Annie's Song

Annie’s Song
by John Denver

. . . Let me give my life to you
Come let me love you, come love me again.

Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. was born in 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico, the son of an Air Force officer and flight instructor. He died in 1997 when his experimental airplane crashed into the Pacific Ocean. In between, he changed his name, gave the world many memorable and singable songs, helped folk music of the 1970s to “put on a happy face”, became the Poet Laureate of Colorado, converted from Presbyterianism to Zen-twinged Lutheranism, gave 10 concerts in the Soviet Union, and even tried his hand at acting – playing opposite everyone from Fozzie the Bear to God Himself.

About the name: he had always gone by his middle name “John”. When he began to sing at clubs in college, his friend suggested that a last name shorter than “Deutschendorf” would allow more information to appear on the marquee. He picked the name of his favorite city in his favorite state, and “John Denver” entered into history.

I have been to two of his concerts and they were extremely enjoyable. Both performances were in the round, and the band was spread out over a huge oriental rug. It gave everything a homey and intimate feel, even in the 8,000-seat arena. Both times, the audience sang along with every song – and was encouraged to do so. The only difference between the two concerts was that, by the second one, the band and the oriental rug were on an immense turntable that slowly revolved. He still walked around the stage, though, making contact with people in the audience. We joined in on Take Me Home Country Roads, Thank God I’m a Country Boy, Calypso, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Fly Away, How Can I Leave You Again, Grandma’s Feather Bed, I’m Sorry, and Back Home Again. But then the lights dimmed and John Denver sang a love song for his wife:

You fill up my senses like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses come fill me again.

Come let me love you, let me give my life to you
Let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms
Let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you
Come let me love you, come love me again.

In many of his songs, like this one, Mr Denver seems to be reaching for a sensory overload. Sometimes the “high” was natural, as in Annie’s Song, as well as Sunshine on My Shoulders. And let’s be positive here and put Rocky Mountain High in this group: I always thought the line about “friends around the campfire and everybody’s high” referred to the glory of God’s great outdoors, but some of my friends read it differently. Sometimes, though, as in Poems, Prayers and Promises, art imitated life: Mr Denver was arrested twice for DUI.

But even in the hemp-based, proto-granola era of the1970s in which Mr Denver found himself, he was always positive, always working on some higher cause, and always, to my mind, searching for a deeper relationship with God. I think Hollywood recognized this by casting him opposite George Burns in Oh, God! and I think Mr Denver recognized this about himself by accepting. His performance seems very natural playing an Everyman who finds himself in an extraordinary situation. And Teri Garr was the perfect choice to play his bewildered wife. She went through a period there where all the men in her characters’ lives were thought, by the world’s standards, to be a little odd: Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein, Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, and John Denver in Oh, God!

Now what I’d like us to do today is also something that might be considered, by the world’s standards, to be a little odd. You might have thought that I was going to suggest that Annie’s Song is also a hymn of praise we can offer up to God, and that’s very true and a good idea. But what I’d like us to do today is to turn it around. Take a moment and imagine that the Lord is singing this song to you. He loves you, you know, and He wants you to know how much.

Come let me love you, let me give my life to you
. . . let me always be with you
Come let me love you, come love me again.

Or as George Burns (aka God) told John Denver (aka Jerry Landers), “If you find it hard to believe in me, maybe it would help you to know that I believe in you.”