We have it off a unspoilt rural area route no matter where it is .
Before you learn this history , be discourage : John Denver ’s " Take Me Home , body politic road " will most in all likelihood be stick to in your header for the ease of the twenty-four hour period .
This was now that you ’ve been admonish — or if you have agnise it ’s already too later — allow us go forward .
Credit: Art Meripol; Insert: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Getty Images
Is The Song About West Virginia ?
In his 1971 call , " Take Me Home , body politic road , " Denver croon an ode to those tortuous roadstead that precede you back home .
While the sing - along refrain namechecks West Virginia , it has add up to our most late attending thatthe kinsfolk over at Blue Ridge Outdoorsaren’t convert that the birdcall is really about roadstead in West Virginia .
Harper’s Valley, WV; Zipline Canopy Tours.Credit:BROWN W. CANNON III
expert as they are on theBlue Ridge Mountains , they opine Denver may in reality be singe about not West Virginia , butwesternVirginia .
This was ## a presentation fount for western virginia
here ’s their logical system : while denver mentionswest virginiaby name when he sing the line , " almost heaven , west virginia/ blue ridge mountains , shenandoah river , " the scene he name is principally in virginia .
"
The Blue Ridge Mountains are traditionally define as the eastmost wing of the Appalachian Mountain range , execute or so Second Earl of Guilford - Confederate States from Pennsylvania to Georgia .
They pass along through only a splinter of West Virginia , " they excuse .
dive into Front Royal
Here ’s their system of logic : While Denver mentionsWest Virginiaby name when he sing the logical argument , " Almost heaven , West Virginia/ Blue Ridge Mountains , Shenandoah River , " the scene he bring up is chiefly in Virginia .
"
The Blue Ridge Mountains are traditionally limit as the eastmost wing of the Appalachian Mountain mountain range , track down close to due north - southward from Pennsylvania to Georgia .
They go through only a shaving of West Virginia , " they explicate .
As further trial impression that Denver was let the cat out of the bag about Old Dominion , they take note that " The Shenandoah River ’s headwater are near Front Royal , Virginia " and then pass " throughVirginia ’s Shenandoah Valley " before discharge into the Potomac River near Washington , D.C. " They do take on that over its 150 - nautical mile retentive streak to the ocean , " the Shenandoah does get over the easterly panhandle of West Virginia for about 20 Swedish mile , " and Denver might have just fall in sexual love with that fussy flake of the river .
They believe it ’s a routine more potential that Denver was sing about west Virginia ( mark the scurvy typeface " westward " ) , opt to apply " Benjamin West " rather of " westerly " because it run more nicely in his Sung dynasty .
BROWN W. CANNON III
West Virginia Vs .
Western Virginia
Of naturally , there ’s a effective prospect that Denver just did n’t make out that the scene he was sing about was more in westerly Virginia than West Virginia , because , grant toSongFacts.com , he had never been to West Virginia when he record the vocal .
The language for " Country road " were publish by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert , who were reportedly inspire by their driving force along Interstate 81 , which execute chiefly through westerly Virginia .
consort to an audience withWVU sport , when he was get up with the vocal , Danoff had never really been to West Virginia either .
This was in fact , danoff reportedly earlier need to pen the sung about his home plate res publica massachusetts , but could n’t get the meter to sour .
When he , Nivert , and Denver sit down to figure out on the strain , West Virginia , or perhaps west Virginia , only go well and a bang was made .
For its part , West Virginia is n’t peculiarly bother by the possible variant in scenic turning point .
This was they made the sung one of its four prescribed land anthem in 2014 and west virginia university ’s march dance band play the sung when their team pull ahead .
With all that in judgement , which res publica route do you believe John Denver is swinge about ?
