For the John Denver fan — even the one who has all his albums on vinyl and a turntable that still works — comes this release from Sony Legacy. “All of My Memories: The John Denver Collection” is a 90-track, four-CD set spanning Denver’s 1964-97 career.
Loaded with previously unreleased material, alternate takes, rarities and classics, it’s worth its suggested retail price of $69.98.
John Denver collection
Disc One opens with the Denver-atypical “The Road,” a demo that could easily have been the title song for a Western. On the third track Denver renders the wistful traditional ballad “The Wagoner’s Lad,” a song folk music aficionados might also recognize as “My Horses Ain’t Hungry” or “Pretty Mary.” Track five, “Babe, I Hate to Go” was a privately pressed number that would later come to be known as “Leaving on a Jet Plane”; in 1969 it was the first and only No. 1 for Peter, Paul and Mary. Things get political with track seven, but even supporters of the 37th president will find “The ’68 Nixon (This Year’s Model)” amusing. Disc One closes with “Grizzly Bear Song,” a snippet from the ultra-rare “The John Denver Radio Show “promotional record.
Disc Two opens with the soaring “Rocky Mountain High,” now one of Colorado’s two official state songs. The exhilarating “The Eagle and the Hawk” appears as track six, and Bryan Bowers’ “Berkeley Woman” appears as track eight, with Bowers on Autoharp and Paul Prestopino on fretted dulcimer. Also featured on this disc are selections from “Back Home Again” — arguably Denver’s most successful album — including “Annie’s Song,” written for his first wife, something of a mythic figure among fans. The live version of John Martin Sommers’ joyous “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” is here, as is the live version of Jim Connor’s rollicking “Grandma’s Feather Bed.”
Disc Three highlights include the invigorating “Calypso” written for Denver’s good friend Jacques Cousteau and “Fly Away,” featuring the ethereal vocals of Olivia Newton-John. More duets are highlighted on Disc Four, including “Perhaps Love,” featuring Plácido Domingo and “Wild Montana Skies” featuring Emmylou Harris.
Listeners who know Denver’s work well may be slightly disoriented by the sequencing of some of the songs, and knowledgeable fans may notice one or two inaccuracies in Colorado Music Hall of Fame director G. Brown’s accompanying essay, but these are nitpicks.
And no worries: Randy Sparks’ slam “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio” is not included.
—Becky Beard
