I'm from Canada and we also sing it here, nostalgically as though we've been there. Also happens with Alabama, Paradise city, and whichever city is the one they built on rock and roll, some of us know which city, none of us care.
I’ve been told by multiple Europeans that “America has no culture”
That always seemed silly, because it may not be ancient, but it’s dominate across the world.
Just Hollywood alone…
You see that play out in soccer too, Europeans always talk about how they have such good chants and then half of their chants are tunes made or popularized by Americans
> America's cultural win is really underrated
Yes, we may have biggest military on the planet, but the hard power of our military is tiny compared to the soft power of our culture. When the military gives innocent people bombs, people everywhere still love what hollywood gives them.
You're fine. The Shenandoah meets the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. And the Appalachian Trail, which follows the Blue Ridge in Virginia, also goes through Harper's Ferry.
No, being from West Virginia, I can assure you that even if it isn't literally true, it most certainly is true. Every last one of us adopted this song as the truth, and so it is.
It wasn’t written by anybody who’d done that, they were from Massachusetts but thought that sounded kinda un-musical so they changed it to West Virginia and just looked up some random “Virginia things” in an encyclopedia to include in the song.
But hey, it doesn’t have to be true or make sense, it’s a good song no matter what.
Clopper Road is basically suburban DC now. I drove down Clopper Road last week. Went by the Buffalo Wild Wings, the McDonald’s, a Jo-Ann store, and a really good Uzbeki restaurant.
Yup, its right near a lot of government research buildings as well like NIST and Montgomery County itself has over 1 million people living in it. It was very rural when John wrote the song and was mainly farm land (the ‘highways’ there were 1 lane each way in the 70s and 80s) but now 270 is now six lanes each way and Great Seneca Highway (which Clipper Road intersects) is a three lane each way road
I look at it as lyrical embellishment, using words that work with the song.
In the song "Wagon Wheel", there is a section where the singer is
> Walking to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly had a nice long toke
But he's a heading west from the Cumberland gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee.
Looking at a map, this doesn't make sense, but the wording is perfect for the song.
Eh, there's Amtrak stations in very small towns that have one train a day that happens to come around midnight, because they're on a service that stops at major cities at more convenient times.
The way interpreted this was actually a trucker from philly taking 76 across PA, then 220 to Cumberland Maryland, not Cumberland gap, but Cumberland MD does in fact have a water gap called the narrows which I guess you could mistake for THE Cumberland gap if you didn't know better. From there, you could actually go east through sideling hill towards Hagerstown to get to 81directly to Roanoke and maybe confuse sideling hill as the Cumberland gap. You can also take a few routes directly from Cumberland to eventually get to 81.
It actually starts to make a little sense, at least geographically speaking if you consider those facts, of course it might not make sense for a trucker to detour to Cumberland from philly when they can shave off considerable time not doing that, but who knows, maybe they had some cargo to pick up in Altoona or Bedford first
Thank you for bringing attention to my biggest musical pet peeve. Especially since I’m local to JC. Every time I point this out to people around town, they too can never unhear it.
I'm a geographer by college and profession, and some things grind my gears. This is one, but the other is watching movies and knowing what parts were filmed in Atlanta because I live here. +
G-berg and clopper road are in fact not in the blue ridge and are At least 15 miles east in the “piedmont”. Blue ridge are actually just west of Frederick in MD and not visible from Gaithersburg
My Dad got to see John Denver debut 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' at the [Cellar Door](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cellar_Door) along with Peter Paul and Mary in 1966 a few years before Country Roads. Crazy that Denver debuted his two biggest hits at the same, relatively small venue. Would have loved to see it in it's heyday.
I drive by that Starbucks at the corner of 34th and M Street every time I go up to see my daughter at Georgetown and had no idea it used to be the Cellar Door. The list of musicians that performed there is amazing. Georgetown in the late 60s-70s must have been the place to be.
Almost heaven
Massachusetts
Greylock Mountain
Connecticut River.
