Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book--helps one's understanding of his life
Review: I highly recommend John Denver's autobiography, Take Me Home. It is a candid introspective work which is a valuable read for anyone who seeks to better understand the man's life. His honesty is welcomed, for it points to the fact that he was a human being who admittedly made mistakes, yet never strayed from a deep desire to make a difference in the world. His struggles and joys shared so openly make this book a treasure...there is much to be learned from his life.Christine Smith
Rating: 
Summary: Expecting to find a hero, I found a tragic figure.
Review: I opened the book expecting to learn more about the heroic qualities of a man who had given us songs about peace, searching for truth, loving the earth, and loving each other. Naively, I wanted to see John Denver as a hero; someone who had passionately searched for answers and found some of life's important truths. His music, especially during his heyday in the 70's, led me to that expectation. Instead, I closed the book feeling cheated; like his music didn't really tell the whole story. His image of a squeaky clean country boy who thought that his wife ("Annie's Song") and the majesty of nature ("Sonshine on my Shoulder", "Rocky Mountain High", etc.) were the most "far out" blessings in life was in conflict with the very confused, lost soul who failed in many of his relationships and never really found his balance. He wanted to make the world a better place for children, yet he failed to recognize that this starts at home. By his own admission, he was hardly a model father and played a very small part in his own children's lives. His songs made us feel that love was the most important thing of all, yet he didn't really know how to love, constantly cheating on his wife and failing in two marriages and many other business and personal relationships. John Denver created beautiful, inspiring music. And he poured much of himself into causes like the environment which he felt were important. That is noble. But after reading the book, I was left with a greater sense of the tragedy of his life than of its glories.
Rating:
Summary: The man behind the music
Review: I remember the first time I heard John Denver sing in one of his TV specials when my son was still a baby, now 30 years ago. I was sure he would remain a major star. His obvious singing skill and message with heart were, and remain, a winning combination. Unlike many of his avid fans, somewhere along the line I lost track of what John was doing as the years went by. I was shocked at his early death, but unaware at the time at the enormity of his contributions on so many fronts.
Recently I came across several songs of his I had never heard before. I was enthralled, touched and saddened that so much of his work had escaped my notice for so long. The songs seemed so haunting. My immersion in the scope of topics, and what the songs revealed about their originator, brought me to a mild state of shock. I found myself embarrassed and guilty not to have taken the full measure of fruits of his extraordinary efforts seriously before.
Needing more information about the man, to flesh out true intent of many of his works and learn more about his dreams, I found only 1 autobiography in the entire Washington, DC library system. Subsequently I found there were only 7 in the Montgomery County, MD, system. I was sad and disappointed to find so little has been written about him....
His autobiography reveals the huge amount of courage John brought to many of his efforts, and in revealing the less flattering facts and deeds of his own life. In many ways the words in the book are a fuller extension of what he has already given voice to in his songs.
How is an artist made? Many strong feelings and experiences of childhood and adolescence can give rise to the need for artistic self expression, especially when other outlets are difficult. Beginning with his boyhood and family relationships, John talks about the feelings and events that lead to his own use of the guitar and songwriting as a means to self expression, finding friends and relationships, and making the contributions he was so driven to make.
John discusses the development of his musical career, while trying to balance marriage and the many issues with which all adults must cope. He describes the fabric of his many victories, losses and frailties in both his personal and professional life without shrinking from unflattering facts. We are given a rare view into how an artist translates the complexity of his thoughts and feelings into a communication to which others can relate. Often the most poignant moments in John's life led to his strongest and most striking compositions.
It is rare that anyone relates such a brutally honest examination of his life and his dreams as in this book. I now have a much deeper understanding and appreciation for John Denver the man, his music and the environmental causes to which he gave so much time, effort and financial support. It seems to me he may well have sacrificed a great deal to be able to give so much to the rest of us. In the end, it remains up to us that remain after him to carry on the work he so poetically outlined and gave his life to.
What's missing? Like John's life, this autobiography ends too soon. I hope someone will write more details about what John was doing in the late '80s and '90s. We have few in the Baby Boomer generation who have contributed as much as John Denver, without the acknowledgment he should have had during his lifetime. Only five years older than me, his life begs the question of each of us, asking what have we contributed and what will live on after each of us?
Rating: 
Summary: A Sad Life
Review: Is the saddest person the one who gets his deepest desire and finds it to be empty? JD craved an audience, and in the end, it cost him two wives. This is a sad book about an empty man who tried to fill his emptiness with drugs, booze, other woman, and about every weird cult that has every come down the bend. His shallowness is surprising. How ironic that a man marketed as such an all American boy was anything but.
