Take Me Home - Denver

I have been a fan of John Denver since I was a very little kid. Not only is his music wonderful, but he wrote a song about me! OK, not so much, but as a child I believed for years that "Country Roads" was written for me...

"...[Shannon]-doah-river"

Turns out I was named after the Shannon River, in Ireland, not the Shenandoah, but that's another post.

I was very sad when he passed away.  Being a musician, I have very strong reactions and memories to music and I still have fond memories of his music and how it touched my childhood.

A while back, I saw a documentary about him on PBS and discovered that he had written a memoir. It went immediately onto my TBR list. Its taken me a while to get to it, but I finally did and it was a wonderful trip down memory lane!

I really enjoyed reading about his journey from childhood to adulthood, through the somewhat crazy 60's, 70's and 80's.  He passed away, I believe, in the early 90's (though this is not obviously addressed in his autobiography). He speaks mostly of his father, the person who inspired his interest and passion for flying planes, with much love and respect.

Denver was known not only for his amazing but simplistically beautiful music, but also for his years of efforts to conserve the earth. As well, he was a strong force in the efforts to reduce and/or end world hunger. He was also known to be a bit of a drunk and to cheat on his wife, but he talks quite honestly about this in his book.

I read this book, but imagine the audio version (which I believe was recorded by Denver himself) must be quite enjoyable with his mellifluous voice.  I'm glad I got a chance to get to know him a bit better.

3/5- Good. Read it, have a good time and move on. Or not.

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