The Ultimate Blue Space Song

A few weeks ago I was on my way to my sister's house to feed the fish and bring in the mail while they were out of town when I had what I guess can be called an epiphany.

The song "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver came on the radio -- the one we joked was about doing drugs back in the day --and it was as if I was hearing this forty-plus-year-old song for the first time.

He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Coming back to a place where he's never been before
He left yesterday behind him
You might say he was born again
You might say he found the key to every door

The words were like crystalline coming into my soul.  I was hearing each word as if for the first time.

It is a Blue Space song, I have since decided.  Because this feeling has not left me as I've listened to it over and over again. It is (somehow) always a new revelation.

Even yesterday, when for the first time I found out that one line was not what I thought it was.

I'm still discovering this song.

I'm referring to this line:

Talk to God and listen to the casual reply

I honestly never knew that he mentioned God in the song!

*

When John Denver died in a plane crash in 1997, I was friends with a guy named Rich who was devastated by the event.  Rich was my age, and it turns out, he was a huge Denver fan, often listening to the music while smoking a cigar on his porch.  It truly was like Rich had lost a best friend when Denver died.  I still remember the grief on his face.

I'm not sure I've ever been that devastated about an artist dying.  Maybe.  But not like that.

I've got to admit I didn't fully understand.  Sure, I liked John Denver -- especially his Christmas album with the Muppets.  Epic.  And "Annie's Song" --who can argue with the love expressed in such a sensual way?

But to grieve heavily over him.  No comprende.

*
Now, in 2017, this has changed.

What Denver has done in this song -- and perhaps many of his songs, as I'm sure Rich can attest -- is to combine spiritual transformation, nature, the musician's life, heartbreak, mythology, mystery, environmentalism, and relationships.  What other song does that much so well?  The only song that came to mind was "Imagine" by John Lennon, but it's a bit abstract.

"Rocky Mountain High" is a different sort of song.  It has solid images, even as the idea of "trying to touch the sun" or talking to God and listening for a reply is beyond the concrete.  It takes on the idea of ripping apart nature for people, as it celebrates being in nature. It brings to mind good times with friends and singular moments in the outdoors, standing under the stars or viewing a sunset, and when you see a sight like an eagle soaring above you. It is a complete religious service in four minutes.

And for me, a confirmed Floridian, who has been to Colorado and has found it too lonely and dry for my sinuses, to be in love with this song in such a deep way can only mean one thing -- it brings me to Blue Space.

I don't think there are many songs that do that.  I will be on the lookout and report if I do find any.  Meanwhile, take a listen. Read these words.  Enter the Blue Space John Denver brilliantly created many years ago.