J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J O R O C K Y M O U N T A I N H I G H O H =============================================== H N The John Denver Internet Fan Club N D D E M O N T H L Y N E W S L E T T E R E N N V N O V E M B E R 1 9 9 4 V E E R Written by: Emily Parris Email: emily@sky.net R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TABLE OF CONTENTS - Nov 1994 - Lend Your Support: "alt.fan.john-denver".......2 TAKE ME HOME is available in bookstores........2 Review by Corinne Smith.....................3 John on tour in AUSTRALIA in November..........4 "A New Verse to 'Annie's Song'"................4 {Rocky Mountain News 8/10/94} "Denver Says He Can Still Make Hits"...........5 {Syracuse Herald-Journal 8/4/94} More on the Accident in Aspen of 8/21/94.......7 1995 John Denver Calendar......................7 JD Internet Fan Club Status Report.............8 Pen Pal Corner - Add more about yourself.......9 Note for AOL members...........................10 A dream is a path to the future A quiet belief in the heart A small, secret wish Nurtured deep in the spirit Where all great accomplishments start.... A dream is an endless horizon That only the dreamer can see A dream is a challenge to all that you are.... A promise of all you can be! alt.fan.john-denver =================== In the Usenet newsgroups I am attempting to set up a newsgroup for John Denver. In order to do that discussion must take place in the newsgroup: alt.config So if you can find your way there, please add your support to the project. Every positive comment will help to show the powers that be in the usenet that there ARE John Denver fans still alive and well on the planet. There are plenty of people ready to flame anyone who supports John Denver. What we need are loyal fans. Once we get it going we will have a permanent place to discuss John's music. So do some traveling down country roads.....'til you find PROPOSAL: alt.fan.john-denver and pretty soon we'll have our own little Rocky Mountain High citadel - a place where discussion of John's music can be alive and well just like his music is on all of our cd and cassette players in our homes all across the country and around the world. JOHN DENVER'S NEW BOOK IS OUT ============================= John Denver's autobiography is out on the bookstore shelves. It should be filed in either "New Biography" or in the section on Music. If you don't find it, ask a clerk because every time one of us inquires it shows that there is interest in the book. TAKE ME HOME: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY John Denver with Arthur Tobier New York: Harmony Books, 1994 ISBN 0-517-59537-0 Price:$22.00 (U.S.) The hardback is 262 pages long and includes a discography and an index. There are two sections of black and white photos. The cover has a color photo of John with his guitar, and he's sans beard and mustache. A Short Review of JD's book =========================== October 10, 1994 by Corinne Smith "Hi guys -- As promised, I finished reading TAKE ME HOME over the weekend. I won't spoil anything and reveal details for you. Here's my assessment, nevertheless. I believe John felt a need to get a lot of things off his chest, and that's why he decided to write a book. It was probably very cathartic for him, part of a therapeutic process of assimilating, assessing, and accepting what's happened to him throughout his life. At times it seemed as if the words were coming from a stream of consciousness session with a psychologist who began the hour by saying, "Tell me a little bit about your life." Fans will read this book and will either feel disenchantment or empathy. The big surprise is that John's life has been far from idyllic, far removed from the image his followers have of what his lifestyle must have been like over the past years. He's human; he's faced the same types of problems and challenges that we all have. That concept shouldn't come as a surprise, but to the most devout fans, it'll be a severe jolt back to reality. If you're one of those devotees, and you begin to feel disillusionment as you're commiserating over TAKE ME HOME, read the book from a different angle. Think about what *you* were doing and feeling during the times that John talks about. Think about what his music and performances meant to you back then, while he was simultaneously dealing with other issues that you didn't see. When you approach the work from that point of view, you may come to the realization that it's a miracle his music and his opinions had as much impact on us as they did. And still do. I put the book down with a greater respect for John, and at the same time, a greater compassion for him as a person. The next time I get the chance to shake his hand -- at next year's Windstar conference, I hope -- I know exactly what I will say to him: "I