Humor
Just Say No
by Clay Staggs
Before getting started, let me just say that I am not making this up.
Colorado is actually considering making the song “Rocky Mountain High” its official state song.
As if that weren’t bad enough, State Sen Bob Hagedorn insists in the New York Times that the song has nothing to do with drug use.
Actual lyric from the song:
I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky. Friend around the camp fire and everybody’s high….
Hmmm…..
Posted by Clay Staggs at March 14, 2007 01:47 PM
My side is hurting. LOL. I wonder how much the Coors lobby is pitching in. My sister who lives in Denver says the slush money from Coors is literally seen everywhere: parks, aftershool programs, stadiums, charitable agencies, etc…
Well now, Clay…let’s be fair. The song WAS penned by John Denver. Whether or not he was under the influence at the time he wrote it I don’t know…but I just saw a retrospective on his life and music on APT this week, and those cowboy shirts with paisley trim, the pants belted up soooo high on his waist, the dutchboy haircut and the white as wool eyeballs behind those big wirerim specs didn’t really make one think of a stoner! I figure he could have been squeaky clean. He described the experience behind the song, as did his ex - Annie. Several couples went high up into the Rockies to watch a meteor shower that turned out to be very incredible and extensive…just like “raining fire from the sky!” I do know he was known for emotional highs and meloncholy lows (reflected in his music.) And after all, he also said “sunshine almost always makes me high.” I know if I got to see one of those phenomenal meteor showers that lasts all night I would feel pretty high without chemical aid myself. So it’s at least plausible that high could refer to emotion rather that a drug-induced state. My main problem with it becoming the state song of Colorado is just trying to imagine people singing it in the solemn, stately way we associate with state songs….you know,like “Alabama, Alabama, we will aye be true to thee….” I can’t see little school kids singing Rocky Mountain High with the requisite degree of sobriety. But hey, you know the song “Stars Fell on Alabama” was inspired by a similar, though less flambouyant meteor shower. Really. Maybe we should change our song, too!
Peggy,
That could be. However, the lyrics seem pretty plain to me. I just think that insisting that it had absolutely nothing to do with drugs and that it must be about enjoying a six pack or some smores (the Senator’s examples, not mine) may seem to the casual observer like myself to be questionable at best.
I can agree with you totally about seeing the schoolchildren singing it, though.
I bet it was the smores!
Actually, there was a move several years ago to make “Stars Fell On Alabama” the state song. It apparently was very close to happening. There was another move fairly recently to change to Sweet Home Alabama. (The vision of 6 yr olds unsuccessfully refraining from playing air guitar & drums is dancing through my head.) The sad reality,however, is that I’m not sure how many kids know, or have actually sung, the state song. Had it not been for All State Choir, I don’t know that I would have sung it until college.
I will reveal my ignorance while confirming your idea. What is our state song?
Mary Kathryn,
It’s “Alabama”, by Julia Tutwiler.
Go here to read lyrics and hear the tune:
http://www.50states.com/songs/alabama.htm