Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Take me Home Country Roads by John Denver Take Me Home Country Roads. After clicking the button and logging in to Patreon, look for the PDF attached to the bottom of the post. Video timestamps. 0:00 Playthrough & greeting 1:24 Chords needed 3:10 Strumming pattern 5:42 Verse, chorus, & bridge 7:16 Farewell. Lyrics w/ chords. Capo notes. If you want to use the chords above and play along with John Denver’s official version, you’ll need a capo on the 2nd fret. Without a capo, you’d need to use chords in the key of A to play along with John Denver (which makes a bit tougher, since a barre chord is needed for F#m). Otherwise, you can use no capo (using the chords I show) and you’ll sound just fine on your own. Understanding the timing of each chord. We’ll have 4 counts per measure. Chords are either played for 1 or 2 measures, depending on the part of the song. Here’s a look at the chord progressions used for each section. Everytime you see a chord name, play that chord for 4 counts (1 measure). If you see a slash (“/”), repeat the prior chord for an additional measure. How to play the chords. Here’s how to play the chords you’ll need. For the F chord, you can get away with the “easy” approach of only playing the middle four strings - this prevents you from needing to play a full barre chord, which is more difficult. How to strum this song. Quite simply, the easiest way is to use all down strums – and accent the “2” and “4” counts in each 4 count measure. To take this a step further, for the “1” and “3” try only playing the bass note the chord with your picking hand. For example: Alternating bass notes. Good luck! Thanks for reading! I hope this helped you. Questions? Comments? Requests? Let me know! Enjoy my lessons? Buy me a beer! If this and my other lessons have proven helpful to you, please consider making a one-time donation to my tip jar. Contributions of any amount help make this project possible (including the many, many hours I put into it). You can also support me on Patreon. For only $3/month you'll get access to a print-friendly PDF of my notes for each new lesson (view free sample) . Subscribe to my YouTube channel. Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks! Recent video lessons: PDFs for many of my "song" lessons are currently unavailable due to copyright issues. Get the latest info here » (last updated May 6, 2021) HISTORY OF “COUNTRY ROADS” by JOHN DENVER. Many people believe John Denver wrote the song “Country Roads, Take Me Home” himself, though this is not true. The true writers of this song are Bill and Taffy Danoff. They wrote most the song until Denver came and helped finish it. There was always lots of controversy on if Bill and Taffy got enough recognition for the song. People would say that Denver “stole” the song. What people didn’t realize is that John gave the Danoffs lots of recognition. The day after they all finished the song, they went to preform it together. Soon after they went to New York to record it, with Bill and Taffy as the back up vocals. They were definitely a big reason for this song going big and are recognized for it. What is the song about? The song “Country Roads, Take Me Home”, is about the country roads of West Virginia, which is weird considering Denver and the Danoff’s had never been to west Virginia. The inspiration came from postcards sent to Bill by a friend who did live there along with the AM radio station that came out of West Virginia. He had picked up the station in Massachusetts when he was growing up. Bill Danoff said in an interview in 2011, “I just thought the idea that I was hearing something so exotic to me from someplace as far away. West Virginia might as well have been in Europe, for all I knew.” This was Bill Danoffs inspiration for the idea of “Country Roads” leading to the sweet home of West Virginia. Take Me Home, Country Roads. "Take Me Home, Country Roads" is a song written by John Denver, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert, and initially recorded by John Denver. It was included on his 1971 breakout album Poems, Prayers and Promises; the single went to #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. After many other hit singles, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" remains Denver's signature song. Origins. Denver was heading the bill in December 1970 at Washington, D.C. folk club The Cellar Door; Danoff and Nivert opened for him as a duo named Fat City. After the post-Christmas re-opening night (the booking was for two weeks), the three headed back to their place for an impromptu jam. On the way, Denver's left thumb was broken in an automobile accident. He was taken to the hospital, where a splint was applied. By the time they got back to the house, he was, in his own words, "wired, you know". Danoff and Nivert then told him about a song that they had been working on for about a month. Inspiration had come while driving to a family reunion of Nivert's relatives in nearby Maryland. To pass the time en route, Danoff had made up a ballad about the little winding roads they were taking. Later, he changed the story to fit that of an artist friend, who used to write to him about the splendors of the West Virginia countryside. The second verse of the tune was a bit risqué – referring to "naked ladies" – so the duo reckoned that their song would never get played on the radio. On his website, Bill Danoff provides the (later discarded) second verse: In the foothills hidin' from the clouds, Pink and purple, West Virginia farmhouse. Naked ladies, men who looked like Christ, And a dog named Pancho, nibbling on the rice. They sang the song for Denver and as he recalled, "I flipped." The three stayed up until 6:00 a.m., changing words and moving lines around. When they finished, John announced that the song had to go on his next album. The song was premiered December 30, 1970, during an encore of Denver's set, the singers reading the words off of a folded piece of paper. This resulted in a five-minute ovation, one of the longest in Cellar Door history. They recorded it in New York City in January 1971. "Take Me Home, Country Roads" appeared on the LP Poems, Prayers, and Promises and was released as a 45 in the spring of 1971. It broke nationally in mid-April, but moved up the charts very slowly. After several weeks, RCA called John and told him that they were giving up on the single. His response: "No! Keep working on it!" They did, and on August 18 it was certified a million-seller. Reception in West Virginia. The song is the theme song of West Virginia University and has been performed at every home football pre-game show at Mountaineer Field since 1972. In 1980, Denver performed his hit song during pre-game festivities to a sold-out crowd of Mountaineer fans. This performance marked the dedication of Mountaineer Field and the first game for head coach Don Nehlen. In fact, the song is played at virtually all athletic events and many other university functions. It is played after the football team wins at home, upon which the fans are encouraged to stay in the stands and sing the song along with the team. The song has also been sung at away games that were close enough for large numbers of students and fans to attend. It has also been played after WVU Men's Basketball victories. The land features mentioned prominently in the song lyrics – the Shenandoah River and the Blue Ridge Mountains – have only marginal associations with the state of West Virginia, and would seem to be more appropriate for Virginia. The river passes through only the very eastern tip of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Similarly, the vast majority of the Blue Ridge also lies outside the state. This has not dampened the enthusiasm that West Virginians feel for "their song". The popularity of the song has inspired resolutions in the West Virginia House of Delegates and Senate to change the state song of West Virginia to "Take Me Home, Country Roads". So far, such resolutions have not carried. According to a radio interview with Nivert, the road that inspired the song is nowhere near the state. It is a road close to her native Washington, D.C., in nearby Montgomery County, Maryland, where Denver often visited. Clopper Road still exists today, but the landscape has changed drastically from the bucolic landscape that once surrounded it. Popularity in Asia. The song (and writing alternate lyrics to it) is a plot point in the 1995 Japanese animated film Whisper of the Heart from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Cover versions and citings. * Scottish singer and entertainer Andy Stewart (musician) recorded a version using the original "West Virginia" lyrics for his album My Homeland.