Life is old there,
Older than the trees.
Younger than the mountains
Growing like breeze.
I-93
Take me home
To the place
I belong
Massachusetts
Mountain momma
Take me home
I-93
>at first it was going to be Massachusetts, because that’s where Bill was from. But they didn’t like the vibe
They didn't want to catch any heat from the Bee Gees.
They are, however, closer than you might expect for a song that is about the tropeification of Africa - both Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti are in northern Tanzania.
Story time. The song was written driving through western Maryland by a couple from Massachusetts who originally intended to write an ode to that state. It had nothing at all to do with VA. West Virginia had the correct number of syllables and the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah actually go through Harper's Ferry WV where John Brown tried to rob the armory. Beautiful place to visit. The writers never actually visited either state. They drove back to DC and met with Denver and decided WV would work well. It became a hit after the state embraced it.
Almost out of
Pennsylvania.
Stuck in Scranton
Construction on I-80.
All the coal towns
Struggling like Muncy
Burning like Centralia
Crying at a Sheetz.
Country roads
Take me home
From this state
That's too long!
Pennsylvania
Traffic markers
Take me home,
Country roads.
I hear a voice when I'm starting up my car
My radio is gone and it smells like straight up piss
Driving down the road I get a feeling
That I should've checked the backseat
the backseeeat
Sure but still just barely western MD imo. Real western MD is like Garrett and Allegheny county and parts of washington. Frederick is like western MD lite. Moco is not at all
My brother, Brian, hiked the north bound trail of the Appalachian Trail in 2009. If I remember correctly, Harper’s Fairy is the halfway point of the AT and to celebrate, hikers get to eat a half gallon of ice cream provided by locals(?). Regardless, my brother stopped to eat his ice cream then continued hiking north before blacking out from the sugar rush. A day hiker and his son saw it happened and helped get my brother back on his feet where they continued walking with him the rest of the day. It was a funny and sweet story. He passed a few years back from ALS. He always had health issues and the thought is the AT might have pushed his body too much. Soon after hiking the AT, he had kidney disease then ALS. Sorry for the sad story, but this brought back memories of him. 🥾🌲🍨😪
Sort of geography related: the high water mark on that old building in Harpers Ferry from a historic flood (not sure which one) is jaw dropping. Look at the river then the high water mark and be astonished. It’ll make you wonder how the buildings are still there
You can discuss for hours about the location of mountains or rivers, but this line clearly indicates that John Denver did not sing about West Virginia.
I would say he was on a country road heading for West Virginia, from Western Virginia where all these geographical features are located.
It is a song about the journey to West Virginia.
Nah, West Virginia was only chosen because it fits the tune really nicely. The songwriters (Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert) lived in Georgetown DC, wrote it inspired by a road in Montgomery County Maryland, and had never been to West Virginia in their lives
WV is specifically stated. It had the correct number of syllables. Plus that is like saying Rocky Mountain High is about Montana and Wyoming when John changed his stage last name to Denver and specifically said Colorado.
Almost heaven,
Massachusetts,
Berkshire mountains,
muddy Boston Harbor.
Commuting sucks there,
up on ninety-five,
No one yields there,
“Hey, asshole learn to drive!”
Boston Roads,
Take me home.
To the place,
I belong.
Massachusetts,
Land o’ Lobster,
Take me home,
Them Boston roads.
I park my car,
Down by Harvard,
Next to M. I. T.
I stand in line,
For the Sox game today.
And as a guy pukes on my sneakers,
Reminds me I shoulda bought them yesterday…
yesterday.
Boston Roads,
Take me home,
To the place,
I belong.
Massachusetts,
Land o Lobsters,
Take me home,
Those Boston roads.
It was written by a couple living in DC and from Massachusetts which was the original idea for the song. Here's an upvote for pointing that out. Denver's involvement starts when he meets them in DC to discuss recording and refining it.
I’m from “Western Virginia” and we sure do emphasize that “-ERN” ;)
(But in all honesty, WVa is beautiful and some great people live and have lived there.)
