This 4-disc set, compiled just months before John's death, chronicles his career with RCA Records, 1969-86.
2. Circus (2:38) - My favorite line in this fast song is "I need to take myself away to be some other where." The narrator has been "looking everywhere, goin' nowhere" for peace of mind. He decides now that he probably should join a circus.
3. Rhymes And Reasons (3:14; GH1 version 3:08) - This song, somewhat faster than moderate, was the title song of John's first solo album. The lines in the chorus "Oh, the children and the flowers / Are my sisters and my brothers" imply a closeness with the flower children of the 60s and the causes, such as peace, for which they were crusading.
4. Catch Another Butterfly (Williams) (2:31) - That's what the narrator wonders if he'll ever get to do again as he looks back on happy childhood memories. I find an element of environmentalism here--his questions about the fate of the robin's song and the river's water. A flute is among the instruments in this moderate-tempoed song.
5. Daydream (2:53) - No, this is not the same "Daydream" that the Lovin' Spoonful sang. This fast, at times soft, song opens and closes with female backup singing the title. The narrator copes with the sadness of having lost his girlfriend via daydreams of them together. To illustrate his melancholy, horns play softly and somberly.
6. Follow Me (2:26; GH1 version 2:47) - The tempo is moderate. John wrote this song for Ann Martell (known as Annie), to whom he was married 1967-82. "Follow me where I go, what I do, who I know...Follow me up and down, all the way and all around," he told her. Initially she did follow him, but as the 70s opened and his fame was growing, she chose to stay home. As he wrote in his autobiography in 1994, she resented being in his shadow. Therefore this is the second song of what he called his "Jet Plane Trilogy." In the GH1 version, the final time he sings the chorus, he substitutes "Take my hand and I will follow you" for "...and say you'll follow me." This and the next four songs originally appeared on John's second album, Take Me To Tomorrow.
7. Aspenglow (2:09) - Chimes ring in this slow, 3/4 song. "Hearts grow warmer with the cold"; that's the bright side of winter. Now, is this a winter in Aspen, Colorado, or is an aspen TREE glowing?
8. Molly (Rose) (3:47) - Here's another song about a circus; this time, the narrator enters the circus so he can earn enough to support himself and his girlfriend Molly, with whom he exchanges letters daily. The tempo varies widely--sometimes fast, other times slow.
9. Sticky Summer Weather (3:30) - Summer is no good season for the narrator of this moderately fast song. The heat suffocates him, his girlfriend has deserted him, and it seems to him like 20 years since the last spring.
10. Isabel (3:22) - This song, somewhat slower than moderate, features a flute. Isabel, this "mistress of the moonlight" and sister to the stars, apparently adapts better to summer than to winter. From the lyrics and the way the flute plays, I infer that she represents pleasure that is here tonight, gone tomorrow.
11. Sunshine On My Shoulders (5:10) - This slow song shows when sunshine is good and when it's bad. It certainly makes ME happy when it's on my shoulders (and my back too). In your eyes, though, it could not only make you cry, but blind you permanently. In the verses the narrator tells his girlfriend what he'd give her if he had it. I don't know about "sunshine all the while," though; doesn't it take rain every now and then to make roses and crops grow? Not to mention rain forests.
12. My Sweet Lady (4:25) - Guitars are the only instruments in this slow song. When his woman cries out of fear that their time together is over, he assures her that it has just started. "Today our lives were joined, became entwined," and he promises to keep them entwined by staying by her side.
13. Take Me Home, Country Roads (3:09) - This moderately fast song was John's ticket to fame. His friends Bill and Taffy Danoff co-wrote it with him and sang behind him. In fact, I can't help but listen primarily to Taffy's harmonies. She and Bill may have been the ones who had West Virginia in mind since Colorado was home for John. (Notice in the songwriting credits that Taffy's maiden name, Nivert, is used.)
14. I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado (Danoff/Nivert) (2:07) - Now this is more like it, although John sings about himself in third person. The tempo is moderately fast.
15. Poems, Prayers, And Promises (4:05; GH1 version 4:28) - The narrator of this moderate-tempoed song reflects on how good overall his life has been; he also thinks of many things he would like to accomplish during the remainder of his life--such as raising a family and to "dance across the mountains on the moon." The part in the chorus about resting by a lit fireplace "while all my friends and my old lady sit and pass a pipe around" refers to a time when he and Annie had some friends over; Annie and the friends took turns smoking a pipe of marijuana. (This too I learned from reading his a-b.)
