Let Me Die In Your Arms

John Denver wrote this incredible love song titled ‘Annie’s Song’ for his then-wife at the time, Anne Martell Denver, after she and him had a major fight and brief separation.  Apparently, Denver wrote the song in 10 minutes while he was riding a ski lift up Ajax mountain in Aspen, Colorado, reflecting on how thankful he was that they didn’t break up.  As Denver was skiing down the mountain, he became totally immersed in the beauty of the colors and sounds that filled all senses and this caused him to reflect on all the joy that he found in his marriage and his relief that they had got back together.  John became hypersensitive to how beautiful everything was, with all of these things delighting him with happiness, and these overwhelming images flooded out of him one after the other merging into his time spent with Annie.  That song was the embodiment of the love that he felt at that time.

The song was released as a single from Denver’s album Back Home Again.  ‘Annie’s Song’ was his second number-one song in the United States, occupying that spot for two weeks in July 1974.  It also went to number one on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 25 song for 1974.  The musicians that played with John Denver on his 1974 Back Home Again Tour included John Denver (guitar, vocals), Steve Weisberg (guitars, pedal steel, dobro), Dick Kniss (bass guitar), John Sommers (guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin), Hal Blaine (percussion) and Herb Lovelle (drums).  In their post-Wrecking Crew days in the mid-to-late 70s drummer Hal Blaine, Guitarist James Burton, and woodwind player Jim Horn toured and recorded with Denver.

John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (which was not the best name for a recording artist) on December 31, 1943 in Roswell, NM.  His greatest commercial success was as a solo singer, starting in the 1970s.  He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade and one of its best-selling artists.  After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s.  John Denver was one of the most successful singers and songwriters in the history of music.  Throughout his life, he recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed, with total record sales of over 33 million.  Denver’s music appeared on a variety of charts, including country music, the Billboard Hot 100, and adult contemporary, in all earning him twelve gold and four platinum albums with his signature songs being ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, ‘Annie’s Song’, ‘Rocky Mountain High’, ‘Thank God I’m a Country Boy’, and ‘Sunshine on My Shoulders’.  Although he composed and sang some of the most peaceful and beautiful songs of his generation, John Denver fought demons and an addiction to alcohol.

In the early 1970s, America longed for a simpler way of life, evidenced by the success of television series The Waltons and Little House On The Prairie.  At the heart of that era from a musical standpoint was the easy-going and gentle sound that Denver personified.  Whether it be love songs, nostalgia, or paying tribute to the area where he was from, Denver became one of the biggest-selling acts of his time, dominating Pop, AC, and Country playlists, while also becoming a huge TV and movie star.  He starred in the 1977 film Oh, God! opposite George Burns.

John and Annie Denver separated in 1979, and John left their home in Aspen and went to Switzerland for six days, however they reconciled and remained married until 1982 when their marriage eventually ended.  Annie was overwhelmed by John’s success, and this caused her to withdraw from John and left them unable to communicate with each other.  Their divorce was a messy, bitter, intense battle, they fought over the division of property during the divorce proceedings.  John Denver became so enraged with his estranged wife that he tried to choke her.  He was so angry that he took a chainsaw to their marital bed and sawed it in half.

Thankfully we have this beautiful song to remember the love that the iconic songwriter and his wife once had.  Denver married Australian actress Cassandra Delaney in 1988, after a two-year courtship.  Denver’s life ended suddenly when the plane he was flying, an experimental Rutan Long-EX, crashed into Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove, California, passing away on October 12, 1997 at the age of 53.  In 1996, John Denver was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 2011, he was the first inductee into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame.

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

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