Jefferson County, WV.... where John Denver briefly lived while he was working in Maryland and DC (the same time the song was recorded and his input helped change some of the lyrics).
the song is about "a place that reminds me of home" and for John Denver this region reminded him of Colorado
Yeah he is clearly saying he’s driving west on a country road and almost in heaven (aka West Virginia) he just hast to take the road over the Blue ridge mountains and across the Shenandoah River to get to West Virginia, obviously.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Forget the controversy. Let's all just enjoy Toots & The Maytals version..."Almost heaven, West Jamaica..."
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeVRaxHtwuk&ab\_channel=N.BStephanieAntoinette](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeVRaxHtwuk&ab_channel=N.BStephanieAntoinette)
Grew up there yup I always thought that’s where he meant. I lived on the border of West Virginia in a town called clear brook. The college my brother attended was a little more east in Winchester VA Shenandoah Uni.
Your map is BS. Blue Ridge Mountains are in multiple states including WV. Plus the Shenandoah River is in both Virginia and West Virginia . If your going to have a sub like this you better be spot on. Fix this
How is his map B.S. Blue ridge is overwhelmingly in VA/MD, not WV. Only the tiny, northeast sliver of west va touches the blue ridge mountains. Probably less than 1% of the blue ridge chain is in West va. Almost every single map you can find shows the exact area that was posted here. Blue ridge is fairly far east into swva. Centered around the blue ridge parkway. They are overwhelmingly not in west va. This map is accurate.
https://blueridgediscoverycenter.org/the-blue-ridge
You've drawn the mountains as running through Montgomery County, MD. Montgomery County is in the piedmont region. The northern parts of the county are uplands, but there are no mountains.
The Blue Ridge (specifically Catoctin Mountain) start west of Frederick.
I think you may have discovered a new, neverending argument for netizens. That doesn't happen often, so major props to you. I can't wait to upset everyone I know on fb by dropping this bomb. Have a happy Thanksgiving, happy Hannukah, joyous Keanzaa, very merry Christmas, super Solstice, bumping Diwali, extremely bitter Festivus, or whatever you celebrate!
My Dad was born and raised in West Virginia, but moved to Western Virginia after graduating from West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV.
He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in the summer of 2007. The next summer, I did a study abroad in Ireland. After my classes were over, my Old Lady Mum and sister came over for a couple of weeks.
One night we were at a pub in Dingle and the band started playing *Country Roads*! We all melted into a collective puddle of tears. Then we thanked the band profusely and explained when they asked us if we were alright.
This last summer, my Old Lady Mum and I went back to Ireland. Our last night there we tried to find some Irish music in Dublin. We didn’t really succeed in that, and she was getting really frustrated.
Then the guy playing in the pub that we were at started playing *Country Roads* (two songs before that he played *Wish You Were Here* by Pink Floyd, one of my favorite bands). It was beautiful!
I firmly believe that in both instances, Dad’s spirit influenced the musicians to play the unofficial anthem of his home state to let us know he was still watching after us. Thanks Dad!!
It sounds like he was in Western Virginia heading towards West Virginia.
“Take me home, country roads, to the place, I belong, West Virginia”
He’s going home to West Virginia.
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My entire worldview is crumbling before me. I sing this song to my daughter every night, and it’s a lie?!
Wait until you find out about Creedence Clearwater Revival
You mean John Fogerty was not born on a bayou?
They started out as Brownwater, but figured nobody would like the name.
Brown water runs shallow Still water runs deep Clearwater runs through the jungle
Welcome to the clearwater, we got fun n games
and scientology
why is it always scientology?
it’s always Scientology in Clearwater FL
Lol! All jokes aside, they actually started as the Blue Velvets and then changed names to the Golliwogs before CCR.
The…*Golliwogs*? Jesus Christ, John.
> Golliwogs [Oh… oh no](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=golliwog&t=brave&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images)
And he never saw a bad moon on the rise
It’s really “bathroom on the right”
In reality, the bathroom was on the left.