16. Starwood In Aspen (3:04; GH1 version 3:06) - This moderately slow, 3/4 song, also from Aerie, is about John's "nest." Starwood was the house, Aspen was the town. It is indeed a long way from Los Angeles to Aspen, and it does indeed take a long time--at least an hour, or even two--to make such a trip by plane. A professional singer has such a hectic schedule, touring from city to city, that home is hardly a familiar place.
17. City Of New Orleans (Goodman) (3:17) - The best-known version of this fast song was sung by Arlo Guthrie; I also have that version and one by Willie Nelson.
18. All Of My Memories (4:57) - This slow, 3/4 song features a harmonica, which plays in a melancholy tone. The lyrics illustrate how lonely John got when on the road, sleeping alone in motels, longing for his home "where the mountains make love to the sky."
19. Casey's Last Ride (Kristofferson) (4:55) - This song has a moderate tempo and only a guitar for an instrument. As Casey prepares to board a subway, his woman begs him to hold and kiss her one last time.
20. The Eagle And The Hawk (2:07; GH1 version 2:08) - This song starts at near-silence and crescendoes for the first 13 seconds. The time is 3/4, but the speed of those 3 beats per measure varies in both versions; sometimes it feels to me more like 6/8. In this version, the lyrics are more discernable and a piano rolls at the end; the GH1 version ends with a long organ hold. John sings at the top of his voice to illustrate the heights we all strive to achieve, our struggle to become "all that we can be, not what we are." The album originally including this song was aptly titled Aerie, for an aerie is the nest or young of an eagle or hawk.
21. Friends With You (Danoff/Nivert) (3:22) - Instruments in this moderately slow song include a tambourine, an oboe, and a harmonica. In the first verse, John apparently portrays time as a friend. (But in some situations, such as school exams, it can also be an enemy.) One thing I agree with--friendship is more precious than all the gold (and silver) in the world. To illustrate this value, several people (probably including Bill and Taffy) sing the chorus with John.
1. Rocky Mountain High (4:43) - The tempo is moderately fast. John could very well be describing himself here, even though he sings in third person and he was slightly older than 27 when he settled in Aspen. One era of his life ended and another began when he decided that Aspen was the right place for him to live.
2. For Baby (For Bobbie) (2:56) - The tempo is moderately fast. John wrote this song in the 60s for a girlfriend he had prior to meeting Annie, hence the parenthetical part of the title. The other part came from a desire to also dedicate the song to the then-infant daughter of Mary Travers of PP&M. Despite how early John wrote it, he did not release it on album until 1972, on Rocky Mountain High. Bill and Taffy again sing behind John; from the third verse on, so does a children's choir. One of the two differences between the first verse and the third is explicit: the insertion of "tiny" between the last two words of the line "I'll cling to the warmth of your hand"; also, "I'll do anything to help you understand" in the third verse replaces "...keep you satisfied" in the first. The other difference is in meaning: the first verse is to the grown woman, the third to the baby girl.
3. Goodbye Again (3:37) - The last song in the Jet Plane Trilogy has a moderate tempo. As I mentioned earlier, Annie preferred to stay home. Thus John constantly had to get up and dressed before dawn to tell her goodbye. Perhaps the very frequency of this was why they quarreled; indeed, his hectic schedule contributed to the demise of their marriage.
4. We Don't Live Here No More (Danoff) (4:03) - That's what the narrator tells his beloved to say should the phone ring. This moderately slow, 3/4 song is the best of the songs on this set that I hadn't heard before buying it. Like Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," this song features plenty of paradox, including an endless highway, an island not surrounded by an ocean, a world map without borders, and a house without windows and doors. It is possible, though, to be in a boat not surrounded by water; you just wouldn't be able to row it.
5. I'd Rather Be A Cowboy (Lady's Chains) (4:23) - This moderately fast song features orchestral strings and tick-tock drums. The narrator's girlfriend Jessie left him two months before the setting. She preferred "livin' on an L.A. freeway," whereas he hated it. Although he misses her, he prefers the cowboy life over commitment to a woman.
6. Welcome To My Morning (Farewell Andromeda) (4:02) - Until John starts singing, this song seems like an alternate version of "Rocky Mountain High." The narrator welcomes us not just to his morning, but to his evening--his whole paradise of a day. Perhaps Andromeda represents some misery he experienced before that now is gone.