climbed trees as a kid, too." Corinne Smith, obsessive JD fan since 1972 chs@psulias.psu.edu" What's John doing in November? He's on tour in Australia! JOHN'S AUSTRALIAN CONCERT TOUR ============================== 11/17 Sydney Entertainment Center Sydney 11/19 Brisbane Entertainment Centre Brisbane 11/21 Townsville Entertainment Centre Townsville 11/23 Rockhampton Music Bowl Rockhampton 11/25 Newcastle Entertainment Centre Newcastle 11/26 Canberra Bruce Stadium 11/27 Melbourne Entertainment Center Melbourne 11/29 Adelaide Entertainment Centre Adelaide 12/1 Perth Entertainment Centre Perth A NEW VERSE TO 'ANNIE'S SONG' by Bill Husted Rocky Mountain News August 10, 1994 If I told you John Denver took acid, tried to touch the sun and attacked his estranged wife's furniture with a chainsaw, would you believe me? What if Denver himself told you - would you believe him? It's all there in Denver's unexpected new autobiography, "Take Me Home", advance proofs of which are right here on my desk. The book, due in November, will shock people who think Denver a cherubic cross between a sweet-voiced choirboy and a clean-cut soda jerk. It recounts the birth of megahits like "Country Roads" and "Rocky Mountain High", but it also charts his weird life in Aspen and his two dismal marriages. So what about the Aspen Chainsaw Massacre? Seems Denver was peeved at his estranged wife, Annie, in 1982, after she chopped down a stand of shrub oaks outside their house - without consulting him. The response of the muppet-faced American icon? Denver arrived at Annie's door with a power saw. "She thought - she told me later - I had come to kill her" Denver explains. The Denvers talked in the kitchen, and Annie turned her back on John. Big mistake. "Before I knew it, I had her up on the kitchen counter and my hands were around her throat" Denver writes. "And I stopped. I had almost lost control, but I didn't." His Rocky Mountain Highness apologized for strangling Annie, then revved up the ol' power saw. "Annie had turned into quite a socialite in Aspen. She was the hostess of many famous dinner parties, to which I was never invited, being on the road as I was. But I thought her guests should know my work, even if they didn't know me." So Denver cut off a corner of the kitchen table. Then he bisected the dining room table. Then he went into the bedroom and shredded the headboard. "In adolescent triumph, I announced that I had done what I had come for, then I left the house and drove off." Things didn't go much better with second wife, Cassandra. Denver says her Aspen friends "strained credulity; they were the flightiest, most irresponsible women in town." And things got worse. "Before our short-lived marriage ended in divorce, she managed to make a fool of me from one end of the valley to the other, although I must say there is a great tolerance in Aspen for the kind of fool I've been." "Take Me Home" is filled with other un-Denver-ish stories. Acid trips in '72. Trying to touch the sun. (Same year). Adventures in EST. Then there's the fan who started sending Denver all her belongings, beginning with her underwear. Even cynics will find the book surprisingly candid and honest. Mostly. It was the night after Denver's final hearing in his divorce from Cassandra that he was arrested for drunken driving. "I feel that I was perfectly in control of my faculties, but that's another story." Oh God! DENVER SAYS HE CAN STILL MAKE HITS by Mark Bialczak Syracuse Herald-Journal August 4, 1994 John Denver has 15 singles that made Billboard magazine's Top 40, and eight albums that have sold more than a million copies each. He also has worldwide recognition, both as a singer and as an actor. In 1975, he won an Emmy Award for his TV special "An Evening with John Denver" and in 1978 he starred with George Burns in the movie "Oh, God." What John Denver does not have at the moment is a recording contract which leaves him just a bit ticked off, quite frankly. "I just think the formats have gotten more and more restrictive and the business end of it is more and more competitive" Denver said recently in a phone conversation from his home in Colorado. "What's hot at the moment, they want everything to be like this. They couldn't come up with a fresh idea in their life. Everybody is in it just for the sales. It took me four albums before I got popular. I wouldn't have a chance to happen now." Certainly, it's been a while since the days when Denver's moon-pie face peered out from behind his wire-rims from just about any entertainment magazine you picked up. America was taken home by "Country Roads" in 1971, celebrated a "Rocky Mountain High" in 1972, and "Thanked God for a Country Boy" in 1974. Those songs are still considered folk favorites, and Denver tours every year on the strength of their shelf life. On Friday he plays