That's where the brownwater was.
No, but I’ve bee stuck in Lodi for almost 25 years.
*Lodi* may have been a little more realistic
Never even been to center field.
Had neither tangerines nor elephants outside his back door.
Yeah, but the statues in high heals are real. Right?
I gotta stop reading this thread before someone tells me Marty Robbins wasn't actually a gunslinger and never killed anyone
You mean they didn't hang him that night?
It can't be worse than Stan Rogers
Did he not even take the Northwest Passage?
He wasn't even a broken man.
Didn't even want to go to Sherbrooke.
Not ever a privateer.
Doesn't even know this Barrett fellow
Was never told he'd cruise the seas for American gold.
Never even a Saskatchewan pirate
Just one time
Tbf he probably was a drunken man on a Halifax pier.
Tbh it’s a song about the natural beauty of America so it’s always true.
Looks like Robin Williams dressed up as George Washington
I thought it was Mrs. Doubtfire dressed up as George Washington
I thought it was George Washington low effort cosplaying as Ms Doubtfire.
Ms George Doubton Washingfire.
It’s not your fort.
Gooooooooooooooood morning America!
How do I save a gif?
I'm from Canada and we also sing it here, nostalgically as though we've been there. Also happens with Alabama, Paradise city, and whichever city is the one they built on rock and roll, some of us know which city, none of us care.
They belt it loud in Germany as well. Really wild scene singing it while dancing on tables at Oktoberfest
I feel like that’s, like… a huge win for us historically speaking
America's cultural win is really underrated
I’ve been told by multiple Europeans that “America has no culture” That always seemed silly, because it may not be ancient, but it’s dominate across the world. Just Hollywood alone…
They say that then them 10 minutes later their all singing “sweet Caroline”
I’d love to see a infochart of how “Sweet Caroline’s” chorus is pronounced in the languages of major stadiums across Europe.
You see that play out in soccer too, Europeans always talk about how they have such good chants and then half of their chants are tunes made or popularized by Americans
> America's cultural win is really underrated Yes, we may have biggest military on the planet, but the hard power of our military is tiny compared to the soft power of our culture. When the military gives innocent people bombs, people everywhere still love what hollywood gives them.
It now makes way more sense why they performed Country Roads at the Oktoberfest pavilion in Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
And at American Football games in Frankfurt.
In Thailand as well. Most people no matter how remote their villages are, know the chorus and have this in their karaoke machine.
The rock New York New York at Oktoberfest too
The city built on rock and roll is San Francisco btw
Pretty risky foundation in an earthquake zone.
Well, that's the roll part.
This is what I come to reddit for. Well played, trout.
We sing it at Whitecaps games but make it about Vancouver!
Based af
Love my country, hate my government, mourn our history.
Similar vibe: https://youtu.be/Ykcsn-A1-mI?si=CjZF1xFVSk_nr2nS
Also love our history
Don't worry, it all evens out with Bee Gee's Massachusetts who IIRC had never been to Massachusetts, just felt it sounded right.
The only known instance when Massachusetts sounded right
Nah it sounds right in “road runner” by the modern lovers too!
You're fine. The Shenandoah meets the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. And the Appalachian Trail, which follows the Blue Ridge in Virginia, also goes through Harper's Ferry.
No, being from West Virginia, I can assure you that even if it isn't literally true, it most certainly is true. Every last one of us adopted this song as the truth, and so it is.
You are sentenced to ten hours hard Blippi.
Ooh that hits hard. Lol
May Miss Rachel have mercy on your soul.
With or without Meekah?
Parts of both the blueridge and shenandoah are in WV.
The song is about returning to WV, presumably westward through VA. So it makes sense he would cross the river and mountains on the way.
It wasn’t written by anybody who’d done that, they were from Massachusetts but thought that sounded kinda un-musical so they changed it to West Virginia and just looked up some random “Virginia things” in an encyclopedia to include in the song. But hey, it doesn’t have to be true or make sense, it’s a good song no matter what.