7. Rocky Mountain Suite (3:03) - The Rocky Mountains extend into Canada, and this moderate-tempoed, 3/4 song is set in Jasper, Alberta. Two equestrians ride in a meadow, one teaching the other how to ride. "The Rockies are living, they never will die," but they are ailing from the effects of "too many people, too many machines."
8. Annie's Song (2:58) - This song is in 3/4 time like the previous one. Since its release, it has become a love song not just from John to Annie, but from many other people to their spouses and lovers. It has been chosen as music for many weddings, for any couple about to get married would say to each other something like, "You fill up my senses, come fill me again."
9. Back Home Again (4:43) - The moderate-tempoed title song describes the kind of home life that anyone would feel good to return to: sitting near a lit fireplace, cooking dinner, neighborhood gossip, and husband-wife intimacy. The line "You felt the baby move just yesterday" implies that the narrator's wife is pregnant and could feel the movement of the fetus inside her. Actually, John and Annie adopted both of their children. Still, this song illustrates how few--and thus precious--John's days at home were.
10. Grandma's Feather Bed (Connor) (2:16) - The instruments in this fast song are a banjo and a fiddle. The narrator reminisces on his childhood, particularly the times when he visited his grandparents and other relatives. The memory he recalls most fondly is his grandmother's antique bed "made from the feathers of forty-'leven geese" (4011 is quite a flock!). If it was 9 feet high, then he and his siblings and cousins would have to have climbed a ladder to get on it. If it really could hold 8 kids, 4 dogs, and a pig, it would have to have been double-bunked. Even a bed 9 feet LONG (from head to foot) is a big one!
11. Sweet Surrender (5:27) - Here again is the carpe-diem theme of two songs ago. Also, as in "On The Road," the narrator cruises aimlessly along a highway; only this time no one's in the car with him nor are any other cars within miles of him. He lives in the moment "Like a fish in the water / Like a bird in the air." After John sings the verse the second time, many people sing behind him, repeating the chorus until the song fades.
12. Eclipse (3:41) - This moderate-tempoed song features a clarinet and a percussion whose sound resembles that of a clock pendulum. The lyrics illustrate the negative effects of industrial emissions not only on the Earth but on the narrator. As the sun gradually sets, he realizes that the smoggy air eclipses (blocks) his view of the mountains. Sometimes he fears he'll "never see the sun again," perhaps due to air thick enough with pollution to block the sun like the moon occasionally does.
13. Thank God I'm A Country Boy (Sommers) (this live version 2:48; studio version from BHA 3:04) - The narrator of this fast song loves living the life that he does--farming from dawn to dusk, then at sunset playing a fiddle he had inherited from his father. During the first verse and the first singing of the chorus, only the clapping of hands accompanies John. Aptly, a fiddle is among the instruments that enter at the second verse.
14. This Old Guitar (2:48) - This song has a moderate tempo and a simple arrangement--just John and his guitar. The subject is the guitar John's grandma had given to him when he was a boy. By learning how to play it, he ultimately learned how to develop and show love for Annie and for the world.
15. Spirit (3:35) - A short drum solo kicks off this moderately fast song, which features violins and cellos. Ironically, this song did not appear on John's 1976 album of the same title; instead it was on the previous album, Windsong (1975). Several characters from Greek mythology are mentioned here, including Hercules and Orpheus.
16. Song Of Wyoming (Lewis) (3:16) - Here's another 3/4 song with a moderate tempo. The guitar and harmonica play softly and sadly. As we already know from hearing "Country Roads," John sang about states besides Colorado. A cowboy, weary after having ridden all day, watches the night fall and hears a coyote howling.
17. I'm Sorry (3:30) - The tempo is moderate. The narrator has many regrets now that he has lost his woman. As he looks back on good times and bad, he realizes what all he said/did and failed to say/do. Unfortunately, apologies are too little, too late.
18. Windsong (3:59) - This moderate-tempoed song personifies the wind in various ways--including Mother Earth's whisper and Father Sky's hand.
19. Looking For Space (3:59) - This song, somewhat slower than moderate, features an oboe. Each of us has a space in this world; finding that space is what we all hope to accomplish--whether it's the career that best suits us, the people with whom we form relationships, or the choice between city life and country life. All of us sometimes fly like eagles (not literally, but in terms of feeling good), other times sink into gloom.