at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center in Cananadaigua. "I'm not really touring a lot this summer" he said. "I'm doing about five weeks, I guess. Three days and a day off, three days and a day off. That's what works for me right now." He was the first American to sing in Ho Chi Minh City since 1975, and the first Western performer ever to sing in Hanoi. "I was overwhelmed by the human heart's capacity for forgiveness" Denver said. The audiences back home are just as appreciative, he said. "I have a very, very loyal audience that's still coming" Denver said. "A lot of the young people that were kids, now are in their late teens and are coming out. And there's a whole new generation of kids, too." He's still writing new music to go with the hits. His latest album "Different Directions" was released in 1991. It was his fifth package since 1989 for Windstar Records. None of them approached 500,000 in sales; Denver decided to leave the label. "I don't want to throw away another album" Denver said. "I'm singing better than I ever have before. The last album had two or three songs that could have had a lot of air play (Distributors) American Gramaphone, said they were doing OK in sales, but on my end I didn't make up what I invested in the recordings. Their side was not capable of bringing off a real solid radio showing of a good song. "I felt real bad about that. I need to have a better situation of promotion and distribution for myself if I think, as I do, that I still have the capacity for a hit record out there" he said. He hopes to freshen his acting career with the fall release of "Walking Thunder." "It's a little family film about moving west at the turn of the century. I play the father" he said. Also in the fall will come the release of his autobiography, "Take Me Home." "It's not a bunch of BS, and it's not kiss-and-tell" Denver said. "I don't have much to tell anyway. It's about my music career and where it all came from." Part of where he still comes from is a deep love for the environment. His group Plant-It 2000 helped the planting of 1 million trees in 1993, and will continue. "I certainly think the environment and its fragility is much more part of the people's consciousness than 20 or 25 years ago" he said. "That doesn't mean we're doing what we need to do, but everybody to a much larger degree has a greater sense, and it shows up. It's a part of every international discussion and business discussion, and it's part of what people decide to do in their daily life." MORE ON THE ACCIDENT that occurred in Aspen, Colorado on 8/21/94 On August 21, 1994 in Aspen, Colorado at about 11:30 at night John Denver had an auto accident that left him with a concussion. John had eaten dinner that evening with two pilots at a local Aspen restaurant and had two cups of sake. After dinner he was followed home by the pilots. He was driving the curving roads above Aspen when something happened to his right tire. John veered to the left to compensate and the car crashed into a tree. The crash totaled the 1963 Porsche convertible. John was not wearing a seat belt and hit his head hard. The pilots took him to a local hospital. Hospital Staff must have reported the case because the Pitkin County Sheriff sent an officer to the hospital to interview John. The officer suspected Denver was intoxicated and he was charged with Driving Under the Influence, and blood tests were taken. John suffered a concussion. 30 stitches were taken to close a nasty gash on his forehead. He also had cuts on his cheek and other injuries. He was sent to the city of Denver for neurological testing and no problems were found. About ten days later the results of the blood test showed that John's blood levels were "borderline". John plans to fight the DUI charge in a jury trial. Tabloid journals and newspapers sarcastically reported the arrest and possibility of a jail sentence. They did not, however, mention the blood alcohol test results. At the time of the accident John was suffering from exhaustion due to the extensive concert tour he had just completed. The courts placed a gag order on the case in early September. A team of doctors ordered John to cancel all appearance dates for August through September and to rest. He was not able to attend the "Choices for the Future Convention" in Aspen and the September European tour was postponed. JOHN DENVER 1995 CALENDAR There is a John Denver 1995 Calendar available from "Hearts in Harmony." It features dozens of photos of John, is printed on high quality heavy paper and is spiral bound. To order your copy write to: Dottie Honer 5214 Stump Road Pipersville, PA 18947-1014 The cost is $11.00 in the USA; $12.00 in Canada and $14.00 overseas. Send your payment made out to "Hearts in Harmony", in U.S. funds. Please say you heard about it from RMH on the