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posies23's review
3.0
Someone recommended this to me as a really interesting autobiography. I suppose in some ways it is, but . . . it just never really connected to me all that much. The best parts of it illuminate Denver's struggles as he works to become a successful musician, but once he becomes famous the book loses most of its drive. Denver comes off as a bit of a flake, always talking about his spiritual leaders and causes he's pulled to support, which simultaneously being pretty abusive to some of those close to him. He has some dirt to dish, for sure, including his disdain for several past colleagues. I think that this book is probably best reserved for Denver's biggest fans and not the casual ones like me.
ablot's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.75
i leave this book feeling that denver left so much unexpressed. but what he did express, was important to me.
bastilleaedin's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
3.75
lisasroughdrafts's review
4.0
This is my second time reading this autobiography. I now own a copy of it. My first time, I was young and had not experienced much life. This time, from my vantage point with life experience, I have a greater appreciation of Mr. John Denver. I enjoyed his attention to detail and his honestly. He tells his story as a deeply flawed human being who is still growing and evolving. I can especially appreciate his deep spirituality and his desire to understand himself. I think on that last point, he seems to camp out a little too long. But those are my own judgements. I really admire Mr. Denver’s songs and lyrics, and appreciates that I could learn more about who he was as an individual.
amandakbaker's review
3.0
Rating this book is kind of hard! It’s not brilliantly written, and it would probably only be interesting to someone highly invested in John Denver’s music... which I am, so it was. John Denver was a perennial part of the soundtrack of my parents’ home when I was growing up. Being from West Virginia and the ubiquity of Country Roads is also a factor, but I think my folks were fans long before they moved to WV in the late 80s. Hearing his voice makes me feel simultaneously at home, longing for home, and homesick for places I’ve never even seen yet.
His dad was a decorated Air Force pilot so he spent his childhood living all over the place - an experience that certainly contributed to his songwriting style. He was a very sensitive kid who felt things deeply, but also seemed to absorb his father’s mode of never talking about feelings and also occasionally talked negatively in the book of how “high strung” and “emotional” his mother was. A recipe for disaster!
He dropped out of college to start his music career in the late 60s, right at the time that rock n roll was taking off, so he followed the folkies to carve out a different niche for himself. He wrote Leavin’ On a Jet Plane when he was still very young. Peter, Paul and Mary covered it, and that set his career off in the direction it took. He writes of how his success came to be, the places his touring took him, the spiritual experiences he sought along the way through all manner of healers, shamans, and dieticians, and about starting an environmental foundation. Looking back it’s funny how he did all this environmental stuff, while spending his life crisscrossing the globe on airplanes for business and pleasure. He also compares himself to Columbus in talking about the nature documentary he did in Alaska, and was maybe more right about that than he realized.
He met Annie at a show when he was 22 and married her at 23, and since she didn’t like to go on the road with him, his way of dealing with that was to cheat on her at pretty much every possible opportunity on the road. As with reading Anthony Bourdain’s memoir, it left me feeling like I really needed his wife’s side of the story. Then there’s the matter of the chainsaw incident after she asked for a divorce which... I will not detail here but, yikes.
He writes of his second divorce, first DUI and breakups with his managers as if they were all things that just *happened* to him rather than in any way resulting from his choices and behavior. He was in kind of an alcoholic tailspin at the time he wrote this book, it seems, and was still when he died in the plane crash not much later. If he had lived and gotten sober, he may have had the chance to reckon with it all better... but alas, he did not.
John Denver leaves behind a legacy of beautiful music, the writing of which was informed by many years of internal and external turmoil. It’s one thing to know an artist’s work and another to know the context it came from, and I understand that a little better now.
His dad was a decorated Air Force pilot so he spent his childhood living all over the place - an experience that certainly contributed to his songwriting style. He was a very sensitive kid who felt things deeply, but also seemed to absorb his father’s mode of never talking about feelings and also occasionally talked negatively in the book of how “high strung” and “emotional” his mother was. A recipe for disaster!
He dropped out of college to start his music career in the late 60s, right at the time that rock n roll was taking off, so he followed the folkies to carve out a different niche for himself. He wrote Leavin’ On a Jet Plane when he was still very young. Peter, Paul and Mary covered it, and that set his career off in the direction it took. He writes of how his success came to be, the places his touring took him, the spiritual experiences he sought along the way through all manner of healers, shamans, and dieticians, and about starting an environmental foundation. Looking back it’s funny how he did all this environmental stuff, while spending his life crisscrossing the globe on airplanes for business and pleasure. He also compares himself to Columbus in talking about the nature documentary he did in Alaska, and was maybe more right about that than he realized.
He met Annie at a show when he was 22 and married her at 23, and since she didn’t like to go on the road with him, his way of dealing with that was to cheat on her at pretty much every possible opportunity on the road. As with reading Anthony Bourdain’s memoir, it left me feeling like I really needed his wife’s side of the story. Then there’s the matter of the chainsaw incident after she asked for a divorce which... I will not detail here but, yikes.
He writes of his second divorce, first DUI and breakups with his managers as if they were all things that just *happened* to him rather than in any way resulting from his choices and behavior. He was in kind of an alcoholic tailspin at the time he wrote this book, it seems, and was still when he died in the plane crash not much later. If he had lived and gotten sober, he may have had the chance to reckon with it all better... but alas, he did not.
John Denver leaves behind a legacy of beautiful music, the writing of which was informed by many years of internal and external turmoil. It’s one thing to know an artist’s work and another to know the context it came from, and I understand that a little better now.
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