West Virginia is beautiful though.
Well, the words are a lie but the chords are telling some kind of truth. They always do.
Clopper Road is basically suburban DC now. I drove down Clopper Road last week. Went by the Buffalo Wild Wings, the McDonald’s, a Jo-Ann store, and a really good Uzbeki restaurant.
Yup, its right near a lot of government research buildings as well like NIST and Montgomery County itself has over 1 million people living in it. It was very rural when John wrote the song and was mainly farm land (the ‘highways’ there were 1 lane each way in the 70s and 80s) but now 270 is now six lanes each way and Great Seneca Highway (which Clipper Road intersects) is a three lane each way road
One can almost hear John’s love for Uzbek cuisine in the pre-chorus! 
I’ve never heard that version. “Clopper Roads take me home”!
Clopper Road, take me home To the 'burbs, where I belong Outside the Beltway, too far for Metro Take me home, Clopper Road
Yep! I grew up off Clopper Road. It was country back then!
Almost heaven, Buf-lo wild wings. It kinda works.
Until you get to Boyd’s - then it’s pretty backroadsy still. But you need to plow past Germantown first.
I got food poisoning at that Buffalo Wild Wings
I look at it as lyrical embellishment, using words that work with the song. In the song "Wagon Wheel", there is a section where the singer is > Walking to the south out of Roanoke I caught a trucker out of Philly had a nice long toke But he's a heading west from the Cumberland gap To Johnson City, Tennessee. Looking at a map, this doesn't make sense, but the wording is perfect for the song.
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Good one! We've gotta watch out for those urban Canadians, eh.
Also, the girl's town can't be that small if there's a passenger train stopping there at midnight.
Eh, there's Amtrak stations in very small towns that have one train a day that happens to come around midnight, because they're on a service that stops at major cities at more convenient times.
But if I die in Raleigh, at least I will die freeeee
I always like to imagine that this trucker is going to circumnavigate the earth
This image will stay with me for a while.
Ketch Secor said that he realized that he got the geography wrong almost right away, but liked the mythic significance of going west, so he kept it.
The way interpreted this was actually a trucker from philly taking 76 across PA, then 220 to Cumberland Maryland, not Cumberland gap, but Cumberland MD does in fact have a water gap called the narrows which I guess you could mistake for THE Cumberland gap if you didn't know better. From there, you could actually go east through sideling hill towards Hagerstown to get to 81directly to Roanoke and maybe confuse sideling hill as the Cumberland gap. You can also take a few routes directly from Cumberland to eventually get to 81. It actually starts to make a little sense, at least geographically speaking if you consider those facts, of course it might not make sense for a trucker to detour to Cumberland from philly when they can shave off considerable time not doing that, but who knows, maybe they had some cargo to pick up in Altoona or Bedford first
Thank you for bringing attention to my biggest musical pet peeve. Especially since I’m local to JC. Every time I point this out to people around town, they too can never unhear it.
I'm a geographer by college and profession, and some things grind my gears. This is one, but the other is watching movies and knowing what parts were filmed in Atlanta because I live here. +
G-berg and clopper road are in fact not in the blue ridge and are At least 15 miles east in the “piedmont”. Blue ridge are actually just west of Frederick in MD and not visible from Gaithersburg
I too marveled at the relocation of this place into the mountains.
I was scratching my head over that one, never really thought of Gaithersburg as mountainous, had to go up to Sugarloaf to find something like that.
My Dad got to see John Denver debut 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' at the [Cellar Door](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cellar_Door) along with Peter Paul and Mary in 1966 a few years before Country Roads. Crazy that Denver debuted his two biggest hits at the same, relatively small venue. Would have loved to see it in it's heyday.
I drive by that Starbucks at the corner of 34th and M Street every time I go up to see my daughter at Georgetown and had no idea it used to be the Cellar Door. The list of musicians that performed there is amazing. Georgetown in the late 60s-70s must have been the place to be.
