This is the refrain for the song “I’m Sorry” by John Denver:
I’m sorry for the way things are in China
I’m sorry things ain’t what they used to be
But more than anything else
I’m sorry for myself
'Cause you’re not here with me
The first line of that refrain has always puzzled me. There is no other obvious mention of China in the rest of the song; it is, to all appearances, a pretty standard song about a guy who was dumped and misses his girlfriend.
So why is he sorry about the way things are in China? Did the girlfriend move to China? (But if so, why is he sorry about the way things are there?) Is it a sarcastic remark about the poor situation in China at the time? Was there something relevant going on in China when the song was written (surely he’s not talking about the Cultural Revolution!)?
I know it’s trivial and that we can’t expect complete logic from all John Denver lyrics, but it’s a prominent line in one of his better known songs, and it’s so out of left field that it just bugs me. Any reasonable theories?
At the time, China was (rightly or wrongly) pretty much synonymous with poverty. Mothers would guilt picky-eating kids into cleaning their plates by uttering the stock phrase “Think of all the starving children in China.”
It was something we were expected to feel vaguely guilty about, and an easy segue from the general to the particular.
I kinda figured it was something along those lines, but (and maybe this is just because I grew up in the cynical, oh-so-ironic '90s) the only reading of that meaning that made sense to me was if it was said in a snarky, sarcastic way as in: “Pfft; sorry your dad died, but I’ve got my own problems – Friends just got cancelled.” But that didn’t fit the tone of the song, so I figured that it had to be something more specific that I was missing.
The song was released in 1975, at which point Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was still ongoing. Many chinese had more than poverty to worry about.
You know, “Rodgers” is a somewhat unusual spelling of an otherwise common last name. But there was at least one pretty famous and talented guy who had it, and he was quite familiar with Irving’s lyrics too. Any relation?
I thought so, too, until a friend directed me to his Rhymes & Reasons album. It features “The Ballad of Spiro Agnew” and “The Ballad of Richard Nixon.”
At the risk of offending them mods, here’s the ENTIRE LYRIC to “The Ballad of Spiro Agnew”:
“I’ll sing you a song of Spiro Agnew and all the things he’s done.”
This can be a logical suspect: his girl let him down and came back to a work as an US government interpreter (for example) in China. Sometimes he receives her mails in which she told him how are the way things in China… Very simple, for me.
Ciao
Stefano
(a strong fan of John Denver since the 90’s, among the very few ones in Italy)
For those who are surprised that Denver had songs about Nixon and Agnew, remember that in the Sixties, he was a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio, a folk act dedicated in large part to political satire.
By the late Sixties, the whole folk music/coffee house/hootenanny scene ahd larely disappeared, the Chad Mitchell Trio broke up, and John had to make it on his own with a different sound and a different approach.
“I’m Sorry” is, in a sense, Part 2 of “Annie’s Song.” That is, Denver’s wife Annie had left him due to his infidelities. “Annie’s Song” was his way of begging her to come back to him. Well, it worked… but ultimately the marriage still didn’t work out. “I’m Sorry” is John telling Annie he was sorry for all his screw-ups (and all his screwing around) as she was headed out the door.
One possible interpretation is he’s making insincere apologies in the first chorus. He’s saying he’s “sorry” but he’s doing it in for things which he feels aren’t his fault. Obviously whatever is happening in China may be bad but it’s not the singer’s fault. And the same is true about things not being the way they used to be. His final apology is the singer saying he’s sorry his girlfriend left him - that may be sincere but it’s still not talking any responsibility.
He sings a little more and then figures out he needs to accept that he was wrong and that’s why she left. Then he begins to admit his mistakes and apologize for things he actually did: I’m sorry for all the lies I told you/for the things I didn’t say/if I took some things for granted/for the chains I put on you.
