Customer Reviews

Country Roads Collection

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is not for the neophyte John Denver fan. [They would be better served by the recently released 2-disc Portrait or the single disc Greatest Country Hits.] But true fans of the late John Denver will settle for nothing less than this sprawling 4-disc, 79-song box set. And even at that, this is not a complete retrospective, being limited to his 1969 to 1986 tenure at RCA. [So there are no songs from his stint with the Chad Mitchell Trio or anything from the albums he released on his own Windstar label after leaving RCA.] But what you do get shows the breadth and depth of one of America's best singer-songwriters of the past half century.

Of course, you get all the hits--fifteen top forty hits in all, and six of them sold at least a million copies!

Disc-1 covers his first four albums, beginning with the song which gave him his first national exposure as a songwriter--the lovely "Leaving on a Jet Plane" from 1969's Rhymes and Reasons (and covered by Peter, Paul & Mary who take it to No. 1). It wasn't until his fourth album, "Poems, Prayers, and Promises," that he charted with the single "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

Disc-2 essentially covers Denver's peak commercial years (1972-75). "Annie's Song," "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and "Calypso" all went to No. 1. His anthemic "Rocky Mountain High" epitomized the wholesome, down-home qualities of this all-American boy next door. And perhaps it was these same qualities which became his undoing. As the seventies wore on and musical tastes changed, a fickle record-buying public were no longer enthralled with the bespectacled "country boy."

Disc-3 sees the hits charting lower and lower. In fact, Denver's last hit of the seventies, 1977's "My Sweet Lady," was originally the flip side of 1975's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." This is not to say he wasn't still turning out quality music. Listen to the gorgeous "How Can I Leave You Again," or "I Want To Live" or "Autograph" to remind yourself that Denver was still writing beautiful songs.

Disc-4 contains his only two hits from the eighties: the mournful "Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stone)" and the lovely "Shanghai Breeze." However, the highlight is Denver's duet with Emmylou Harris on "Wild Montana Skies."

Denver amassed a substantial body of work during his seventeen years with RCA. This collection does an excellent job of providing a complete picture of the artistry of John Denver. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

You have to enjoy John's music a lot to want this box, but you don't have to be a fanatic. This set provides a comprehensive overview of his career from his years at RCA (which are really the only ones that matter to most people).

The first CD is interesting. It is made up entirely of tracks from Rhymes and reasons, Take me to tomorrow, Poems prayers and promises and Aerie. These were his first, second, fourth and fifth albums. The third album (Who's garden was this?) is mentioned in the accompanying booklet, but is not represented here at all. The collection starts with Leaving on a jet plane, which John wrote before he was famous. It became a huge international hit for Peter Paul and Mary. The most famous track is Take me home country roads, but there are many other great songs here. I would like to have seen his cover of Buddy Holly's Everyday and something from that third album included, but I have no complaints about what has been included.

The second CD is compiled from the next four original albums - Rocky mountain high, Farewell Andromeda, Back home again and Windsong. This was the period when John's popularity was at its peak. Many of his famous songs are on this CD, including Annie's song, Back home again, Sweet surrender, I'm sorry and Rocky mountain high. Thank God I'm a country boy, originally a track on Back home again, was later recorded live and that recording became another huge hit. It is that version which is included here, not the original studio recording.

The third CD begins with one last track from Windsong - Calypso, a tribute to Jacques Cousteau. During the period covered by this CD, John recorded two Christmas albums including one with the Muppets. Neither of these are represented here. So, the remainder of this CD contains tracks from Spirit, I want to live, John Denver (no other title) and Autograph. Although less successful than his earlier music, this was mainly due to changing public taste. The songs are brilliant.

There are some great moments on the final CD, although lacking consistency. It was a decade of experimentation and change, but it yielded two superb duets - Perhaps love (with Placido Domingo) and Wild Montana skies (with Emmylou Harris). The albums represented on this CD are Some days are diamonds, Seasons of the heart, It's about time, Dreamland express and One world.

This comprehensive collection contains many tracks not otherwise available on CD and is fitting tribute to a unique singer.

During the seventies, as a youngster, I had mixed emotions about John Denver's hit music. Tentatively, after the tragedy I decided to purchase this 4 c.d. set from BMG Direct - his old record company. After listening to the entire set, I gained tremendous respect for Mr. Denver. I'm now embarrassed that I didn't fully appreciate his talents. In my opinion, 25% of the songs are truly outstanding, 35% are good, 30% are average and 10% are unlistenable.

As such, I decided to puirchase more of Mr. Denver's music. After acquiring various individual albums (remember those things?) and c.d.'s, it became apparent this box set is poorly mixed. The vocals are upfront while the instumental work, especially the guitars, lacks presence. One simply cannot hear the complexity of the musical backing of which incoporates Mr. Denver's own guitar playing. I wonder if anybody else out there has the same impression?