Internet. ====================================================== STATUS REPORT ====================================================== The John Denver Internet Fan Club now has 70 members in 11 countries. Twenty-three U.S. States are represented with more members being added daily. Sources of new members include: 1) Postings in Rec.Music.Country.Western 2) Postings on America Online's Music Board 3) Referral by other members 4) Posting in rec.soc.pen-pals 5) Referrals from the Rocky Mountain High BBS in K.C. MO 6) Referrals from Windstar's new internet Listserv 7) Postings on Prodigy's Bulletin Boards 8) Referrals from contact on GEnie Online Service So far six monthly newsletters have been published and distributed via email to the subscribing members. All members also receive back issues of the newsletters if they would like them. May 1994 was the first month of publication. We have been averaging about 2 new members per week. At this rate it is projected that we should have 80 members by the end of 1994 and 200 or more by the end of 1995. Efforts have been made to get our group listed in books about the internet and on Listserve lists. Success in this area would greatly increase our potential for new members. So far one book has agreed to publish information about the newsletter and "Boardwatch" magazine has agreed to add the Rocky Mountain High BBS to their national list of BBS's. By our survey I have found that almost 95% of our members are also interested in the environment and ecology. ============================================================ Dear Members, If you can think of anywhere else to advertise our club, please let me know. Also, let me know if you would like back issues of the newsletter or have comments, questions, stories to relate, poetry to contribute, reviews of John's book, reports about concerts, book signings, or anything at all you would like to send. It doesn't have to be about the present either. Maybe you'd like to comment on past concerts you've been to or a time you got to meet with John. Or maybe you'd just like to tell about what John's music means to you and how he has enriched your life. Also, please let me know whether it's something you would allow me to use in the newsletter, or whether it is meant to be a private comment for me alone. I also have a lot of stories about what John has meant to my life and a lot more poetry. So if you would like to hear more, just let me know and I'll write you a personal letter via email. You can write to me at "emily@tyrell.net" or "emilyparris@delphi.com." I look forward to hearing from you. Love, Emily PEN PAL CORNER ============== It occurred to me that in the pen pal listings we need more information. I have been including everyone's email address, but it would be better to stimulate exchanges if the pen pal listing told more about each member. So please send me any information that you'd like included in your pen pal listing. NOVEMBER PEN PAL LIST 1994 Name Internet address ======================================================= Beausoleil, Richard richard.beausoleil@asu.edu Brakweh, Markus markusb@sybase.com Coles, Margaret dcoles@datlog.co.uk Englander-Busarow, Cindy cindy@dpcsys.com Hasselwander, Eric erichasselwander@dreamscape.com Keck, Gary L. ke7dx@amsat.org Kennerud, Vicki kennerud@andes.pnw.net Lowe, John lowe.3@osu.edu Maclauchlan, Paul paul@moore.com McCaustland, Midge lopbunny@oeonline.com McDaniel, Joan joanmmcd@aol.com Nadler, Cindy cn03@a1.swt.edu Nagarajan, N. rajan@merlion.iseas.ac.sg Norrey, Vivienne windsong@spirit.win-uk.net O'Connor, Jackie SidPhan@aol.com Parris, Emily emily@tyrell.net Patton, Donna patton@utkvx.utk.edu Peterson, Lynda lyndap@novell.com Prisbe, Jon A. 345c474@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu Quiroz, Beth bquiroz@aol.com Redwine, Lisa redwine@engr.msstate.edu Smith, David J. david-j.smith@analog.com Please send any changes/corrections to emilyparris@delphi.com ============================================================= AOL Technical Problems with the Header: If you are a member from American Online, I want to apologize for the problems that there have been with the Newsletter "header." Apparently AOL cannot take text that is very wide. So the header gets jumbled up and put on the next line. It is very pretty in regular ASCII text sent to other internet users, but looks crazy only on AOL. I am attempting to correct this problem and have designed a smaller size header especially for members who are on AOL. Let me know how it comes out on your machine. ****************************************************** ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: The Internet John Denver Fan Club Issue #7 November 1994 NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER Email: emily@sky.net ******************************************************