John Denver: 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

“Take Me Home, Country Roads” was originally released as a single in April of 1971, peaking at number 2 on Billboard‘s US Hot 100 singles! Denver wrote this song with his friends Bill and Taffy Danoff, who were married at the time (Taffy later became Taffy Nivert). Denver was in Washington, DC to perform with the Danoffs, and after the show they went back to the couple’s home where they played him what they had of this song (John almost didn’t make it.)

He got in a car accident on the way over and was taken to a hospital for a thumb injury.

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Denver helped them complete the song, and the next night they sang it together on stage. Denver knew he had a hit song on his hands, and brought the Danoffs to New York where they recorded the song together – you can hear Bill and Taffy on background vocals.

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains
Shenandoah River,
Life is old there
Older than the trees
Younger than the mountains
Blowin’ like the breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gathered ’round her
Miner’s lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine
Teardrops in my eye

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice
In the mornin’ hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin’ down the road I get a feelin’
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

Takeme home, now country roads
Take me home, now country roads

(source songfacts.com)
Writer/s: BILL DANOFF, JOHN DENVER, TAFFY DANOFF, TAFFY NIVERT, TAFFY NIVERT DANOFF, WILLIAM THOMAS DANOFF
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Reservoir One Music
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

**Special Note: The Country Roads in this song are in West Virginia, but Denver had never even been to West Virginia. Bill and Taffy Danoff started writing the song while driving to Maryland – they’d never been to West Virginia either! Danoff got his inspiration from postcards sent to him by a friend who DID live there, and from listening to the powerful AM station WWVA out of Wheeling, West Virginia, which he picked up in Massachusetts when he was growing up.