The Mountain Mama's Playin' Soccer

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the things about this life that is utterly
fascinating to me. Maybe U two is about how we
are captivated an idol, a work of art, a game
gets inside of us and we just can't put it
down or stop or look away or a song. Now,
music is meant to inspire and evoke, but how some

(00:21):
songs become anthems of our time is really quite remarkable.
For example, tonight, when the United States men's soccer team
takes the field and defeats Belgium in the round of sixteen.
At game's end, the entire stadium is quite likely moved
to lock, arms, begin to sway to and fro and

(00:41):
in Unison sing a fifty six year old song about
a state that most Americans have never visited, West Virginia,
Blue Ridge, Mountain Shannon. The nineteen seventy one John Denver
pop hit take Me Home Country Roads was inspired by
singer songwriters Bill Danoff and his wife Taffy Nivert. Its

(01:05):
original title was take Me Home Clopper Road, because the
Danoffs were headed across the Maryland countryside on Clopper Road
to see her family for Christmas. The light bulb went
off above Danoff's head. A week later, they met up
in DC. Denver was there to perform at the famed
Cellar Door nightclub. He was looking for songs to fill

(01:26):
his first big album for RCAA Records. Danoff, who worked
there doing lighting and sound for the artists, showed the
lyrics to Denver. He loved it. He said, let's meet
and finish it. So after the performances that night, the
Danoffs and Denver planned to convene at their Georgetown apartment,
but Denver was in a car accident broke his thumb.

(01:46):
Didn't get there until two am. They worked and reworked
it until six am. Now Danoff at the guitar for
the injured Denver. They performed it that night. This is
a recording of that very first time Yeah. A few
weeks later Denver recorded it, and by the summer it
had risen to number two on the Billboard Top one

(02:09):
hundred fifty five years ago. Now, most pop hits have
a shelf life of Limburger cheese, but this one has
now stretched across two generations, and even though Denver died
in a nineteen ninety seven plane crash, the song is
forever young. It went platinum with nearly two million downloads
just in the last ten years. It's obviously wildly popular

(02:33):
in West Virginia. There it's officially a state anthem, but
dozens of other artists have through the years tried it themselves,
from Olivia Newton John to Ray Charles Riz Yeah Around
High Lad Straight Up to but Country Roads. Team USA

(02:59):
soak how Well. Ahead of the World Cup matches this year,
soccer's governing body FIFA asked all of the teams for
a playlist of songs for warm ups, goals and wins.
The US team wanted one that was representative of American
artists and would be a great singalong song for the crowd.
It came down to bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer

(03:21):
and The Country Roads My unforce in the morning, she
calls me gray, mind me of my far away driving
down the roadocket off. So who casts the deciding vote?
Amy Hopfinger, FIFA's chief strategy officer and a former USA

(03:44):
Soccer employee. She thought the fans would get into it,
and oh boy have they. The soccer team has the
whole country humming about the Shenandoah River, misty taste of
moonshine with a tear drop in our eyes. Wonderful all
will be singing about that same stuff fifty five years
from now. Before you think, nah, think back to nineteen

(04:05):
seventy one. I think they think we'd be doing it
in twenty twenty six