20. Fly Away (4:10) - This song has a similar tempo to the previous song. Instruments here include orchestral strings and an oboe. In the background, Olivia Newton-John sings the role of the lonely woman who longs so desperately for a husband and children that she prepares to "fly away" from the urban winter.
1. Calypso (3:34) - This fast, 3/4 song features the ringing of a ship's bell. The Calypso referred to here is not the nymph from the Odyssey, but the ship captained by Jacques Cousteau. In fact, John wrote this song aboard that ship. Appreciation of the land requires knowledge of the sea. That makes sense to me, considering that water covers 2/3 of the world and comprises a similar percentage in our bodies.
2. Come And Let Me Look In Your Eyes (3:46) - The tempo is moderately slow. The narrator, despite having grown from a 2-foot-high child to a 6-foot-tall adult and followed life's rules, feels lost. He believes that he can find himself via a relationship with the woman to whom he is singing.
3. Like A Sad Song (3:42) - That's how the narrator of this slow song sometimes feels. Again, being without his woman is what causes this sadness.
4. Polka Dots And Moonbeams (Burke/Van Heusen) (3:09) - The slow, swing tempo matches the setting of this old song--a garden dance. The "polka dots" are apparently the stars in the night sky. In the first verse, a woman accidentally bumps into the narrator and apologizes. In the second verse, he asks her to dance. For the rest of the song, they dance as other people look on quizzically.
5. In The Grand Way (Sommers) (3:39) - That's how the narrator's girlfriend loves him; she holds him to her as tightly as she can. The tempo is hard to determine during the opening 15-second piano solo, but I find it to be moderate once John starts singing.
6. How Can I Leave You Again (3:09) - With this song, slightly slower than moderate, I'd turn the Jet Plane Trilogy into a "quadrilogy," for here again is John telling Annie that as much as he hates to leave her, his career requires that he do it a lot.
7. Ripplin' Waters (Ibbotson) (3:57) - This moderately fast song features a piano, chimes, and a flute. Most of the events described here, such as the ripples of water to which the narrator awakens every morning, are natural occurrences--"cut the telephone line, the story's the same." Apparently this means that people would appreciate the world's natural wonders more if they weren't so technology-crazed. In the chorus, he tells his beloved how good she makes him feel, "warm as a mountain sunshine"; this emphasizes the importance of love over materialism.
8. It Amazes Me (2:37) - This song is fast, but at times I wonder whether some measures are in 4/4 or some other time. The first verse is about a man who asks various questions, such as how he can better serve the rest of humanity. In the chorus, what amazes the narrator is that someday the wind will blow all the way around the world; he apparently talks to God, as he says "I'm so very grateful that you made the world this way."
9. Singing Skies And Dancing Waters (4:03) - Chimes are among the instruments in this moderately slow song. The narrator, having acted foolishly in his youth and as a result lost his girlfriend (or did he?), now sees her in the skies and the waters.
10. Dearest Esmeralda (Danoff) (3:30) - Here's yet another song with a woman's name in the title and/or lyrics--Molly, Isabel, Bobbie, Jessie, Annie, and now Esmeralda. This one, slightly faster than moderate, opens with a soft, 13-second piano solo. The narrator and Esmeralda love to dress in the fashions of bygone centuries; had they lived in a previous century, "antiques would be modern and we would be the rage." How true; a century from now, even the computer you're using to read this will be an antique.
11. Thirsty Boots (Andersen) (4:35) - The tempo is moderate. I hear a banjo among the instruments. But one thing doesn't make sense: in the first verse, the man being sung to sleeps in the rain, then in the chorus, his feet are scorched. Anyway, the narrator offers some rest and lodging to the second man.
12. I Want To Live (3:45; GH3 version 3:47) - John's involvement with the Hunger Project inspired him to write this moderate-tempoed song. For certain, HE lived, grew, saw, knew, and shared what he could give; his wish here was that so could the "children raised in sorrow, on a scorched and barren plain."
13. Southwind (Pedersen) (3:29) - A clarinet softly blows for the first 10 seconds of this moderately slow song. The narrator is spending the summer in Texas while his beloved waits for him in California. Although life in Texas bores him, the southern breeze blows his love to the woman.
14. Garden Song (Mallett) (2:43) - This song, somewhat faster than moderate, features a flute. "Inch by inch, row by row, someone bless these seeds I sow," the narrator prays. But for whom is he growing the garden--his own family or the whole world?