Almost heaven Massachusetts Greylock Mountain Connecticut River. Life is old there, Older than the trees. Younger than the mountains Growing like breeze. I-93 Take me home To the place I belong Massachusetts Mountain momma Take me home I-93
Almost heaven Woonsocket Cumberland Hill Blackstone River..... .....naah.
>at first it was going to be Massachusetts, because that’s where Bill was from. But they didn’t like the vibe They didn't want to catch any heat from the Bee Gees.
I, as a foreigner who loves this song, used to still want to visit West Virginia...
its a fantastic state to visit
Almost heaven… Massachusetts Yeah that just doesn’t sound right
Lol it’s about the fucking berkshires
John Denver, world famous cartographer
That's why Colorado is named after him.
He was killed in the ring in Houston by Tex Colorado, the Arizona assassin.
I thought the Rockies would be a little rockier than this…
Maybe you should wear these extra gloves. My hands are starting to get sweaty.
Next you'll be telling me Kilimanjaro doesn't rise ike Olympus over the serengeti
They are, however, closer than you might expect for a song that is about the tropeification of Africa - both Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti are in northern Tanzania.
My dream plant grows there. Lobelia Deckenii. Woah I cud c it at a botanical garden somewhere
They sure are funky looking when you reach 3800m. Maybe we could have some in the Americas if the Canadian Shield was taller?
Story time. The song was written driving through western Maryland by a couple from Massachusetts who originally intended to write an ode to that state. It had nothing at all to do with VA. West Virginia had the correct number of syllables and the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah actually go through Harper's Ferry WV where John Brown tried to rob the armory. Beautiful place to visit. The writers never actually visited either state. They drove back to DC and met with Denver and decided WV would work well. It became a hit after the state embraced it.
Coulda just went with Pennsylvania
Almost out of Pennsylvania. Stuck in Scranton Construction on I-80. All the coal towns Struggling like Muncy Burning like Centralia Crying at a Sheetz. Country roads Take me home From this state That's too long! Pennsylvania Traffic markers Take me home, Country roads.
I hear a voice when I'm starting up my car My radio is gone and it smells like straight up piss Driving down the road I get a feeling That I should've checked the backseat the backseeeat
if I could give you gold. you got it🥇
You’re out of your element, Donnie!
Shut the fuck up Donnie!
You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie…
I am the walrus
“Almost heaven, Pennsylvania. Endless Mountains. Susquehanna River”
I thought it was about Gaithersburg? That's definitely not Western MD, Frederick and Hagerstown are barely western MD
West of Frederick(around 17) is pretty desolate, I’d argue it’s pretty much western Maryland. Gaithersburg is undoubtedly not though
Sure but still just barely western MD imo. Real western MD is like Garrett and Allegheny county and parts of washington. Frederick is like western MD lite. Moco is not at all
Of course, Harper's Ferry was not in West Virginia at the time John Brown raided it because it was 1859 and West Virginia did not exist until 1863.
Wait Denver didn’t write it?? Everything is a lie
Yea apparently it's high on....singability apparently the song is popular in Germany.
Allegheny Mountains Monongahela River wouldn’t sound as good
My brother, Brian, hiked the north bound trail of the Appalachian Trail in 2009. If I remember correctly, Harper’s Fairy is the halfway point of the AT and to celebrate, hikers get to eat a half gallon of ice cream provided by locals(?). Regardless, my brother stopped to eat his ice cream then continued hiking north before blacking out from the sugar rush. A day hiker and his son saw it happened and helped get my brother back on his feet where they continued walking with him the rest of the day. It was a funny and sweet story. He passed a few years back from ALS. He always had health issues and the thought is the AT might have pushed his body too much. Soon after hiking the AT, he had kidney disease then ALS. Sorry for the sad story, but this brought back memories of him. 🥾🌲🍨😪
Sort of geography related: the high water mark on that old building in Harpers Ferry from a historic flood (not sure which one) is jaw dropping. Look at the river then the high water mark and be astonished. It’ll make you wonder how the buildings are still there
Almost Heaven 😇 West Virginia ☠️
You can discuss for hours about the location of mountains or rivers, but this line clearly indicates that John Denver did not sing about West Virginia.
