All of My Memories

Myself

Spoiler alert. I love John Denver. I have all of his albums on cd and some on vinyl. I own all of the available videos and have several rare items from the symposia in Aspen. In addition, I saw John in person 16 times over the years. As those of us who had the privilege of seeing him live know, he was so much better live than on any record. That being said, I would like to advise people who think that in getting this one compilation of John's music they have heard it all, that is far from the truth. This is indeed a nice retrospective, historically, but there are at least a dozen songs here that are, IMHO, really superfluous to understanding the music of this amazing musician. Several of the versions included here are arguably not the best available. In addition, as expected with songs taken from many different sources, the sound quality is satisfactory, but not really exceptional. There are also, IMO, over 20 songs missing from this set that should be on an all inclusive collection.If I were looking for more of John's songs I would want to add in most of these:1. All This Joy, 2. Amazon, 3. A Baby Just Like You, 4. The Bells of Rhymney, 5. Christmas for Cowboys, 6. Xmas Like a Lullaby, 7. The Cowboy and the Lady, 8. Dearest Esmeralda, 9. For You, 10. The Gift You Are, 11. Heart to Heart, 12. Higher Ground, 13. It's About Time, 14. Healing Time, 15. The Last Thing on My Mind, 16. Let It Be, 17. On the Wings of a Dream, 18. Seasons of the Heart, 19. Singing Skies and Dancing Waters, 20. A Song for All Lovers, 21. Today and 22. Wandering Soul. Live concert recordings are often special because of the sense of connection between John and the audience. Anything done by the brilliant sound engineer, Roger Nichols (r.i.p), seems to have exceptionally crisp and clear sound. That includes the Live (or Unplugged) in the U.S.S.R 1985 albums and the Celebation of Life/ Unplugged / Love Again albums recorded in Nashville in 1996. The Wildlife Concert, Sing Australia Concert, Sydney Opera House Concert, and of course the Evening with John Denver concert albums are all great for getting a sense of who John was,not only as a musician, but as a wonderful human being.Whatever you do, enjoy this collection, and notice how good you feel after hearing John sing. The vibration of love and compassion in his voice and the deep meaning in his words always touches my soul. Hopefully these songs will touch you too. I know that I can truly say that his "voice in my ear is like heaven to me".

Note that the AutoRip feature isn't available on gift purchases. It is a great feature, because the music becomes available to you even before you receive the CDs, and you can download them using Amazon Music and they will also be visible in iTunes.As a long-time John Denver fan, I had almost all of these tracks, though many of them have never been available on a CD before, like the Denver, Boise and Johnson tracks that I found as downloads online years ago. He formed that group after The Mitchell Trio disbanded and they did the college/club circuit, before he struck out on his own. The song he performed on Austin City Limits with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1989, "And So It Goes," has been one of my favorites, and was part of the iconic album "Will The Circle Be Unbroken 2."There are some songs that have never been a part of a greatest hits collection, like the recordings from his very early self-produced John Denver Sings album. I don't think songs from his last All Aboard! album (the only one that received a Grammy) have been part of a compilation album before, either.There are also songs from his shows with the Muppets, e.g., "Tumbling Tumbleweeds/Happy Trails," that he sang with Miss Piggy on "Rocky Mountain Holiday"!!So, if you want an album that is historically interesting and that represents the sweep of John Denver's career and his masterful musical range, along with beautifully remastered versions of many of his greatest hits, this is a truly wonderful set.

I would love to give this box set five stars, but there is one problem: SOUND QUALITY. This could and should be the ultimate compilation set of John's work, and I can't argue with the songs selected to be included. For the die-hard J.D. fan, a few of these songs are impossible to find anywhere else, at least without paying much more. However, when I do a direct comparison of these songs with otherwise identical versions on other albums (CDs), the sound just isn't as good on my home audio system. Not even close in some cases.For instance, this version of The Eagle and The Hawk was taken directly from John Denver's Greatest Hits. But something in the way it was mastered for this box set causes it to be very harsh, even shrill, sounding, i.e. very unpleasant. The same song on the remastered "Greatest Hits" sounds just as it should, very similar to how it sounded on vinyl so many years ago, and an absolute joy to listen to time and time again. Another example is I'd Rather Be a Cowboy, taken from the Farewell Andromeda album. It sounds fantastic on the F.A. album (CD), but on this "Memories" compilation it sounds rather flat and not nearly as dynamic, as do most of the other songs included here.Again, something in the re-mastering of the songs for inclusion here just didn't do them justice. In the future I will only listen to this "Memories" set for the few hard-to-find songs that I didn't already have in my collection, which includes every one of John's studio albums and several of his "live" albums. For someone wanting mainly his hits, I would recommend John's three "Greatest Hits" albums. Someone wanting to supplement those with a few other albums might include Rocky Mountain High, Farewell Andromeda, Aerie, An Evening With John Denver, Back Home Again, and Autograph. These, to me at least, are his very best. But there are other very worthy ones as well. Hope this helps.

本作品の発売を初めて知ったのは輸入CDを手広く扱う某大手CDショップ店頭でしたが、価格が７千数百円もして、いくら未発表曲が数曲入っているとはいえ、長年のジョン・デンバー ファンとしてオリジナルから追悼盤を含むベスト物も多数所有している身としては少し躊躇してしまい、私としては珍しく長期間に渡って価格が下がるのを待っていました。Amazon にて定期的に価格チェックし、最安値が長らく５千円弱だったものが幸い最近になって一時的に２千円台に下がったところを逃さず購入。　内容も含めて大満足です。他のベスト物では初期アルバム収録作品は再録音（所謂新テイク）したものを使用したものもありますが、本作品はオリジナル発売当初の音源を使用しているようです。個人的には日本で入手可能なジョン自身の名義のアルバムには未収録だったニッティ・グリッティ・ダート・バンドと共演した『AND SO IT GOES』（唯一オーストラリア限定発売のアルバムには収録されていた）と、既発表曲ではあったがCD化されていなかった『DURANGO MOUNTAIN CABALLERO』が収録されているのがとても嬉しい。『THE FLOWER THAT SHATTERED THE STONE』はジョンのソロ バージョンを収録。（日本盤が制作されれば南こうせつとのデュエット バージョンが収録されるのでしょうが・・・・。）細かい事を言えば、『IT'S A SIN TO TELL A LIE』が本作品では未発表作品という事になっていますが、ジョンの死後いくつか出された追悼盤の内、『FOREVER, JOHN』というタイトルの編集ベスト盤に収録されていました。

There are not many Male singers that can touch your heart like the wonderful John Denver. One of the most gifted singer/songwriters of the 70's. Everyone is familiar with 'Annie's Song' & 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'. However, John's voice really shines on 'Rocky Mountain High' touches your heart with 'Goodbye Again' & soars on 'Sweet Surrender'. Love the country song 'Back Home Again' which tells a lovely story. So many beautiful songs and a voice that makes you feel something deep inside your heart. One of my personal favourites is 'Some Days Are Diamonds'. A beautiful collection. If you only buy one John Denver collection... this 4 CD set is superb.

Never had a John Denver album before..this is absolutely wonderful, all the old favourites

Bought as an early Christmas gift for my husband. It has all of our favourite John Denver tracks on it as well as a fair selection of previously unreleased tracks (some of which are alternative versions of songs which he did record).

As a long life John Denier fan I found this cd exceptional with a lot of his very early work which includes songs when he was a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio all in all another classic album from the legendary master