Thanks for that generous review of A Year of Birds! And for letting me know about books I'd missed, like "Mind Prints" and "Thoreau, Bert Call, and the Maine Woods." Also from Mercer this year was Catherine Staples' excellent poetry collection "Vert," which I'll be reviewing for the Thoreau Society Bulletin. Some of the poems are directly about Thoreau, some are about contemporaries like Emerson and the Hawthornes, and others don't mention Henry but are clearly Thoreauvian in tone, theme, and subject.

Didn't know all that about the Some Days Are Diamonds album. Bummer since I actually like that one a good deal. Don't mean to brag, but I have that Japan DVD as part of a 5-disc (!!!) DVD set from Eagle Rock/Eagle Vision called Around The World Live which also has Live in Australia 1977, Live in England 1986 (very interesting one since he's wearing a bit of eye makeup for some reason and he's a little under the weather but he pulls through like the pro he was), another show in Japan but it's solo acoustic and it's from 1984, his three Farm Aid performances, his 1990 Earth Day program and Day At The Bighorn.

And i also have it on Cd And iTunes

I first saw John in 1975 on the Evening with John Denver tour in Chicago. It was the same set list as the album including juggling. It included the videos behind him during Mother Nature's Son and Matthew. Pretty trail blazing at the time. I had seen Fat City (Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert) in 1971 in Montreal, Ontario, Canada in the US Pavillion at the expo center. They told us about John Denver and writing Take Me Home, Country Roads with him. A great and memorable experience.

And i have it on Cd but only 13 songs and iTunes

I'm catching up to your videos this week. Just shared this one to my facebook page. <3

Again I’m enjoying your talks about John Denver music. Wish I could have seen him in person.

❤🎉😊 what a great review and love both of these official albums from 1979! JD is one of my favourites I just love the songs in their beautiful simplicity. The Muppets Christmas with John is forever remembered I watch the tv show many times over the season. "Oh Jonny. Oh Jonathan!" Hahahah 😅

The Transcendentalists are so intertwined that one would have to work really hard to NOT learn about the others while learning about Henry.

Ugh, the laundry thing. I always respond, “Did you expect him to wash them in frozen Walden Pond?”

TILT is making my head hurt just being on the screen.

Spending this last Monday afternoon of 2024 with your videos queued up and playing one after another. Lots of fascinating books in here!

SO loved this recap! YIKES about the added tracks on the CDs. How DARE they???? Also, HOW DID I MISS JD and the Muppets "A Christmas Together"???? Now I need to FIND the DVD or comparable to watch with the grandkids!!!! Thanks, Corinne - As usual, you were spot-on!

Both SAND COUNTY ALMANAC and DESERT SOLITAIRE have been recommended to me in the last two months. Thank you for reminding me and moving them both up my TBR list.

I am struck by how closely your reading life mirrored mine. Your account of reading Eden's Outcasts and meeting John Matteson warmed me down to an atomic level, and I'm smiling so hard that my face hurts 😁

Hi Corrine -I want YOU on my Music Trivia team! 70 something here, & among music-related things, was a dee jay (spinning records for private parties, clubs, etc.) Along w/12" singles, had +++ SEVERAL of those 45 boxes used to choose from, & gotta say they were my faves! (Probably make you jealous that one of my sources was a non-descript store that serviced juke box operators who came in regularly to fill their machines!)

You're bringing back lots of memories. And I did work at Two Guys right after HS too. Some of those albums might be worth a bit of money :) Ah, you and John Denver - a special thing!

My gosh- this was so much fun to watch-thank you! First time viewer on your channel, now a subscriber. I was fascinated with music, and 45s, before I really even knew what they were, at 2-3 yrs. old. The 45 still, to this day, holds my fascination and respect. Speaking of respect, I don't think the 45 gets anywhere near the respect it deserves for it's rightful place in music history. It was how most of us of a certain age were first exposed to music and records, via the radio and the 45 rpm. I have a decent sized collection of about 12K 45s, with lots of promos. Looks like you took pretty good care of your records. I started 10th grade in Sept.'76, and grew up in central MA with some great radio stations. Question: Did you buy your copy of "Reelin' In The Years" with that blue ABC/Dunhill sleeve? It was a short-lived sleeve and I have only seen it with Dunhill Record releases. Thanks!!

