If I should live forever....John Denver remembered - HummingBird 的甜水窩

Watched a PBS documentary " John Denver remembered" (2005). I can't stop crying of the whole hour program. Listening the familiar lyrics and soothing melody brought me back to NTU campus 24 years. I fell in love with his "Annie's Song" and picked up my guitar and self learned the whole song in my sophomore year. With a few friends surrrounded, I couldn't wait for the break between boring classes and show off my new found love.

That was not my first experience with John Denver. When I was ten, my brother who is 6 years of my senior was a fan of western pop, "Country road, take me home,..., mountain mama, take me home, country road". I can't get the melody out of my mind for quite a long time.

"Perhaps love is like a resting place
A shelter from the storm
It exists to give you comfort
It is there to keep you warm
And in those times of trouble
When you are most alone
The memory of love will bring you home

Perhaps love is like a window
Perhaps an open door
It invites you to come closer

It wants to show you more
And even if you lose yourself
And don`t know what to do
The memory of love will see you through

Oh, love to some is like a cloud
To some as strong as steel
For some a way of living
For some a way to feel
And some say love is holding on
And some say letting go
And some say love is everything
And some say they don`t know

Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict, full of pain
Like a fire when it`s cold outside
Or thunder when it rains
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you"\

Perhaps love duet by John and Domingo is one of my favorite song. My hubby and I picked this one for our wedding. We couldn't think of any "our song" while watching the movie "the wedding planner".Apparently I was wrong.

However, loving this song for two decades, I have no idea the background of this song until watching "John Denver Remembered". According to Annie Denver, John's first wife and the Annie of "Annie's Song" , "Perhaps Love" was composed during the period of their seperation before formal divorce. John was very low and questioned about "true love". Annie got this new song from mail and this become her favorite of all of the songs John Denver wrote.

I knew more about this nature-loving musician more after watching this documentary. John Denver was born in New Mexico, but made Aspen in Colorado his lifelong home. He talked and sang a great deal about the town, and the state. His enthusiasm made people see it through his eyes and his songs, as the most beautiful place on earth.

His tragic early death in October, 1997, was not the end of John Denver. Annie and his family donated a land and a John Denver Sanctuary was created in Aspen, to remember one of the most well-liked American songwriter. I made up my mind to visit the John Denver Sanctuary someday. It must be quite an exceptional experience to jump around those big rocks and read the lyrics of some of John Denver's best-loved songs carved on the rocks.

"If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you"

John Denver is gone, but his music and his love should live forever.