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You are now listening to the tune of

"TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS"

by John Denver:

Words and Music by John Denver

_{A TRIBUTE TO A COUNTRY
BOY WHOM WE LOVE SO DEAR,}

_{WENT HOME TO BE WITH
OUR LORD ON 12TH OCTOBER 1997}

_JOHN
DENVER

_{As I started to prepare the setting up of this page, I said a quiet prayer. I told God that a rich, strong and yet clear voice has suddenly left us. I put a John Denver CD into the CD-Rom drive and as the songs played throughout the period of my setting up of this page, my mind race back to those good old days when I was in secondary school, buying and listening to each of John's 45-rpm single and extended play records (those days cassette tapes and CDs are a nonetity to us). Later, my collection has changed to a series of Compact Discs. And as I scanned those pictures of John from the sleeves of these CDs, somehow I feel a tinge of sadness deep down inside my heart. Occasionally a drop or two of tears fell from my eyes. So John, this is my tribute to you and may we meet again in Heaven, this time a much happier reunion.}

_{- Herman Leong.}

_{MUSIC SOARED OVER MOUNTAINS, SPOKE OF LOVE}
_{JOHN DENVER, the boyish-looking country-pop singer, died when the plane he was flying crashed into the Pacific Ocean shortly after take-off from Monterey Airport in California.}
_{A licensed pilot and son of an airforce officer, the 53-year-old crashed his single-engined two-seater plane off Monterey Bay on Sunday.}

_{His body was so badly dismembered
that police were unable to identify it officially until Monday.
Copies of his fingerprints were flown in from Colorado to make
the identification. Pieces of his body had still not been found
and said his body was dismembered when Long EZ, his ultra-light
Fiberglass plane, disintegrated on impact after nosediving into
the ocean shortly after take-off.}

_{Witness Carolyn Pearl said the
aircraft "went up a little bit and absolutely straight down,
not spiralling, just absolutely straight down. I thought it was
some kind of acrobatic move, then I realised it wasn't".
National Transportation Safety Board investigator George Petterson
said that just before the crash, Denver had been checking with
the flight tower, giving them his transponder code that allowed
radar to track an aircraft. "His last words were: 'Do you
have it now?' " he said.}

_{The plane is to be reconstructed in a hangar, allowing investigators to see what may have failed during the flight. Denver, whose high, pure voice and unabashedly sentimental lyrics won him legions of fans, earned two dozen gold and platinum albums. The singer came out of the '60s folk movement to reach commercial heights. Although he performed his blend of folksy, happy-go-lucky songs around the world and had a big live following even after he stopped making gold records, his first big success was a s songwriter.}

_{His "Leaving on A Jetplane"
was an international hit for Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969, when
the US was in tumult over the Vietnam War. In 1971, Denver hit
the charts himself with the million-selling "Take Me Home,
Country Roads". He was one of the biggest-selling singers
in the world during the '70s, producing "Rocky Mountain High",
"Annie's Song", "Sunshine On My Shoulders",
"Back Home Again", and "Thank God I'm a Country
Boy". Four of his albums sold more than a million copies.}

_{His death drew a lament from President
Bill Clinton. "His soaring music evoked the grandeur of our
landscape and the simple warmth of human love," he said.
True to his folk roots, Denver's pop hits were personal, but he
was also criticised for being corny and banal. His career began
to wane as the '70s ended and he became a supporter of environmental
causes, founding the non-profit Windstar Foundation.}

_{Denver, born John Henry Deutschendorfer,
in Roswell, New Mexico, dropped out of school to pursue a career
in folk music in Los Angeles and sang with the Chad Mitchell Trio
in the '60s. By the early '70s, he had settled in Aspen, Colorado.
In the rarified air of the Rocky Mountains, he embraced environmentalist
movements and threw himself into humanitarian and ecological causes.
In 1975, he reached the peak of his fame, winning Entertainer
Of The Year and Singing Star Of The Year awards. He also tried
his hand at acting, first in TV and then starring with George
Burns}

_{in the 1977 film "Oh God!" . In the '80s and '90s, his star faded although in recent months, there has been renewed interest in him, with a greatest hits album climbing the US country and western chart. "I feel as if I'm singing better now than I ever have in my career," he said in February.}
_{In recent years, he had become interested in space exploration and was a member of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger.}

_{He hit the headlines in the early
'90s with two drunken-driving charges stemming from incidents
near his home. He was married to his first wife Annie, for whom
he wrote "Annie's Song" for 15 years. They adopted a
boy and a girl but divorced in 1983. He had a daughter with his
second wife Cassandra, whom he married in 1988.}

_{Meanwhile, divers pulled out the
plane's engine from the waters of Monterey Bay, about 160 km south
of San Francisco. The salt water has not taken its toll on the
engine as much as we feared as far as eating into the magnesium
and that sort of thing. The engine is basically intact. Denver's
futuristic, Y-shaped Long EZ was designed in 1979 and was one
of about 1,000 currently in use, including two that recently made
round-the-world trips. Aviation experts call the Long EZ a safe
craft to fly.}

FOR

on Ricky Nelson & Friends, please .

on Elvis Presley, please .

of a Devoted Mother, please .

This Page was created on 16^th October 1997 and hosted by