I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane
I have wrestled with this for a long time but I thinkI am ready to admit it. I like John Denver. I can't say that I am a "fanatic" or anything, but I like his music. I first denied this when my mom told me that she thought I would be sad to hear that he had died a few years back, thinking that I must be a fan, since I had bought her one of his LP's back when I was little. I told her that I bought it for her because I thought that she wanted it, not because I knew anything about him or liked his music at the time. She was sure that I was the fan, and not her.
It seems that a lot of people are that way about him. Yet he wrote really good songs about life. Leaving on a Jet Plane was his first hit, and it was the only number 1 hit that Peter, Paul, and Mary ever recorded. The lyrics are really nice:
Leaving, On A Jet Plane
All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here outside your door,
I hate to wake you up to say good-bye.
But the dawn is breaking, it's early morn, the taxi's waiting He's blowing his horn.
Already I'm so lonesome I could die.
So kiss me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.
There's so many times I've let you down, so many times I've played around,
I tell you now they don't mean a thing.
Every place I go I'll think of you, every song I sing I'll sing for you,
when I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring.
So kiss me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.
Now the time has come to leave you, one more time let me kiss you,
then close your eyes, I'll be on my way.
Dream about the days to come when I won't have to leave alone,
about the times I won't have to say:
kiss me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.
I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.
So tomorrow (or later today, really) I am leaving for a month-long trip to Europe. For the first two weeks I will be accompanied by my friend who is known to many as "Nurse Brenda." I expect that she will see to it that we have a good time and that I am occupied with making sure that she enjoys herself, since it was my idea that she come along. I believe that it will be a great time, more than if I went alone (which is what I was planning to do originally), simply because I will have someone with me with whom to share the experiences.
There is something liberating about being unbound to this world. Yes, I have some debts, but I am as free as I have ever been in my life. I have a plan, I have work arranged in September, and I have some ideas for the future without any ties or obligations to anyone other than the Lord in Heaven who gave me this to begin with. In this world we will have trouble. However, Jesus has overcome the world, and He says that we will through Him overcome also. Never before have I felt so free to do whatever He leads me to do. Some call it being "irresponsible and reckless," but I see it differently (isn't that obvious?).
I don't know when I'll be back again. But that is why it is so challenging and exciting.
posted by The Doctor at mardi, août 02, 2005
3 Comments:
Hey, this is the doctor's older and (insert modifier) brother.
I remember John Denver too. And I remember we (I think together) picked that album because us boys really liked "Thank God, I'm a Country Boy." (Come to think of it, the doctor's nephew is gonna love that song one day too--though right now he's too busy just being a country boy.) Anyway, sure we were all thankful that, in the words of Frank Peretti, "the young blond-haired man had his guitar along." (See below.) And Denver wrote some fantastic songs: Grandma's Featherbed, Take Me Home Country Roads, The Eagle and the Sky (or whatever), and others (his titles often have nothing to do with the lyrics and are hard to recall, therefore). But say what you want, that man could sing!
Also--and this was so funny--when teaching an adult Sunday School class a few years ago, I offered a quote. Began reading lyrics and waited to see who could identify the writer/singer. (It was eventually remembered by the we-all-thought OLD husband of the daughter of a recently deceased member of the Rice football hall of fame. --Is that vague enough to protect their identity on the internet?) :-)
Anyway, remember these poetic, if secretly sinister words:
"He was born in the summer of his 27th year,
Coming home to a place he'd never be-en before.
He left yesterday behind him,
You might say he was born again.
You might say he found the key to e-every door....
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain High-igh,
I've seen it raining fire in the sky.
And friends around the campfire,
And everybody's high-igh!
Rocky Mountain High"
And etcetera ad infinitum.
Now THAT is a great song. But what on earth is he talking about? Is it just a poetic way of describing his move to the Rockies, something banal and hokey, no more serious or deep than Brooks & Dunn's plainly stupid and probably sacrilegious--but doggone catchy--"Born to Love Again"?
Peretti apparently doesn't think so. In his book, Piercing the Darkness, there is a cameo appearance by a figure I would swear is John Denver. On pages 378-79 (paper back) he writes about a balladeer at a new age religious retreat:
"In the herb garden . . . a group of about thirty conferees gathered in the crisp, scented air for a morning workshop led by a well-known recording artist. The young, blond-haired man had his guitar along, and some songs were planned before his talk on 'Ecology: The Merging of Earth and Spirit.'"
"There was a certain giddiness in the group. These people had never been this close to such a famous person before, and he was not the only famous person sitting there amid the rosemary, thyme, and lamb’s ears. Two newsmaking clergymen of global stature were also in attendance, as well as a director of mystical science fiction films whose name was a household word and whose film characters were now plastic toys in every kid’s room in this country and abroad.” (Subtle reference, no?)
“The blond singer strummed his guitar, and they all began to sing one of his well-known ballads. The moment was magical.” (Now, here’s where Peretti gets magical.)
“The demons among them were enjoying it as well. Such worship and attention as they were now receiving was like getting a good back rub, and they even twitched and squirmed with delight at every bar of the song’s carefully shaded double meanings.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m sure this is a reference to John Denver. The book was first published in 1989, if you’re curious. And it’s great, too. A great read, tons of action and built around a very simple truth: prayer really does make a difference. And more prayer makes more of a difference. Whatever you might think of Peretti, his theme here is sound and the fiction makes a case that is airtight. I read it recently (realizing I never had!) and loved it. And I bet I prayed differently afterwards, at least for a while.
But, I still like John Denver. I bought a greatest hits CD sometime in the last year and played it a lot. In fact, I’m going to go get it out now.
By the way, the bit about the Sunday School lesson—for you purists--the text was John 3. The Denver bit was simply for contrast. The sort of lesson where you discuss one “version” of being born again, only to show how pathetic it is when compared with the real thing. It’s the old Crocodile Dundee approach to teaching. You remember, right? That moment when Dundee finds himself and his woman alone on a dark New York street and two thugs accost him with a dinky switchblade and he laughs, announcing: “That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife!” and he pulls out a knife the approximate size of his left leg. What a scene!
Gotta go down the internet road to pay bills. A much more burdensome task for me than for the good doctor, I’m afraid. But we have fun. As they say,
“Well, life on the farm, is kinda’ laid back,
Ain’t nothin’ for a country boy that he cain’t hack.
Early to rise,
Early in the sack.
Thank God, I’m a country boy!"
YEAH!
Have fun in the ancestral homeland, Doctor--one of them, anyway. Raise a glass for John Denver--something American, Coca-Cola, maybe.
Thank God yer in another Country, boy! (Yea, i know.)
About the doctor's bubba's comment...ing. I believe the Song that Peretti wa actually referring to was a much MUCH diabolicl...er tune. It was (as 10,000 demons celebrate) We Built This City on Rock N Roll. Double Meanings? Not necessary! Just try to get that Evil Ditty outta yer head now. You'll hate me tomorrow.
It could be worse- but none of you really knows anything by David Hasselhoff...
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