15. What's On Your Mind (4:26) - This moderately slow song features a saxophone, played in a style typical of 70s and 80s rock. The woman has the same things on her mind that the narrator has on his own--"too many miles, too many heartaches," too many you-name-it, that add up to hectic lifestyles.
16. You're So Beautiful (3:08) - I hear chimes softly ringing during the opening of this slow song. John left this song open enough that he could be singing to Annie, their children, or even the forest, ocean, or mountains.
17. In My Heart (3:44) - Instruments here include a saxophone. This song too is slow, but now the mood is different. The first two lines, "I don't know why we still live together / We're so far apart so much of the time," undoubtedly illustrate how John and Annie's marriage was splitting its seams.
18. The Mountain Song (Wickland) (4:45) - The tempo is moderate. Instruments include a flute. The narrator originally intended only a short vacation in the mountains 1000 miles from his home city. Then he met and fell in love with a mountain woman; now he resolves to adopt the mountain life, stay with her, and of course "sing a mountain song."
19. Song For The Life (Crowell) (3:44) - Among the instruments are chimes and a sax. This moderately slow, 3/4 song also is about taking on the country life. "Somehow [the narrator has] learned how to listen / For a sound like the sun goin' down." That's very interesting, for I've always thought of a sunset as a sight rather than a sound.
20. Autograph (3:37) - This moderately slow song features a flute and chimes. John never liked signing autographs for fans; he believed that his music, his cry, his laugh, should suffice as his signature, his mark on the world.
1. Some Days Are Diamonds, Some Days Are Stone (3:59) - This song has a swing tempo slightly slower than moderate. During the chorus, a tambourine plays on every second and fourth beat. Near the 3-minute mark, the key changes from G to A. Of course, everyone has good (diamond) days and bad (stone) days.
2. Country Love (3:06) - The tempo is fast. The verses detail problems in the home such as "children who miss Daddy, and Mommy's on the run"; in the chorus is the solution--an honest, true love that consists of kitchen kisses between husband and wife, and the presence of the whole family in the home.
3. Dreams (Geyer) (3:02) - This song, slightly slower than moderate, features an oboe. Dreams range very widely, from seafaring dreams to stay-at-home dreams. "If dreams come true, I swear to you, I'll dream of you tonight," the narrator tells his lady.
4. Heart To Heart (3:55) - A light shining thus is how John describes love here. This song, somewhat faster than moderate, opens with a soft, 15-second string quartet. The first time John sings the chorus, he sings alone; the other times, the backup singers participate. The opening of windows and doors in this case is spouses' confiding their travels, sights, and doings to each other.
5. Shanghai Breezes (3:12) - This moderate-tempoed song features a flute and chimes. Although the narrator is in Shanghai, China, and his beloved is in the States, her voice on the phone sounds as clear to him as though she were next door to the spot from which he is calling. The same sun and stars she sees in the States, he also sees in China, whose winds are so gentle as to remind him of her caresses.
6. Seasons Of The Heart (3:48) - The tempo is slightly faster than moderate. For the first minute and 10 seconds, a piano is the only instrument; then drums enter, and later a sax. John wrote in his a-b that when Annie heard him singing this song as he wrote it, she asked, "Are you trying to tell me something?" He was. Just like the weather changes, so does the heart: "Love is why I came here in the first place / Love is now the reason I must go." His love for her was why they got married years before; now he realizes that they're better off divorcing.
7. Perhaps Love (with Placido Domingo) (2:56) - This song, slightly faster than the previous one, is the song by John that Annie likes best, as she said in an interview shortly after his death. Placido sings the first verse, John the second; they sing most of the third together. The lyrics describe various things that love may be like, such as a haven from storms, or a compass you can use whenever you're lost.
8. Falling Out Of Love (4:57) - This moderately fast song, featuring a sax, is yet another song related to John and Annie's crumbling marriage.
9. It's About Time (3:42) - The tempo is moderate. Among the instruments are a clarinet and a tambourine, which beats softly. This is an environmental song; the time is now for every last person to play a part in saving our only home, the Earth.
10. Wild Montana Skies (with Emmylou Harris) (4:03) - Now that makes three Rocky Mountain states in John Denver songs--Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. This song has a moderate tempo. Instruments include a tambourine and a banjo. John sings several verses alone, but Emmylou has no verses to herself. The subject of this song is a boy who is orphaned as a baby and raised by an uncle. He learns to farm, leaves home just before turning 21, and apparently becomes a lawyer.
