Take Me Home, Country Roads

Take Me Home, Country Roads is an American country music song written by John Denver, Bill Danoff and Taffy Danoff Nivert. The piece was published in 1971 by John Denver on his album Poems, Prayers and Promises, reached # 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold. In 2000 it was chosen by the ASCAP for country song of the century.

Content

The text of the piece describes feelings and thoughts during a ride on a country road home. The driver remembers his native West Virginia. The chorus evokes an intense desire to return home, to the place " where you belong and out of whose hills you're from ." Mentioned in the text, among other things, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River.

Cover versions

The piece is one of the most famous Country tunes of the 1970s and has been covered by numerous artists such as Ray Charles, Earl Scruggs, Statler Brothers, Letterman, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Wayne Newton, Lynn Anderson and Olivia Newton-John. More pictures were taken by Toots & The Maytals in 1973 and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1987.

The cover version of the Dutch Hermes House Band from 2001 could hold eleven weeks in the German singles chart, reaching number two.

Reception in West Virginia

In March 2014, the song Take Me Home, Country Roads was declared by the Parliament in West Virginia as the official anthem. Since 1972, the song is played at all home games of the football team West Virginia Mountaineers West Virginia University. In 1980, a new field was opened, John Denver was the song live before and asked the audience to sing along. Since then, the piece part of the sporting tradition of the university is ..

Film Music

In the Japanese anime film Whisper of the Heart - Whisper of the Heart, the student Shizuku translated the song for the choir of their school into Japanese. The piece, renamed Concrete Road, describes a western part of Tokyo and plays a role at several points of the film. Also the version of Olivia Newton-John is part of the soundtrack.