# Does EVERYONE know 'Country Roads'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [May 13, 2025, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317 "2025-05-13T02:46:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/21 "2025-05-13T11:12:54Z")
Not _that_ song. It always makes me cry. Worse than B-17 even. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > Has anyone mentioned Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart yet? Don’t you know that a whisper of the heart doesn’t ~~echo~~ register? Nobody can ~~hear~~ see it and nobody knows why. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/22 "2025-05-13T11:26:49Z")
Thank God I’m a Country Boy ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/23 "2025-05-13T11:39:09Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > > But I bet always no one could name a second John Denver song. > > Sunshine on my shoulders. Yeah, but I meant almost no one in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/24 "2025-05-13T12:04:48Z")
_Grandma’s Feather Bed_ is my favorite John Denver song. It’s also easy to sing along, which I think is the main attraction of _Country Road_. An easy, singable chorus is what makes a song infectious. Like _Sweet Caroline_. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/25 "2025-05-13T12:15:26Z")
I’d imagine folk who couldn’t name another John Denver song besides “Country Roads” would still instantly recognize many of those mentioned. Like “Rocky Mountain High”! > [@Pleonast](#): > > _Grandma’s Feather Bed_ is my favorite John Denver song. Nice! That song instantly makes me think of the joyful innocence of childhood. It makes me imagine a bunch of cousins…little kids, like 5 or 6 years old…having the time of their life at Grandma’s, squealing and laughing, with the occasional “You kids be quiet and go to sleep!” from the grown-ups. “Didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun in…Grandma’s feather bed!” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/26 "2025-05-13T13:52:19Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Oh. Great! > > I’ll never get rid of this earworm…aaaccckkk! > 😳 [This ought to get rid of it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4jtIDaeaWI) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/27 "2025-05-13T14:17:17Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > song is a karaoke favorite I’ve hung around some karaoke and actually can’t rememeber hearing CR before. My Way and Sweet Caroline, yes. Turn around, Brighteyes. Tin Roof: Rusted. > [@minor7flat5](#): > > couldn’t name another John Denver son And others best know John Denver as backup vocals to the Muppets on their 1979 Christmas album. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/28 "2025-05-13T14:19:39Z")
Only once, in the 1960s, for thirty minutes… (It ended with a shot by a 1920’s style “Death ray”, it was the will of Og) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/29 "2025-05-13T14:26:23Z")
I know that song because my mother used to listen to the radio station that played it. I must have heard it a thousand times growing up. It was the same station that played a bunch of Helen Reddy, Dionne Warwick, The Carpenters and Kenny Rodgers. Damn them all. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/30 "2025-05-13T15:02:18Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > This ought to get rid of it. I sure as heckfire thought that was going to be Rick Astley. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/31 "2025-05-13T15:23:06Z")
I always wondered about the lines: _Life is old there, older than the trees_ _Younger than the mountains, blowin’ like a breeze_ Life is younger than the mountains? The Blue Ridge Mountains _are_ one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world, this is true, estimated to be as much as 1.1 billion years old. But life is estimated to have begun around 3.8 billion years ago, give or take. C’mon, John, that’s just lazy paleogeology! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/32 "2025-05-13T15:27:52Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I was born and raised in WV The composition of “Country Roads” has little to do with West Virginia. It was written by three writers who were born in Massachusetts, Washington D.C., and New Mexico. One of them spent most of his adult life in Colorado (and wrote the state song for that state). It was inspired by thoughts of driving on a road in Maryland. The writers met in a music club in Washington, D.C. The locations mentioned in the song are more in Virginia than in West Virginia. The song was recorded in New York City. ---
**Author:** ![DaveUnknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@DaveUnknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveUnknown)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/33 "2025-05-13T15:32:06Z")
Well since we’re being petty, there have been at least 3 mass extinctions in the last 100 million years. Most notably the Cretaceous-Paleogene event, which was the single most massive extinction known, 66 Ma. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/34 "2025-05-13T15:33:47Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > > [@minor7flat5](#): > > > > couldn’t name another John Denver son Zachary, who Denver name dropped (“Merry Christmas, little Zachary”) in “A Baby Just Like You”. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/35 "2025-05-13T15:34:44Z")
Readers of this thread may also be interested in this one: > [@Stranger to blue water?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105): > > As I said in another thread, we’re watching Kingsman: The Golden Circle. ‘Merlin’ likes John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. I’ve noticed that that song seems to be popular and known worldwide. Like, in addition to this movie, I think it was Anthony Bourdain who found himself in a carful of strangers somewhere in Asia, everyone’s been drinking, and suddenly everyone started singing it. (‘You haven’t lived until you’ve found yourself drunk in a car in [Cambodia/Vietnam/Wherever] with … ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/36 "2025-05-13T15:36:40Z")
The shenandoah river is in VA, not WV Same with the Blue Ridge Mountains… FTR, I like the song, but it is a bit inaccurate. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/37 "2025-05-13T15:40:15Z")
> [@DaveUnknown](#): > > Well since we’re being petty, there have been at least 3 mass extinctions in the last 100 million years. Most notably the Cretaceous-Paleogene event, which was the single most massive extinction known, 66 Ma. _Petty_? Is is petty to ask a songwriter to simply get their paleogeologic facts straight in respect to knowledge of the Archean Eon and beyond? I think not! Now, if the song had said: _Life post-dating the Cretaceous-Paleogene event is old there, older than the trees_ _Younger than the mountains…_ …that’d be better. Of course, trees first emerged 400 million years ago, and it does change the meter a bit. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/38 "2025-05-13T15:49:48Z")
I like John’s song well enough but I prefer James Taylor’s similarly-named \*Country Road", especially [Al Kooper’s cover](https://youtu.be/ifs7b7bdQI0?feature=shared). ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/39 "2025-05-13T15:53:02Z")
> [@ThisSpaceForRent](#): > > The shenandoah river is in VA, not WV > > Same with the Blue Ridge Mountains… Both go through West Virginia, in the far eastern part around Harper’s Ferry, near Maryland. But yeah, the song is more western Virginia than West Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317/40 "2025-05-13T15:57:27Z")
> [@solost](#): > > older than the trees Shouldn’t that be “deciduous growths”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-everyone-know-country-roads/1018317.md?page=3)