I remember all those songs

Corinne, this was so much fun. You were clearly having a wonderful time! Your music was mostly mine as well.

I used to skip lunch at school and used the money for my 45's. Of the early Bee Gees, my favorite is My World. Really good video on KZbin of them in studio singing it. And also I was a big Partridge Family fan but couldn't tell anyone. I remember their 3rd album "Sound Magazine" was begrudgingly given good reviews by serious critics. Still a great album.

Organizing books by their spine color has to be my biggest pet peeve! Drives me nuts! I just want to yank all those books off the shelves. But shelving books with their spines to the wall goes to the next level and the demons come out in me!

I loved all these old songs! You have great tastes. They were my favorites, really!

Boo, Mr. Quinn! The heart wants what the heart wants! 😂

My TBR list just got longer -- thanks for a great list, Corinne! I'm thrilled to see my book (Finding Your Walden) included in the 2025 preview and can't wait to share it with you in May.

Amazing, a Thoreau specific video is an auto sub from me haha. Definitely need to check out Thoreau, Bert Call and the Maine Woods. Loved the video and looking forward to more stuff from you!

❤ I love rereading this series and go back to Three Pines and live with the characters again. I reread the series when each new book comes out. 😊😊😊😊

Hi Corinne, I just listened to you review of the 1977 albums one mor time. I agree with your opinion on the title song of the album "I Want To Live". It has got all the ingredients of a good John Denver song and it surely was great for rising funds, but something seems to be missing. Maybe it is that it just pours out all of these pictures describing people living together on this earth withaot adding some phrase that shows a contradition or a kind of struggling wih the issue like they can be found in many other songs...

Hi Corinne, thank you for posting this review. You really love John Denver, that’s clear to see. But still you don’t see everything related to him without any criticism. I like that very much. I really enjoy you reading John's bio in German. I am from Germany and I'm impressed by your skills. I remember the "Henry John Deutschendorf, genannt John Denver"-Album very well. It must have been 1982 or 1983. I was a teenager at the time and had discovered John some years before. For some weeks it was everywhere, not only in record shops and department stores but also in Supermarkets, which was really unusual back then. In my memory John never again had more presence in German public. Unfortunately I never considered buying that album because I already knew the songs and had them on other albums. So In never came to read John's biography in German. What you read in the video stands out before most of what I read in German publications before, though. At least I can’t remember anyone using the terms “Geradlinigkeit” (straightforwardness), “konsequent” and “Prizipien” to describe his music. Usually the stress mostly goes to his softness and cosyness, mostly ending up saying he was actually a little bit shallow… One of the first albums I ever got to know is the “JD”-album. In fact it was the second one after “John Denver’s greatest hits”. It was a birthday present for my brother back in 1979 when it was all new but my brother didn’t like it very much. I heard it all the time. As a twelve year old I had just begun to learn English in school. The lyrics on the liner cover were a treasure for me. Today I really can claim that John Denver was my English teacher. At least my teachers in school, who tried to teach us British English sometimes wondered, why this little guy talked with an American accent… It took a time though, until I understood everything and some lines puzzled me a bit and got me sitting there with red ears: “Her br….. swayed freely with the rhythm of the rockin’ chair…” What!? “I’ve been working so hard and I’m ready to play, baby, I know just the right game…” What kind of game does he mean? This was definitively a lot different from the “far-out-gee-what’s-next” John Denver that I had known until then. However (or because?) I heard the album over and over again and since we didn’t have a very good record player it got a little bit worn out after a while. I still love these songs and know all of them by heart. One more highlight of the album is the fact that Jim Horn (saxophone, flute and all other kinds of wind instruments) and Glen D. Hardin, former member of the Elvis band, join John’s Band for the first time. Both made John’s music much richer. They also went on tour with him for the next two decades. Especially Jim Horn adds a component that really makes this album unique. The Garden Song, What’s On Your Mind, Joseph and Joe, Southwind… all these wouldn’t be the same without all the little additional melodies buzzing around them.

i have it on cd and iTunes

i have it on cd and iTunes

OMG. You do Thoreau AND John Denver??!! Be still my beating heart.

