promises - 1971
†
*Aerie - 1972
*Rocky Mountain High - 1972 †
*Farewell Andromeda - 1973
*Greatest Hits - 1973 ††
*Back Home Again - 1974 †
*An Evening with John Denver (live) - 1975
*Windsong - 1975 †
*Rocky Mountain Christmas - 1975
†
*Spirit - 1976
*Greatest Hits Vol. 2 - 1977
*I Want To Live - 1977
*John Denver (JD) - 1978
*A Christmas Together (with Muppet|The Muppets) -
1979
*Autograph - 1980
*Some Days Are Diamonds - 1981
*Seasons of the Heart - 1982
*It's About Time - 1983
*Rocky Mountain Holiday (with Muppet|The Muppets)
- 1983
*Greatest Hits Vol. 3 - 1984
*Dreamland Express - 1985
*One World - 1986

===Windstar Records===
*Higher Ground - 1989
*Earth Songs - 1990
*The Flower That Shattered the Stone - 1990
*Christmas, Like a Lullaby - 1990
*Different Directions - 1991

† Albums widely considered to be among
Denver's most important works.

†† The first "Greatest Hits" album
is important historically because it contains new,
revisionist recordings of several hit songs. 
After its release these versions were used for
airplay despite differing in subtle but important
ways from the original versions; generally, they
are more polished.

==Songs of note==

*"Leaving, On a Jet Plane" (1969) first made a hit
by Peter, Paul & Mary
*"Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971) –
written by Denver with Bill and Taffy Danoff. It
became the de facto anthem of West Virginia,
though it has no official status
*"Sunshine On My Shoulders" (1971) written by
Denver with Dick Kniss and Mike Taylor
*"Rocky Mountain High" (1972) written by Denver
with Mike Taylor
*"Annie's Song", written in 1974, for his wife
Annie.
*"For Baby (For Bobby)" 
*"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (1974) written by
John Sommers – gained popularity amongst
Baltimore Orioles fans as a song played during the
baseball team's seventh inning stretch.
*"Matthew"
*"Calypso" (1975) – A musical tribute to
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his crew, with song
royalties donated to the Cousteau Society.
*"Perhaps Love" (1981) – duet recorded with
Placido Domingo

All of these songs were written by John Denver,
with the exceptions noted

==See also==
*Best selling music artists

==External links==
* http://www.johndenver.com/ JohnDenver.com
(official site)
*
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSU
B020404290000241076&sql=B99q8b5t4tsqa All Music
Guide
* http://johndenverpeacecloth.com/ John Denver
Peace Cloth
* http://www.rockymtnhigh.org/ Rocky Mountain High
Fan Club
* http://www.fojd.org.uk/ UK Friends of John
Denver
* imdb name|id=0000135|name=John Denver
* http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/denver/ PBS
Nature site
*
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001208X
09045&key=1 NTSB report on crash

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

John Denver (December 31, 1943 – October 12,
1997), born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., was an
United States|American singer, songwriter,
musician, and actor. Denver died at the age of 53
off the coast of Monterey, California while
piloting a Rutan Aircraft Factory|Rutan Rutan
Long-EZ|Long-EZ, an experimental fiberglass
airplane. 

==Early years==
John Denver was born in Roswell, New Mexico.  His
father, Henry Deutschendorf, Sr., was an U.S. Air
Force|Air Force officer and flight instructor. 
Denver was born while his father was stationed at
the Roswell Army Air Field. He grew up on a number
of military bases in the Southwest United
States|American southwest.  Denver attended high
school in Fort Worth, Texas and later enrolled at
Texas Tech where he was a member of Delta Tau
Delta Fraternity. 

His introduction to playing music came at the age
of twelve when his grandmother gave him a 1910
Gibson acoustic guitar.  Denver began performing
at local clubs while in college.  He dropped out
of college in 1964 and moved to Los Angeles to
join the Chad Mitchell Trio, a folk music|folk
group.  He left the group, by then known as
Denver, Boise and Johnson, in 1969 to pursue a
solo career. 

