John Denver has no shortage of songs about the wonders of nature, but perhaps the most well-known is “Rocky Mountain High.” Revisit the meaning behind this Denver staple, below.
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Behind the Meaning
Sometimes it takes a specific location to grow into the person you were meant to be. In Denver’s case, that place was the picturesque mountains of Colorado. Denver has made his love of the natural world well-known on many occasions. This song is a love letter to the place that gave the singer-songwriter (whose real name is Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.) his stage name.
He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Coming home to a place he’d never been before
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
You might say he found a key for every door
Denver sings about feeling born again after marveling at the sights and sounds of Colorado. You might say he found a key for every door, he sings.
But the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby
Rocky Mountain high (Colorado)
Rocky Mountain high (High in Colorado)
Many people attribute this song to being about getting high, but to us, it seems more about getting high on life itself. Denver found a place where he feels most at home, which roused in him a new sense of self.
Nevertheless, upon its release, this song was banned by several radio stations under the Federal Communications Commission. The organization felt it promoted drug use and thus needed to be censored.
“This was obviously done by people who had never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains,” Denver said in defense of this ode to nature’s wonders. “And also had never experienced the elation, celebration of life or the joy in living that one feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Perseid meteor shower on a moonless, cloudless night, when there are so many stars that you have a shadow from the starlight, and you are out camping with your friends, your best friends, and introducing them to one of nature’s most spectacular light shows for the first time.”
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
