Love and Nature: ‘Annie’s Song’

John Denver’s loving ode to his wife is the epitome of his songwriting mastery.

Musician John Denver with his first wife Annie Martell from the CD pamphlet of John Denver's album "Back Home Again." Public Domain

Preservationist John Muir, who is considered the father of America’s national parks, once said, “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

For songwriter John Denver, it wasn’t a walk with nature that produced one of the greatest compositions of his career, but a ride. While skiing in Aspen, he was inspired by his view of Colorado’s sprawling Rocky Mountains. It was then that he penned his most intimate song—one that remains a shining example of his artistic ability and acted as an ode to the two things most important to him: love and nature.

As he exited his ten-minute ski lift ride, he finished the final lyrics to “Annie’s Song.”

Chairlifts going up 11,800 feet on Aspen Highlands Mountain in January 1974. National Archives. Public Domain

Lyrics as Poetry

Three years after moving his family to Colorado in 1970, Denver wrote “Annie’s Song.” It was then included on his 1974 album “Back Home Again.”

A Roswell, New Mexico native, Denver found the unbridled terrain of The Centennial State irresistible. He even changed his given name from Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. to John Denver to honor the state’s profound influence on his life. Colorado’s natural beauty inspired many of his songs, including “Rocky Mountain High.”

Like most of Denver’s music, “Annie’s Song” is steeped in visual imagery of nature. And though the lyrics don’t always rhyme, the song’s lines are so strong they can stand on their own as poetry.

You fill up my senses like a night in the forest, Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain, Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean. You fill up my senses, come fill me again.

Bursting with images of the natural world he loved so much, Denver relates his need for the blossoming mountains of spring and calm ocean waters to the need for the love of his wife at the time, Annie.

A Classical Influence

Cover of John Denver's 1974 album "Back Home Again" featuring hit song "Annie's Song." Internet Archive. Public Domain

“Annie’s Song” is one of mainstream music’s more ambitious songs technique-wise. And this applies to both the lyrics and the music. In an article featured on American Songwriter, producer Milt Okun recalled Denver had to change the song’s melody because it resembled a timeless piece of classical music, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Second Movement. Okun said, “[John] walked over to the piano … sat for an hour and came back, and the only thing remaining from Tchaikovsky was the first five notes. It was fantastic.”

Denver was a prolific songwriter from the 1960s to the 1990s, before his untimely passing in 1997 due to a crash while piloting a small plane. At 23 years old, he wrote “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and it became a hit for the singing group Peter, Paul, and Mary. He began studying music at the tender age of 11 when he was given his grandmother’s acoustic guitar as a gift.

He took his craft seriously, but took a more casual approach to songwriting than most.

Described as “unstructured,” he once stated, “I don’t sit down every day and try to write a song. ... For me it quite often begins with a phrase like ‘leaving on a jet plane’... or ’sunshine on my shoulders.'”

He continued, “What’ll happen there’ll be a phrase or line that I’ve come up with. When I’m driving I’ll start writing the song in my head. Then when I get to a guitar, I’ll sit and play it on the guitar until the rest of the song comes. Some songs come very quickly. I wrote ‘Annie’s Song’ in 10 minutes one day on a ski lift—that’s how I know it was 10 minutes. Then other songs like ‘Rocky Mountain High’ took about six or seven months to write.”

A Song Becomes a Prayer

Insert from John Denver's 1974 album "Back Home Again" featuring hit song "Annie's Song." Internet Archive. Public Domain

When Denver wrote “Annie’s Song” he was reflecting on his marriage to his wife and the work they had been doing recently to reconnect. Though their relationship ultimately did not last, his song remains a testament to the timeless nature of love.

When he spoke about the No. 1 hit song, his excitement became palpable. He remained an ardent believer in the power of music to elevate love from its romantic state to that of a universal state. When chatting about his ability to intimately connect with audiences through his music, the ode to his wife was the first song that came to his mind. With a smile on his face and leaning forward in his chair, he explained,

“‘Annie’s Song’ is a great example. …What the song makes me feel is what I felt when I wrote the song. … It’s a great love song and what it is about is being in love. ... When I sing ‘Annie’s Song’ and when I hear it … that’s what I think about. … That’s why it’s such a good song because it brings that out of you. It opens up that inside of you regardless. There was a time when I had a pretty hard shell around my heart … but I could still sing that song because the song made me think and feel being in love.”

When Annie was asked about the composition, she said for Denver, it ultimately became more than music.

“Initially it was a love song and it was given to me through him, and yet for him it became a bit like a prayer.”

The Grandeur of Living

John and Annie Denver from the 1995 published cd of Denver's "Back Home Again." Public Domain

Denver once described his songwriting as “life-affirming.” Above all, with music, he wanted listeners to remember the joy and importance of living.

Best-selling mystery author Agatha Christie once said, “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

The same sentiment was later echoed by Denver.

“I’m aware that I have this underlying purpose of wanting people to know, in the midst of this incredibly insane world, with all of the terrors and problems, that life is worth living.”

He continued, saying, “I love life! I love everything about it. … What permeates me is this sense of love and of life. And that’s what I want to give and share with people. Anybody I see or talk to, I’d really like him to feel better afterward.”

Over the course of his career, he amassed nine No. 1 hits and 18 top ten hits. He also released 33 studio albums.

Denver’s artistic legacy shows us, no matter how long we’re alive, a life spent dedicated to music and nature, with a firm faith in the lasting power of love, is a life well-lived.

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