Regardless, this set is a fine introduction To Mr. Denver's music from 1969-1986. Also,his music after this period is worth owning. I wish that BMG would reissue his complete catalogue - MIXED PROPERLY !

If John Denver's original music and his presentation blow you away, then so will this compilation. If you're even remotely entertained by John Denver's artistry, the same goes - - you'll thoroughly enjoy this collection, spanning as it does the earliest years to the late 80s. You might be surprised by the mixes on the earliest songs... Denver re-recorded them for the Greatest Hits album of 1974. The selections blend gently with each other and reflect all the published sides of this artist (whom I personally miss). The hits are here, the secondary efforts are here... even a couple of obscure items are here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I.

I was hesitant at first about purchasing such a large volume of Denver's works, several of which I had never heard, but after I started playing the CDs, I became hooked! My CD player holds only three CDs at a time, so my biggest problem was which CD of the four would be left out!

Some of the songs that I'd never heard before became my favorites. I was delighted to learn that John had a very spiritual side that showed up often in his musical compositions. I especially love 'Singing Skies and Dancing Waters', 'How Can I Leave You Again, and 'It Amazes Me'. Songs like 'Come and Let Me Look In Your Eyes', 'Sweet Surrender', 'Looking for Space' and 'Wild Montana Skies' soon found their way to my 'must be played every day' list.

John's songwriting covered most of the happiness and complexities of the human condition as evidenced in 'For Baby','Follow Me','Seasons of the Heart','Shaghai Breezes', and 'I Can't Escape', just a few of his sensitive and lovely, although lesser known works that are included in this stellar collection. Two of the most beautiful songs he ever wrote, 'My Sweet Lady' and 'Perhaps Love', are also featured.

For the platinum hit fans, all the standards are included as well: 'Take Me Home Country Roads', 'Leaving on a Jet Plane', and 'Rocky Mountain High' among many, many others.

So many of us were impressed by the multitude of Denver megahits that we heard played daily on the radio but we never were introduced to the even more remarkable songs that he wrote and recorded during his career, many of which are included in this 4-CD set. I think that's what makes this collection so very special and a bargain at any price! I play it all the time and never get tired of it!

this is just about the best there is for anyone who wants as complete picture of johns musical career without buying 10 albums. of course, any consumate fan will have their own songs that they feel have been left off of this excellent collection, or some the collection could have done without (i.e. take out Dearest Esmeralda and Polka Dots and Moonbeams and add other "rarities" like Dancing with the Mountains and To the Wild Country). All in all, this is the best you can get to get a complete picture. Buy and enjoy!

As soon as I started playing the first disc I thought to myself "something sounds different from what I remembered". I took out my old cassette tapes of his Greatest Hits album and compared each song. Sure enough, the instrumentals from the greatest hits album were much fuller sounding. Looking back through these reviews I see I'm not the only one to notice this. Very disappointed! Buy his "John Denver's Greatest Hits" rather than this collection.

This 4 CD set does an excellent job of John Denver's career. All of the hits are here. But, it goes much deeper than that. It shows just how good a songwriter he was. While he didn't put out much right before he died, this is the way he should be remembered. These timeless classics should be heard by any person who says they are a serious music fan.

I grew up on John's music, my first song was Rocky Mountain Suite. I have close to a dozen of his albums, all of them phenomenal (Seasons of the Heart, Windsong, It's About Time, Farewell Andromeda and Poems Prayers and Promises being my favorites) but this boxed set had quite a bit of new material for me. I recommend this to anyone who loves John's music or people who maybe haven't yet discovered the wonderful tunes beyond the radio hits (like Country Roads and Rocky Mountain High) John is gone but his music will live on forever through his fans. "Though the singer is silent, there still is the truth of the song" -'On the Wings of a Dream', "It's about time"

This is a very nice collection of John Denver's most popular songs, hits or otherwise. I could quibble about some personal favorites that aren't here, but all in all this is a very complete set. And the liner notes are very well written and informative, which is always a nice added value.

I already owned most of the individual studio albums this set culls from, but I bought the box set because of the re-mastered audio, and for the most part I am satisfied with the sound quality. The sound on this collection is much better than that of the older original albums, say, up through "Back home Again". But after that, from "Windsong" forward, the sound quality on the original albums was much improved and this set's re-mastering does not provide too much of an improvement in those cases. At least not one that's obvious without doing a direct A/B comparison, which I did not do.

So, to sum up, I would recommend this CD set to all big fans of John Denver, even those who may have most of the music on other CD's. The improved sonics are worth the purchase price. And if you are a more casual fan, I would recommend it to you as perhaps the only John Denver collection you'll ever really need. But if you just want the hit's, there are many other smaller best-of's available that would be a better choice.