Rocky Mountain High
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Rocky Mountain High" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by John Denver | ||
| from the album Rocky Mountain High | ||
| Released | 1973 | |
| Format | vinyl record | |
| Recorded | August 1972 | |
| Genre | Folk-Rock | |
| Length | 4:12 | |
| Label | RCA | |
| Writer(s) | John Denver (lyrics)/John Denver and Mike Taylor (music) | |
| Producer(s) | Milt Okun | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| John Denver singles chronology | ||
| Please, Daddy (1973) |
Rocky Mountain High (1973) |
Sunshine on My Shoulders (1974) |
"Rocky Mountain High" is a folk-rock song written by John Denver and Mike Taylor about Colorado, and shares the title of Colorado's official state song.[1] Recorded by Denver, it went to number nine on the US Hot 100 in 1973.
"Rocky Mountain High" is primarily inspired by John Denver's move to Aspen, Colorado, United States three years earlier and his love for the state. The seventh stanza makes a reference to destruction of the mountains' beauty by commercial tourism. The song was considered a major piece of 1970's pop culture, and became a well-associated piece of Colorado history.
The song briefly became controversial that year when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission was permitted by a legal ruling to crack down on music deemed to promote drug abuse. Numerous radio stations cautiously banned the song until Denver publicly explained that the "high" was his innocent description of the sense of peace he found in the Rockies. In 1985, Denver testified before Congress in the Parents Music Resource Center hearings about his experience:
This was obviously done by people who had never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains, and also had never experienced the elation, celebration of life, or the joy in living that one feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Perseids meteor shower on a moonless, cloudless night, when there are so many stars that you have a shadow from the starlight, and you are out camping with your friends, your best friends, and introducing them to one of nature's most spectacular light shows for the first time.[2]
After years as an unofficial anthem for Colorado, on March 12, 2007, the Colorado General Assembly made Rocky Mountain High one of two official state songs, sharing the honor with "Where the Columbines Grow".[1] In 2005, the song was performed by a soloist at the NBA all-star game in Denver. The song was also used in an advertisement for Colorado-based Coors beer. Furthermore, in Final Destination, the song is heard before some of the deaths.
Snowmass, Colorado, a ski resort near Aspen, named a run "Rocky Mountain High," in honor of John Denver.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Lawmakers OK 'Rocky Mountain High'. The Denver Post (March 12, 2007). Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
- ^ Eric D. Nuzum, Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America, Harper (2001). ISBN 0-688-16772-1