That same year he released his debut LP, Rhymes
and Reasons.  Within the next four years, albums
such as Whose Garden Was This, Take Me to
Tomorrow, and Poems, Prayers and Promises
established him as one of America's popular
recording stars.

==Career==
Denver had a successful singing and songwriting
career, and a minor career as an actor—his
most notable film credit being in 1977 in
film|1977's Oh, God! opposite George Burns. In
1994 Denver wrote an autobiography entitled Take
Me Home.  He moved to Aspen, Colorado in 1970
following his first solo success with song
"Leaving on a Jet Plane".  

Denver was recognized not only for his musical
ability but also for his humanitarian work.  He
worked extensively on conservation projects and
helped to create the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska.  He also founded his own
environmental group called the Windstar
Foundation.  Denver had a keen interest in the
causes of and solution to hunger, and visited
Africa during the 1980s to witness first-hand the
suffering caused by starvation and also to work
with African leaders towards a solution. Denver
testified alongside Frank Zappa and Dee Snider on
the topic of censorship during a PMRC hearing in
1985.


After an enjoyable experience as a guest on The
Muppet Show, he recorded two Muppet television
specials: John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas
Together (1979) and John Denver and the Muppets:
Rocky Mountain Holiday (1982).

Defying all conventional labels, John Denver held
a singular place in American music: a songwriter
whose immensely popular work was suffused with a
deep and abiding kinship with the natural world.
Songs such as 'Take Me Home, Country Roads',
'Leaving on a Jet Plane', 'Rocky Mountain High'
are popular the world over. His songs are
characterised by their sweet melodies, elegant
guitar-strumming and his soulful rendition of the
lyrics. He became one of the few western singers
widely known in the non-European world including
Africa, India and South-East Asia.

In the months just prior to his death in a plane
accident in 1997 at the age of only 53, Denver was
filming an episode of the Nature series, centering
on the natural wonders that inspired many of his
best-loved songs. The result is a poignant and
melodic film that records his final journeys into
the wilderness and contains his last song,
"Yellowstone, Coming Home", composed while rafting
along the Colorado River with his son and young
daughter.



==Death==
Denver had two passions in life: song, and flying.
 An experienced pilot, Denver owned and flew his
own Lear Jet, gliders, flew aerobatically, and
even had some time in an F-15.  However, it was
this passion for the air that cost Denver his life
when he crashed his newly acquired Rutan Long-EZ
aircraft into the ocean on October 13 1997.

The mass media published inconsistent versions for
the cause of the crash where in fact there were
multiple, serial causes of the crash (as is
commonly the case in aircraft accidents), which
ultimately reduce to pilot error in not adequately
preparing for the flight in the unfamiliar
aircraft, and pilot error when attempting to
switch to the right tank and inadvertadly putting
the aircraft into a steep bank.

The accident report highlighted the following
factors:

* Denver began the flight knowing that the tanks
were low on fuel but neglected to fill the tanks
prior to takeoff as he thought there would be
enough for the solo familiarisation flight in the
aircraft which he estimated would be an hour long.
* The fuel selector was installed in a
non-standard location which was difficult for the
pilot to reach.
* The fuel selector was installed to function in a
counterintuitive fashion (up for off, down for
right, and right for left) and was unmarked.
* The fuel sight gauges were unmarked and
non-linear, as a result they did not give an
intuitive measure of fuel available.
* It is likely that the fuel in the left tank of
the aircraft was consumed during the first
half-hour of the flight.
* Denver would have had to loosen his harness and
twist his body in the seat in order to reach the
fuel selector.
* In doing this it is likely that Denver
inadvertently depressed the right rudder pedal.
* With the rudder pedal depressed the aircraft
would have rolled into a steep bank.
* Denver was preoccupied with trying to change to
the other tank and regain engine power; in doing
so the bank was not detected or corrected in time.
* The aircraft impacted the ocean before Denver
was able to regain control.

