Michael Martin Murphey – “Wildfire”

Michael Martin Murphey is another one of those names that would have meant nothing to me if you had asked me about him – until just now when I came across the 1975 hit “Wildfire”. Then I knew who he was. I used to love that song. “Wildfire” is about a horse, as the video […]

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John Denver – “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, “Sunshine On My Shoulders”, “Grandma’s Feather Bed” and “Rocky Mountain High”

Driving down country roads in New Zealand in my late teens, often the melody of the John Denver song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” would come to mind, and I’d find myself singing it as I drove along.

I say late teens because I sold my car to go on my first trip to Europe just before I turned twenty. In fact, I had my 20th birthday on the plane back home a couple of months later.

Because of the time differences and the international dateline, I actually only had about an hour of birthday, at Honolulu International Airport in Hawaii.

Anyway… I used to find the song particularly appropriate when I was driving home from university along State Highway 50, actually a series of practically empty back roads that run the length of Central Hawkes Bay parallel to the main road, State Highway 2.

It follows a range of mountains and crosses numerous rivers…

As you are perhaps aware, John Denver lost his life in a plane crash, flying solo, in 1997. Long before then, this had become one of his signature songs.

Here is a live version of “Take Me Home, Country Roads”:

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