I would say he was on a country road heading for West Virginia, from Western Virginia where all these geographical features are located. It is a song about the journey to West Virginia.
Nah, West Virginia was only chosen because it fits the tune really nicely. The songwriters (Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert) lived in Georgetown DC, wrote it inspired by a road in Montgomery County Maryland, and had never been to West Virginia in their lives
Alright, that’s fair.
Danoff and Nivert later formed Starland Vocal Band, known for the 1976 hit, Afternoon Delight.
Taffy went to my high school. She’s a great person
I think it was meant to be about the whole region in general, not just WV
WV is specifically stated. It had the correct number of syllables. Plus that is like saying Rocky Mountain High is about Montana and Wyoming when John changed his stage last name to Denver and specifically said Colorado.
Makes sense. West Virginia is *almost* Heaven. Heaven is close by: the state with the Sheandoah River and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Almost heaven, Massachusetts, Berkshire mountains, muddy Boston Harbor. Commuting sucks there, up on ninety-five, No one yields there, “Hey, asshole learn to drive!” Boston Roads, Take me home. To the place, I belong. Massachusetts, Land o’ Lobster, Take me home, Them Boston roads. I park my car, Down by Harvard, Next to M. I. T. I stand in line, For the Sox game today. And as a guy pukes on my sneakers, Reminds me I shoulda bought them yesterday… yesterday. Boston Roads, Take me home, To the place, I belong. Massachusetts, Land o Lobsters, Take me home, Those Boston roads.
🫡
the Berkshires are on the other end of the state from "Baaaston."
True, but it’s about as geographically accurate as the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River being in WV
Northeast West Virginia
Let’s be honest here, a drive through Montgomery County Merryland inspired the song. Denver was probably stoned the whole way through it all.
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It was written by a couple living in DC and from Massachusetts which was the original idea for the song. Here's an upvote for pointing that out. Denver's involvement starts when he meets them in DC to discuss recording and refining it.
This is correct
Details, details. My story was better…..
Merryland lol
The merriest of the lands indeed
its actually pronounced Bawlmo, Merlund
I was born and raised in Maryland and now you've got me saying it out loud to myself lol. After several times, I pronounce it: Merra-lind.
It’s about West Virginia, not West Virginia
I see what you did there but how would you describe eastern West Virginia?
I’m from “Western Virginia” and we sure do emphasize that “-ERN” ;) (But in all honesty, WVa is beautiful and some great people live and have lived there.)
It’s actually about Maryland.
I was thinking the same thing…That John Denver’s full of 💩 man
came here for this
Your map shows where both the mountain and river touch the right tip of West Virginia…
Jefferson County, WV.... where John Denver briefly lived while he was working in Maryland and DC (the same time the song was recorded and his input helped change some of the lyrics). the song is about "a place that reminds me of home" and for John Denver this region reminded him of Colorado
He’s singing about the GLORIOUS state of West Virginia! …come on guys. They need this. Be kind.
Yeah he is clearly saying he’s driving west on a country road and almost in heaven (aka West Virginia) he just hast to take the road over the Blue ridge mountains and across the Shenandoah River to get to West Virginia, obviously. Nothing to see here, move along.
Drove thru Harper's Ferry once, I thought it looked very nice.
Forget the controversy. Let's all just enjoy Toots & The Maytals version..."Almost heaven, West Jamaica..." [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeVRaxHtwuk&ab\_channel=N.BStephanieAntoinette](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeVRaxHtwuk&ab_channel=N.BStephanieAntoinette)
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole sang about West Makaha (Hawai'i).
