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Old 07-24-2009, 05:33 PM   #15 (permalink)
VEGANGELICA
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Originally Posted by T-Bomb View Post
yeah - this song is really big in Europe for some reason. I play covers in pubs in Berlin and it is a standard. All the pub owners insist that we play it. I heard a rumour that John Denver is german. Anyone know if it is true?
Hi, T-Bomb,
How funny that "Grandma's Feather Bed" is popular in Germany right now. Do the pub owners insist you play other country/folk songs, too? What do you think is the lure of John Denver in Germany right now? Is it a sort of "return to simpler times," go out hiking in the woods thing? I recall that going out on family hikes was very popular when I lived in West Berlin for a year not long before the wall came down.

I looked up John Denver's life info on Wikipedia to verify that no, he was not German, although he had German ancestry. Wikipedia states:

"Denver was born in Roswell, New Mexico, to Erma Louise Swope and Henry John Deutschendorf, Sr., an Air Force officer and flight instructor of German ancestry. In his autobiography Take Me Home, Denver described his life as the eldest son of a family shaped by a stern father who could never show his love for his children. Denver's mother's family was Scots-Irish and German Catholic, and it was they who imbued Denver with a love of music. His maternal grandmother gave him his first guitar when he was seven."

--Erica
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