Sunshine Almost Always
posted by drew
12.28.08
Lately I've been kind of obsessed with John Denver. Now, before you go thinking that John Denver sucks, allow me to say, I know. Believe me...growing up in the 70s, John Denver on the radio was like community-sanctioned child abuse.
(That's one of the interesting things about music: even the greatest songs, played too much, can, at best, lose appeal, and, at worse, drive you nuts.)
But a few weeks ago PBS showed a special about John Denver. (This was during their pledge week, when they pull out all the old music to tug on the heart- and purse-strings of their Boomer donor demographic.) Suddenly childhood memories were washing over me in his melodies--from the early 70s when I was 3 or 4, through to the end of the decade.
And I had to appreciate again that John Denver kind of kicks ass. There is definitely a reason he was so insanely popular.
In the tv documentary they mentioned the amazing honesty in his voice.
Of course his was a brilliant songwriter, as "Leaving on a Jet Plane," showed, which Peter, Paul and Mary first made a hit. The rhymes in the lines, "Now the dawn is breaking/It's early morn/The taxi's waiting/He's blowing his horn," are both tightly constructed and perfectly natural.
Other times his lyrics could be more than a tad cheesy; schmaltzy; cliche.
Another comment from the documentary that stuck with me was that "Sunshine On My Shoulder," which in many ways is a positive and even uplifting song, also has a hint of sadness, melancholy and loss in it. Something about the ways he sings it slow, in addition to the melody and the "if I had..." lyrics.
Listening to the song today, I'm struck by how says "sunshine almost always" instead of saying 'sunshine always makes me smile.' And he ends the song not with a full chorus, that would have ended on "smile", but with an abbreviated chorus, so the song ends with the three words "sunshine almost always," which is kind of poingant.
Sometimes I think that much of life contains this intoxicating mixture of beauty and sadness. Great art captures this. One reason I love traditional Chinese and Japanese poetry, such as haiku, is that it often contains this melancholy blend of tenderness and longing.
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1 comment for "Sunshine Almost Always"
drew dellinger
Drew Dellinger is a spoken word poet, professor, activist, and founder of Poets for Global Justice. He has inspired minds and hearts at hundreds of events in many countries, performing poetry and keynoting on justice, ecology, cosmology, activism, democracy and compassion.
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1
renata about John Denver says:
December 30, 2008 at 03:54 PM
a long time ago John Denver went international and I had to learn some of his lyrics at school. That was something, wasn't it? But he was very genuine in the way he sang everything and I would risk saying a lot of people crave romantic simplicity not simple explicity.This has to do with all this excessive ornamentation of life and art, everything is beautified forcibly and placing footnotes is in style.A"footnote" is an elelment which is added to almost every performance to make you believe you do not comprehend what it takes.Until you do not comprehend what it takes as it takes nothing .For this reason some artists should listen to Denver before their productions start.