The Denver crash has led to improved safety
standards for small, custom aircraft.

==Related artists==
Denver started his recording career with the Chad
Mitchell Trio; his distinctive voice can be heard
where he sings solo on Violets of Dawn.  He
recorded three albums with the Mitchell Trio,
replacing Chad Mitchell himself as lead singer. 
His group Denver, Boise and Johnson released a
single before he moved on to a solo career.

Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert appeared as singers
and songwriters on many of Denver's albums up
until forming the Starland Vocal Band in 1976 in
music|1976.  The band's albums were released on
Denver's Windstar label.

Denver's early solo success was largely due to a
recording of his Leaving, on a Jet Plane which was
recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary.  It became a
number 1 hit for the group.

Denver recorded songs by Tom Paxton, Eric
Andersen, David Mallet, and many others in the
folk scene.



==Discography==
In chronological order, 1969 in music|1969-1991 in
music|1991 (U.S. Releases)

===RCA Records===
*Rhymes & Reasons - 1969 †
*Take Me To Tomorrow - 1970
*Whose Garden Was This? - 1970
*Poems, Prayers, and Promises - 1971
†
*Aerie - 1972
*Rocky Mountain High - 1972 †
*Farewell Andromeda - 1973
*Greatest Hits - 1973 ††
*Back Home Again - 1974 †
*An Evening with John Denver (live) - 1975
*Windsong - 1975 †
*Rocky Mountain Christmas - 1975
†
*Spirit - 1976
*Greatest Hits Vol. 2 - 1977
*I Want To Live - 1977
*John Denver (JD) - 1978
*A Christmas Together (with Muppet|The Muppets) -
1979
*Autograph - 1980
*Some Days Are Diamonds - 1981
*Seasons of the Heart - 1982
*It's About Time - 1983
*Rocky Mountain Holiday (with Muppet|The Muppets)
- 1983
*Greatest Hits Vol. 3 - 1984
*Dreamland Express - 1985
*One World - 1986

===Windstar Records===
*Higher Ground - 1989
*Earth Songs - 1990
*The Flower That Shattered the Stone - 1990
*Christmas, Like a Lullaby - 1990
*Different Directions - 1991

† Albums widely considered to be among
Denver's most important works.

†† The first "Greatest Hits" album
is important historically because it contains new,
revisionist recordings of several hit songs. 
After its release these versions were used for
airplay despite differing in subtle but important
ways from the original versions; generally, they
are more polished.

==Songs of note==

*"Leaving, On a Jet Plane" (1969) first made a hit
by Peter, Paul & Mary
*"Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971) –
written by Denver with Bill and Taffy Danoff. It
became the de facto anthem of West Virginia,
though it has no official status
*"Sunshine On My Shoulders" (1971) written by
Denver with Dick Kniss and Mike Taylor
*"Rocky Mountain High" (1972) written by Denver
with Mike Taylor
*"Annie's Song", written in 1974, for his wife
Annie.
*"For Baby (For Bobby)" 
*"Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (1974) written by
John Sommers – gained popularity amongst
Baltimore Orioles fans as a song played during the
baseball team's seventh inning stretch.
*"Matthew"
*"Calypso" (1975) – A musical tribute to
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his crew, with song
royalties donated to the Cousteau Society.
*"Perhaps Love" (1981) – duet recorded with
Placido Domingo

All of these songs were written by John Denver,
with the exceptions noted

==See also==
*Best selling music artists

==External links==
* http://www.johndenver.com/ JohnDenver.com
(official site)
*
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSU
B020404290000241076&sql=B99q8b5t4tsqa All Music
Guide
* http://johndenverpeacecloth.com/ John Denver
Peace Cloth
* http://www.rockymtnhigh.org/ Rocky Mountain High
Fan Club
* http://www.fojd.org.uk/ UK Friends of John
Denver
* imdb name|id=0000135|name=John Denver
* http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/denver/ PBS
Nature site
*
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001208X
09045&key=1 NTSB report on crash