Rocky Mountain High

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. is the first musician to be inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of fame.

But you probably know him by another name: John Denver.

On the eve of Earth Day 2011, Denver was inducted into the new Colorado Hall of Fame as its first human inductee. I say human because the other inductee that night in Broomfield was Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the world-famous outdoor music venue near Morrison.

Anyone who was sentient in the 1970s remembers Denver, that eternally cheerful singer/songwriter who was ubiquitous on pop and country music stations and wrote and performed such hits as “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and “Rocky Mountain High,” which now is one of Colorado’s two state songs.

Denver was born in New Mexico into a military family that had him moving all over the country as a youth. But a love of the mountains inspired him to change his last name and brought him to Colorado, where he lived and wrote his songs and maintained a home until his untimely death in 1997 at the age of 53.

Denver’s popularity in the early-to-mid 1970s – with his soaring tenor voice, constant smile and catchy tunes – probably in some part fed a public hunger for a more optimistic view of the world and the future that had been badly beaten down by the Vietnam War and the social upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Denver always exuded a positive attitude, and he didn’t just sit back and count his money and do drugs like many of his peers. He became an advocate for the environment and founded organizations that worked to alleviate hunger and preserve nature. He wore his heart on his sleeve – like many of the songwriters of that era – and put his progressive views into action.

Unfortunately, Denver’s love of flying did him in while he was piloting an experimental aircraft in California in October 1997. An experienced pilot with several of his own planes, he died when his one-seat craft crashed into the Pacific. An investigation later concluded that the fuel switch – normally on a plane’s instrument panel – was located behind the pilot’s left shoulder and required an awkward movement to reach that may have caused Denver to push down on a rudder and go into an uncontrollable dive.

All we really know is we lost a passionate social activist, popular entertainer and sweet human being far too soon.

His selection into the Colorado Hall of Fame as its first inductee was a perfect choice.

Inducting a place – Red Rocks – into the hall of fame also makes perfect sense, as it is THE premiere place to attend a concert in the state, and indeed, one of the best in the world. I read that Denver played there 17 times, and many groups and musicians have recorded live albums there because of its beauty and wonderful acoustics, including Ireland’s U2.

Even the Beatles played there in 1964, making it Holy Ground for all who came after. I’ve attended several wonderful concerts there, including one by Neil Young who, when singing “yellow moon on the rise” during his song, “Helpless,” – just as a full yellow moon was rising over the Denver city lights in the distance on a perfect summer night – caused the crowd to gasp and cheer wildly in that transcendent moment.

John Denver’s songs and work will live long into the future, and many more transcendent moments await at Red Rocks.

These first two inductions will be hard to equal.
  
 

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