Autograph [Original recording remastered]

John Denver | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1980
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000055XXV
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,862 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

This 1980 LP went Top 40, stayed on the charts for 17 weeks and remains a fan favorite-and yet it's never been available on CD! Well, it is now, with its pop hits Autograph and Dancing with the Mountains plus two bonus tracks from the original album session. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars End of an era, May 25, 2003

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Autograph (Audio CD)

Milton Okun was John's producer and mentor for many years. They worked together on all his albums up to and including this one, released in 1980. Although this was not the last time they worked together, things were never the same again. Following this album, John experimented with different producers. Some of these produced great albums, but in a slightly different style. So this album, Autograph, was the last of its kind.

The style of this album is typical of John - rooted in folk but with elements of pop and country, with a bluegrass influence on one or two tracks. Classifying John's music was never easy but that's how he liked it. The quality is all that matters, and you get plenty of that here, especially with addition of two bonus tracks. They were recorded for possible inclusion in the original album and were certainly good enough.

John often sang about nature and the environment, and this album is packed with such songs. Normally, these songs are set in the Rockies, but many of the songs on this album are set in Alaska (Wrangell mountain song, American child, Whalebones and crosses). The Rockies are not completely overlooked - they are the setting for The mountain song. Even the love songs generally relate in some way to the environment, as in How mountain girls can love.

John did not record a lot of covers, but he always chose wisely when he did record them. Here you can here his outstanding version of Rodney Crowell's Song for the life.

This was not one of John's most commercially successful albums, but it was only because he was out of fashion at the time. If this album had appeared a few years earlier it would have generated the sales it deserved. It is a classic.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingly beautiful, April 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Autograph (Audio CD)

Autograph is a wonderful cd...I deeply appreciate John's rendition of 'Song for the Life' and 'You Say that the Battle is Over' and 'The Mountain Song'...and the depth of understanding he communicates in 'Whalebones and Crosses' evokes in the perceptive listener that same understanding of the truth he is expressing. 'American Child' is a call to each of us (as are so many of John's ballads)...and the title track "Autograph' is John Denver at his best--expressing the feelings of his heart. I highly recommend this cd--if you are someone who remembers JD for the hit songs only, you are in for a real eye opener into the depth of style, emotion and messages JD expressed through his music. Autograph has been a favorite lp & tape of mine for many years...and the cd version is excellent!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The album that solidified John's resolve to the environment!, January 24, 2001

By 

Len Jaffe (Springfield, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Autograph (Audio CD)

It is rather interesting, although many will write it off to sheer coincidence since John has been gone for more than three years, that this album should appear on compact disc for the first time...now that the Bush Administration is in place and there are, for the first time in the last eight years, threats being made by the possible new Interior Secretary of drilling for oil in Alaska. Coincidence?

"Autograph" is the album John needed to record, more than any other, to solidify his resolve to protect the environment. Every single one of the songs that appeared on the original release is here, plus two songs that were recorded at the same time and were added to this package. Only one of them, "On The Wings Of An Eagle", has the same theme as the rest of the album, although the old Nitty Gritty Dirt Band favorite, "Dance, Little Jean", is here, too, and that is great fun.

"Autograph" exudes John's love for all things natural. Especially prevalent are songs that make people stop and take pause, which is all that John ever wanted any of us to do. Listen to "Wrangell Mountain Song" or "Whalebones and Crosses" and ask yourself how we can go into the pristeen raw nature of the northern hemisphere and start developing it for the finite amount of resources it has. Listen to David Mallett's "You Say That The Battle Is Over" and realize that it will never be.

The band used during this period, circa 1980, was among the best he ever had. Herb Pedersen, Emory Gordy, James Burton, Jim Horn, Glen D Hardin, and Hal Blaine are studio masters all who gave John his strongest musical support of his entire career.

John's entire RCA catalogue has never been released domestically. I think it's possible that RCA may release some limited-edition box arrangement of all 25 albums on the fifth anniversary of his passing (I don't know that, it just seems reasonable). Only "Rocky Mountain Holiday" with the Muppetts has never seen the light of day as a CD anywhere in the world. I wonder what recorded gems still await in the vaults somewhere. But thank goodness someone had the wisdom to release this one. Buy this album and really listen to the words, then play it for your friends, and then talk about it. It might be the last chance you have to make John's dream a reality.