Rating:
Summary: Never Forgotten
Review: It's hard to believe that John Denver has been gone for 5 1/2 years. I bought my book when it first came out and was dissappointed that it didn't have more personal information. Recently I paid over four times as much for another copy just so that I could understand more accurately how he thought. Maturity has lead to an increased appreciation of the candor in this book.
Until and if Annie chooses to write about her first husband there will be no better source for the history of this remarkable man. With each reading I gain insight into the music that has touched me so deeply for so many years.
Rating: 
Summary: Parting Reflections....
Review: John really opens up here. For an entertainer to be as candid about himself as he is here...and there's a lot to be read between the lines as well...is very unusual. The reader gets a glimpse of the "back stage" John Denver. For all his laid-backness, he was extremely tough on himself, his own worst enemy, forever with a monkey on his back that demanded success and respect despite the lack of support he got from those who were most important to him. Self critical yet so caring, indeed his life was structured around the pursuit of approval. He bares his soul, admits to personal inadequacies, showing the reader that besides being the voice for all of nature, he was just a human being as well...a person who stumbles from time to time while attempting to do what he thought was best. I listened to the audio book which is read by John while he sat on his deck at his home in Aspen. He prefaced his reading by warning the reader/listener that from time to time there might be the sound of a plane taking off from the nearby airport but that there would also be the sound of a stream and some windchimes hanging nearby. Indeed there are those sounds in the background. Together, with his voice it makes for a very intimate setting... just you and John, sitting on his deck, enjoying his story telling one more time in what probably was one of his favorite spots. A very nice feeling to be with John again.
Rating:
Summary: Parting Reflections....
Review: John really opens up here. For an entertainer to be as candid about himself as he is here...and there's a lot to be read between the lines as well...is very unusual. The reader gets a glimpse of the "back stage" John Denver. For all his laid-backness, he was extremely tough on himself, his own worst enemy, forever with a monkey on his back that demanded success and respect despite the lack of support he got from those who were most important to him. Self critical yet so caring, indeed his life was structured around the pursuit of approval. He bares his soul, admits to personal inadequacies, showing the reader that besides being the voice for all of nature, he was just a human being as well...a person who stumbles from time to time while attempting to do what he thought was best. I listened to the audio book which is read by John while he sat on his deck at his home in Aspen. He prefaced his reading by warning the reader/listener that from time to time there might be the sound of a plane taking off from the nearby airport but that there would also be the sound of a stream and some windchimes hanging nearby. Indeed there are those sounds in the background. Together, with his voice it makes for a very intimate setting... just you and John, sitting on his deck, enjoying his story telling one more time in what probably was one of his favorite spots. A very nice feeling to be with John again.
Rating:
Summary: Parting Reflections....
Review: John really opens up here. For an entertainer to be as candid about himself as he is here...and there's a lot to be read between the lines as well...is very unusual. The reader gets a glimpse of the "back stage" John Denver. For all his laid-backness, he was extremely tough on himself, his own worst enemy, forever with a monkey on his back that demanded success and respect despite the lack of support he got from those who were most important to him. Self critical yet so caring, indeed his life was structured around the pursuit of approval. He bares his soul, admits to personal inadequacies, showing the reader that besides being the voice for all of nature, he was just a human being as well...a person who stumbles from time to time while attempting to do what he thought was best. I listened to the audio book which is read by John while he sat on his deck at his home in Aspen. He prefaced his reading by warning the reader/listener that from time to time there might be the sound of a plane taking off from the nearby airport but that there would also be the sound of a stream and some windchimes hanging nearby. Indeed there are those sounds in the background. Together, with his voice it makes for a very intimate setting... just you and John, sitting on his deck, enjoying his story telling one more time in what probably was one of his favorite spots. A very nice feeling to be with John again.
Rating: 
Summary: It could have been better
Review: Oddly enough I found myself owning two copies of this book. And while I read it cover to cover I wish it had more about JD:the man and his music and his feelings. It just didn't seem to cover enough of what I was looking for. Sherianna
Rating:
Summary: Take Me Home allows a look into John Denver's soul
Review: Take Me Home delves deeply into John Denver's music, life and relationships with his family and friends. As John Denver the musician, he addresses where many of his songs were coming from and what was going on at the time. John, the man, however, opens himself up for all the world to see, exposing not only his triumphs, but his shortcomings, insecurities and pain as well. It was a pleasure following John's road of experience with him. May God Bless You, John--thank you for sharing your life and music with us.
|