11. Dreamland Express (4:05) - The tempo is moderate. Figuratively, the narrator catches this train when going to bed at night. In a dream he sees a woman who implores him, "Let me be the one that you love." I wonder who the female background singer is.
12. If Ever (Wonder/Andrews) (5:22) - This song, somewhat slower than moderate, featuers a sax (common from now on) and a harmonica. Since Stevie Wonder co-wrote it, I believe he also sang it first. What the narrator would do "if ever" he could is make the woman his girlfriend.
13. I'm In The Mood To Be Desired Tonight (Martel/Walker) (3:25) - The tempo is slow, the time 12/8. As the narrator comes home after a hard day's work, he asks his woman for--as the title implies--sexual intimacy.
14. Don't Close Your Eyes Tonight (Kerr/Musker) (4:15) - This moderately slow song explores the erotic realm also. The narrator asks the woman to keep her eyes open because he wants her to see the traces of his tears over their long separation.
15. Love Is The Master (2:41) - The tempo is moderately fast. The narrator used to be sad and lost, but now the rain has cleansed him of sorrow. His life, in a sense, has just started over. "Everything's a brand-new number," he tells his sweetheart, "Everything's a brand-new game." Their every doing is a servant of love.
16. I Can't Escape (3:37) - The tempo is moderate for this song and the rest of the disc. The narrator of this song is tied to nonstop thoughts about his lost love and wishes that he could get her back. My favorite part of this song is when the women in the background sing "I love you."
17. Love Again (2:51; GH3 version with Sylvie Vartan 2:52) - That's what the narrator thought he would never do--until he met the woman to whom he is singing. In the GH3 version, John and Sylvie alternate every couple of lines, whereas in this version, someone else (I wonder who) sings background.
18. Flying For Me (5:37) - If I remember correctly from reading John's a-b, he had wanted to ascend into space aboard the Challenger (before its explosion, of course). Christa McAuliffe, et al., I believe, were the people in this song who were "flying for" him. At 4:17, he stops singing, and the song slowly fades out. Now, as we, his fans, look back on his life and music, we realize that HE was SINGING for US.
A photo of John and Annie graces the front cover of this album to show how good it feels to return home after being away for a long time. The back-cover photo shows the couple along with a multitude of friends and several dogs and cats.
On The Road (Franzen) (2:32) - The tempo is moderately fast. The narrator and his father aimlessly roam Canada, near the Montana border, in a car with a V8 engine. At a truck stop, the narrator falls in love with a girl at first sight, then suddenly he and his dad are on their way again.
Matthew (3:39) - This song, somewhat slower than moderate, was based on the life of John's uncle, Dean Deutschendorf, who was not much older than John. Besides the name change, one difference is the line "He was his father's only boy," in which case the narrator's uncle would have to be on his mom's side of the family; actually, John's dad had 8 brothers (including Dean) and 2 sisters. Dean died in a car accident when he was 21; this is John's memorial to him.
The Music Is You (1:23) - This rather short song has a 3/4 tempo slightly faster than moderate. It was John's way of telling us that we, his fans, were the essence of his music, the force that inspired him to write and sing what he did. This time, that female backup singer I can hear so clearly is Julie Connor.
It's Up To You (Weisberg) (2:24) - The narrator of this fast song tells his girl that it would be paradise to frolic in a farm field with her, and just to know that she's his lover. But if she doesn't want such a relationship with him, he'll let her be.
Cool An' Green An' Shady (3:02) - Another 3/4 song, moderately slow. Instruments include a piano and a clarinet. According to the narrator, a good place to laze on a sunny afternoon is in a spot with grass and aspen trees. At the fading sequence, John overdubbed his voice in such a way that we hear the last and first words of the title simultaneously.
Dancing With The Mountains (4:02) - This moderate-speed song was John's experiment with the disco music that was popular in the 70s. The mountains, the wind, and the ocean were "much more than partners, much more than pieces, more than friends"; they were his intimates. I like this song so much that I was a little disappointed not to find it on the 4-disc set; it could have fit onto the last disc just fine. But at least I have this song on tape.
The Gold And Beyond (2:49) - In this fast, 3/4 song, I hear a banjo and orchestral strings. This song was probably a commentary on the 1984 Olympics; the Olympic runners represented humanity as a whole in its pursuit of a dream "to go faster and farther than anyone ever before." John also used this song to carry on Martin Luther King's dream: "In the eyes of the mountain, all people are equal." That dream is the goal beyond gold medals that the runners hope to achieve.