Darn. Just days after I posted this video, singer-songwriter David Mallett passed away in Maine. I talked about his "Garden Song" here, because John performed it often in concert. It also appears on the John Denver / J. D. album.

After posting this video, I learned that two more books were published in 2024. Both were written by Krimsley Lilleth: a colorful children's picture book, "The Magical Story of Walden Pond;" and "WALDEN-Ish: A Woman's Adaptation of Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN." You can find more details for both at www.krimdom.com/books.

So glad to see you back. I enjoy hearing your ideas. I did find the John Denver lyrics book on eBay. I’m an over 80 lady obsessed with John Denver.

I'm roughly your same age and still love John. Every once in a while I'll listen to new music to see if I'm missing anything. I listened to a popular young lady and found myself blushing at the vulgarity of it. So now I'm going to do a cleanse with some of John's music. Muppet Christmas might just work. Thanks for keeping his memory strong.

Life is so good Life is so good these days Life is so good these days Life is so good

I love this series, Corinne. I need to go back and see all of your earlier installments. I was a big JD fan “back in the day,” as they say.

I always enjoy your videos. Thanks for posting!

Lovely and super helpful. Thank you!

Always love your high-energy, informative videos. Kudos for your shout-outs to lesser known authors. I enjoyed "Paddlin' with Thoreau" by Mary Anne Smrz, who presented at the last Annual Gathering.

Thanks for your reviews! It’s nice to hear about what had been published about Thoreau this year. Couple of the books interest me!

I love your videos!

Yay!!!! A new video. I will watch this later today.

Hi Corinne, I was looking forward to your next review on the John Denver albums. My favourite album indeed is I Want To Live. I think it marks a turning point in John's career. John's effort to make a difference on environmetal and social issues shows much more than on the previuos albums. John wanted the title song to be used as a theme song for Jimmy Carter's hunger project (and was rejected). In my opinion it contains some of his best poetry and some of his most beautiful songs, recorded by a world-class band. It's the first Album on which former Elvis band member James Burton joins his band on guitar for the next two decades later to be followed by Glen D. Hardin. In addition to the well-known image of the blond, beaming man, John Denver also had a very thoughtful, sometimes melancholic side. This is particularly evident for example in "How Can I Leave You Again" ("... my heart is filled with impossible notions, can it be you no longer care?"), the environmental song "To The Wild Country" ("Oh I know, sometimes I worry on worldly ways and means and I can see the future killing me.") or the dreamy, detached "Dearest Esmeralda" ("I'm becoming old enough to wonder, happy that I'm still too young to care."). The arrangements are backed by a lavish string and orchestral part, but they are perfect and not at all kitschy. But in 1977 the peak of his popularity had just passed and it was not really a success like his albums before. He was beginning to embarrass critics. Isn't it also the first one that didn't have a hit single? Anyone though, who wants to get to know the "real" John Denver beyond "Take me Home", "Leaving on a Jet Plane" or "Annie's Song" should listen to these songs. I strongly agree with you that the album deserves more recognition. If it had been released five years earlier, it would certainly have been a top ten album.

I LOVE I Want To Live as an album!!! I listen all the time. Such magical songs. This album and Spirit are great albums with deep lyrics and melodies. I just love Dearest Esmerelda as well. Not a fan of Greatest Hits albums, but at least he re-recorded the songs as he wrote on Vol 1, "I felt some of these songs had grown a bit, that I am singing better that I was four or five years ago, and that I would like to treat some of the songs a little differently than I had on the previous recordings."

I'm one of those rare male readers of Louise Penny and just love the series. I picked up a copy of Still Life shortly after it was released and have purchased every novel since. I was looking for something to read that was similar to PD James and the characters of her books drew me right in. I'm currently reading through the series again and I discover things I missed my first two or even three times through. She is a wonderful author and her prose and style are among the best I have read in the mystery genre.

Why read a bad poem putting him down?

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