# Why do Germans at Oktoberfest sing John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 20, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341 "2012-10-20T18:12:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/41 "2012-10-21T13:39:58Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > It’s also ludicrously popular in Ireland. I guess it’s just an American [schlager](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlager_music) song is it? It lacks electric piano and isn’t maudlin enough, but we’ll allow it. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/42 "2012-10-21T13:59:47Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I did not know that was a John Denver song. Always thought Peter, Paul and Mary wrote it. Live and learn. I don’t believe that Denver wrote the song but he did record it. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/43 "2012-10-21T14:08:02Z")
Yes, Denver wrote it in 1966, and was the first to record it as part of the Chad Mitchell Trio (Denver had replaced Mitchell). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/44 "2012-10-21T15:57:17Z")
John Denver did write Leaving on a Jet Plane. He was a songwriter first and was able to translate his success there into a recording career. Like has been said up thread, his songs are relatable and catchy. There’s something about them that makes you feel nostalgic for the childhood you think you should have had. I hear his stuff quite often because my husband was raised listening to his music and learning to play them on the guitar. Country Boy is a favorite of one of my sister in laws and my Grandmother would request Grandma’s Feather Bed every time she saw my husband. The fact that with all the wonderful songs John Denver wrote that one is the one that’s internationally famous is a little baffling though. It’s always been my least favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/45 "2012-10-21T21:20:58Z")
> [@Uther\_Penguin](#): > > I think this is the version that made the song so popular. Proceed at your own risk: > [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3qm79\_country-roads-remix-by-hermes-house\_music](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3qm79_country-roads-remix-by-hermes-house_music) See, this is what always cracks me up about foreign takes on American music. Here, in a song about West Virginia (American East), all the imagery is of the American West (and Texas). Then there was Sweden’s “Rednex”: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddgyg\_5FF\_0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddgyg_5FF_0) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/46 "2012-10-21T21:43:45Z")
I quite like the band Truck Stop. German country pop. Here are some tunes. Truck Stop - [Wenn es nacht wird in Old Tucson](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVlVg-Jf4iM). Truck Stop - [Der Wilde Wilde Westen](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3xSow3vWVk) ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/47 "2012-10-21T23:22:48Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > I always wondered how the f\*\*\* [this song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-aDN5Q_Jkw) got to be a popular German drinking song. My friends said that even people who spoke no English would yell out the part that’s missing in that version. > > Here’s an example from some Germans in [Mallorca](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F4brYFh8BI). Sorry, I even speak a little German (and a little less ever day that passes) and I don’t know what song this is. So a little help? (I am truly hopeless at music, but it sounded Jimmy Buffet-like to me?) ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/48 "2012-10-21T23:26:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Sing it at your own drunken risk: [John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581130/John-Denver-karaoke-sparks-Thai-killing-spree.html). Eight dead in the end, including the perp’s brother-in-law. > > **“‘When I began shooting nobody pleaded for his life because they were all drunk’,” he said after his arrest."** I think the man named Weenus Chumkamnerd should look to blame his parents for his being angry as opposed to John Denver. 😉 ---
**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:** [October 21, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/49 "2012-10-21T23:38:11Z")
Mister Rik writes: \> See, this is what always cracks me up about foreign takes on American music. \> Here, in a song about West Virginia (American East), all the imagery is of the \> American West (and Texas). Yeah, but as I pointed out above, Americans sometimes can’t get it right either. The song has nothing to do with the actual state of West Virginia except for the fact that it mentions the state. It was written in Washington, D.C. by songwriters who knew little about West Virginia, in so far as it was inspired by anything it was a road in Maryland, and the locations mentioned by name are in Virginia. The song is so arbitrary that it’s hard to understand why any West Virginians would want to embrace it as their state song. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/50 "2012-10-22T00:26:40Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > The only time I’ve seen [this](http://youtu.be/ewrAOs9cD3Y) activity before was old footage of Coney Island or the crazy unsafe rides. I guess drinking lots of beer makes it safer somehow. I’m just going to pretend that the name of that game translates to “Wheel of Upskirts”. ---
**Author:** ![Gestalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90ced4/32.png) [@Gestalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gestalt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/51 "2012-10-22T01:12:24Z")
Pretty sure Dwight on _The Office_ sang this song in German. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/52 "2012-10-22T06:12:22Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > Sorry, I even speak a little German (and a little less ever day that passes) and I don’t know what song this is. So a little help? (I am truly hopeless at music, but it sounded Jimmy Buffet-like to me?) The song is “Living Next Door to Alice”. Here’s a version that’s [all in English](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY4lPdSgfxw). Looking at it now that either was the source of the inserted line or it popularized it. I also found out the clean version actually goes back to the 1970s, as sung by [Smokie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc2coufE-Hc). ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/53 "2012-10-22T14:59:39Z")
> [@polar\_bear](#): > > Yeah…sorry, can’t blame that one on the Germans. With much shame: Hermes House Band is Dutch:(. So who can we blame for this one then? Die Lollipops - Dankeschön: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/OCI46wzZXtw/hqdefault.jpg "Die Lollipops - Dankeschön( lyrics)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCI46wzZXtw) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/54 "2012-10-22T15:11:06Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > The song is “Living Next Door to Alice”. Here’s a version that’s [all in English](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY4lPdSgfxw). Looking at it now that either was the source of the inserted line or it popularized it. > > I also found out the clean version actually goes back to the 1970s, as sung by [Smokie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc2coufE-Hc). Alice? Who the fuck is Alice? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/55 "2012-10-22T16:00:19Z")
Is there a Swedish version that extols surstromming? ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/56 "2012-10-22T18:05:07Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Alice? Who the fuck is Alice? 😕 The lady who owns the restaurant, where you can get anything you want, around the back, about a half mile from the railroad track. She lives in the bell-tower, of the church. You know, _ **Alice!** _ I thought everybody knows Alice. Then again there is the _other_ Alice, the one with the pills. Go ask her, she’ll know. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/57 "2012-10-22T18:08:48Z")
Either the church or the pills, it’s a big decision in a town called mAlice. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/58 "2012-10-22T18:22:05Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > West Virginiana Was that intentional? I like that. Anyway, my answer is that maybe it’s the USA that’s out-of-synch in John Denver no longer being popular. _Thank God I’m a Country Boy_ and \*Gramma’s Feather Bed \*are crap (and I don’t think he wrote either one), but before that, he wrote a lot of thoughtful, if simple, stuff. Country Roads should be vapid crap. It was written by the two leads of the Starland Vocal Band, with John Denver adding some stuff after they demo’d it for him. It was inspired by driving on roads in Montgomery County, Maryland (it borders DC. It admittedly had some country in it still in 1970, but not much). The West Virginia namechecks are more associated with Virginia, not West Virginia. Somehow, though, the song is a timeless classic. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/59 "2012-10-22T19:05:37Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I did not know that was a John Denver song. Always thought Peter, Paul and Mary wrote it. Live and learn. I saw John Denver in concert in 1970 when he was just starting out as a solo act. (He was opening for Blood Sweat & Tears.) Having written “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was what he was most famous for at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341/60 "2012-10-22T19:46:54Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > . . .It was written in a folk club in Washington, D.C. by Denver, Bill Danoff, and Taffy Nivert. Danoff and Nivert had just gotten back from a family reunion in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which was more rural then than it is today. Specifically, they were thinking about Clopper Road there. . . . Bill and Taffy Danoff would later found the Starland Vocal Band, known for “Afternoon Delight.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-at-oktoberfest-sing-john-denvers-take-me-home-country-roads/638341.md?page=4)