John Denver

As a songwriter, John Denver defined a specific sensibility of the American West. He also reinvented his music for different American decades, after reinventing himself.

Born John Henry Deutschendorfer Jr. to an Air Force family in Roswell, N.M., Denver left college to pursue folk stardom in Los Angeles. His first hit, “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” written for Peter, Paul and Mary, symbolized the 1960s’ romance with venturing far from home.

In the 1970s, when even the counterculture began to tire of wanderlust, he composed “Annie’s Song,” a tribute to wholesome values the ‘60s had questioned (“Let me always be with you,” he sang). “Rocky Mountain High” captured the grand, inspiring spirit of the West in a universally accessible--some said saccharine--language. As the first American artist to tour in China, Vietnam and the Soviet Union when the Cold War began easing, Denver used his music as a kind of diplomacy.

As is so often the story, the reality was not as sunny as the performance. Cynics saw “Rocky Mountain High” as a drug anthem, and Denver later acknowledged he was using the drugs of the era. His marriage to Annie of the song ended in a messy divorce, as did a second marriage. He had alcohol problems and his star faded. However, he had recently bought a home in Carmel to spend more time with his son, 7, from his second marriage, and he never abandoned his environmental crusades.

John Denver may not have always lived up to the ideals of his lyrics. But he struck a soothing, upbeat chord during three turbulent decades of American life.