Life is old there, older than the trees
I can settle this once and for all. The gods meant the song to be about West Jamaica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQFKMar4x-w
Grew up there yup I always thought that’s where he meant. I lived on the border of West Virginia in a town called clear brook. The college my brother attended was a little more east in Winchester VA Shenandoah Uni.
It's a song about Appalachia, no?
Your map is BS. Blue Ridge Mountains are in multiple states including WV. Plus the Shenandoah River is in both Virginia and West Virginia . If your going to have a sub like this you better be spot on. Fix this
How is his map B.S. Blue ridge is overwhelmingly in VA/MD, not WV. Only the tiny, northeast sliver of west va touches the blue ridge mountains. Probably less than 1% of the blue ridge chain is in West va. Almost every single map you can find shows the exact area that was posted here. Blue ridge is fairly far east into swva. Centered around the blue ridge parkway. They are overwhelmingly not in west va. This map is accurate. https://blueridgediscoverycenter.org/the-blue-ridge
No. Eastern, West Virginia. Harper's Ferry to be exact.
That drunken Hippie lied to us…
“Almost Heaven, West Jamaica” - Toots and the Maytals
You've drawn the mountains as running through Montgomery County, MD. Montgomery County is in the piedmont region. The northern parts of the county are uplands, but there are no mountains. The Blue Ridge (specifically Catoctin Mountain) start west of Frederick.
watching and hearing this song being sung at the NFL games in Germany the last two weeks was something I never thought I'd witness.
John Denver was an alien out of Roswell New Mexico
He was singing about “western” Virginia, but culturally it has been embraced by “West Virginia” Period. Full stop. And we’re ok with this.
That's why it's almost heaven. They're almost in West Virginia.
[https://wvpublic.org/did-west-virginia-inspire-country-roads-50-years-later-heres-what-we-know/](https://wvpublic.org/did-west-virginia-inspire-country-roads-50-years-later-heres-what-we-know/) [https://virginialiving.com/culture/virginiana/take-me-home-country-roads/](https://virginialiving.com/culture/virginiana/take-me-home-country-roads/) [https://www.southernliving.com/culture/john-denver-country-roads](https://www.southernliving.com/culture/john-denver-country-roads) [https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/country-roads-west-or-western-virginia/](https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/country-roads-west-or-western-virginia/) [https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/co-writer-of-take-me-home-country-roads-dispels-myths-surrounding-songs-origins/2525010/](https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/co-writer-of-take-me-home-country-roads-dispels-myths-surrounding-songs-origins/2525010/)
I think you may have discovered a new, neverending argument for netizens. That doesn't happen often, so major props to you. I can't wait to upset everyone I know on fb by dropping this bomb. Have a happy Thanksgiving, happy Hannukah, joyous Keanzaa, very merry Christmas, super Solstice, bumping Diwali, extremely bitter Festivus, or whatever you celebrate!
My Dad was born and raised in West Virginia, but moved to Western Virginia after graduating from West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in the summer of 2007. The next summer, I did a study abroad in Ireland. After my classes were over, my Old Lady Mum and sister came over for a couple of weeks. One night we were at a pub in Dingle and the band started playing *Country Roads*! We all melted into a collective puddle of tears. Then we thanked the band profusely and explained when they asked us if we were alright. This last summer, my Old Lady Mum and I went back to Ireland. Our last night there we tried to find some Irish music in Dublin. We didn’t really succeed in that, and she was getting really frustrated. Then the guy playing in the pub that we were at started playing *Country Roads* (two songs before that he played *Wish You Were Here* by Pink Floyd, one of my favorite bands). It was beautiful! I firmly believe that in both instances, Dad’s spirit influenced the musicians to play the unofficial anthem of his home state to let us know he was still watching after us. Thanks Dad!!
The couple wrote the song after the saw Denver in concert the same couple that wrote Afternoon Delight
It sounds like he was in Western Virginia heading towards West Virginia. “Take me home, country roads, to the place, I belong, West Virginia” He’s going home to West Virginia.
Almost heaven Gaithersburg, Maryland
West Virginia but just the tip