Aerie

The Humane Society Thrift Store has become a huge problem for me recently. Last time I went in there, it was like they had a direct link to my taste banks, or at the very least, to music I was exposed to when I was very young.

Every record I flipped through was one I had to take home. Amazing Rhythm Aces, Willie Nelson, Gordon Lightfoot, Leo Kottke…each record was either a songwriter I admired or a guitarist I admired. This week’s record was in the middle of all this greatness.

I had been thinking about this particular album for a few weeks, and I wanted to get it for a particular song that is on it that is entirely too funky and cool to be on a John Denver record. That song is called “She Won’t Let Me Fly Away,” and was written by Bill Danoff, who also wrote “Afternoon Delight,” of all things.

John Denver Aerie Album cover
John Denver: Falconer

I remember this record because it has a really weird rendition of Buddy Holly’s “Everyday,” a version of John Prine’s “Spanish Pipedream,” a version of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans” (which is kind of terrible, because he deigns to mess with Goodman’s perfection by adding a completely unneeded bridge, therefore, adding himself as a co-writer on it), and a pretty good version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Casey’s Last Ride.”

Not much, if any of this record made it onto Papa B’s John Denver Mixtape, maybe only “Spanish Pipedream” (referred to on this record as “Blow Up Your TV (Spanish Pipe Dream)” and I think “The Eagle and the Hawk.” There’s also a song called “Tools” that I loved when I was about 4, about a baby rabbit. I can’t remember whether or not it made the mixtape, but I do remember requesting it whenever I heard a live musician playing John Denver songs.

So, I implore you, find Aerie and listen to the cool funkiness of “She Won’t Let Me Fly Away,” and swim in it.