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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Author: wzambon ✶❂🐝 BRONZE
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Number: of 84353 
Subject: Country Roads
Date: 08/02/26 11:32 AM
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Fifty-five years ago this month, Denver’s ode to Americana made it to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It has since become the unofficial song of West Virginia University and the official anthem of the state itself.

Most people think the song was written about the Mountain State, which is understandable considering the opening lyric is, “Almost Heaven, West Virginia...” But most people are wrong. The song and its country roads were inspired by West Virginia’s neighbor to the east.

As the songwriting duo of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert were heading to a family gathering in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Danoff was strumming his guitar and playing around with lyrics for a song they were working on for Johnny Cash. The “country roads” in the song are actually a winding two-lane stretch of road in Montgomery County, MD.

So why did Danoff mention West Virginia specifically? The original lyric was “Almost Heaven, Massachusetts...” his home state, but he didn’t like the sound of it, though he says that’s not the point.

“The place is immaterial. It’s ‘the place I belong,’ I think that’s the key line. That’s what people are looking for in their lives,” Danoff told CBS News.

A few days after the trip to Gaithersburg, Denver performed at The Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., where Danoff and Nivert opened for him. After the show, the duo played him their unfinished song. Denver knew it could be a hit, so they spent all night finishing it together.

The next evening, on December 30, 1970, the three performed their brand new song as an encore. “It was a five-minute standing ovation. The walls were vibrating. I thought the club was going to implode,” Cellar Door owner Ehud Jaffe remembered.

The song appeared on Denver’s next album and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dan Rather

YouTube: John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads (from The Wildlife Concert) (JohnDenverVEVO)
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This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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