Higher Ground - John Denver
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Higher Ground

November 1989
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Side One
  1. Higher Ground

    Higher Ground

    There are those who can live with the things they don’t believe in,
    They are giving up their lives for something that is less than it can be.
    Some have longed for a home in a place of inspiration, some will find the emptiness inside.
    By giving it all for the things that they believe, they believe.
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.

    I will stand on my own, I will live up to this vision.
    I will trust in what I feel and follow my heart until it brings me home, brings me home
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.

    Keep me through the night, lead me to the light.
    Teach me the magic of wonder, give me the spirit to fly.
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.

    (written by John Denver, Lee Holdridge and Joe Henry)

  2. Homegrown Tomatoes

    Homegrown Tomatoes

    Ain’t nothin’ in the world that I like better
    Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
    Up in the mornin’ out in the garden

    Get you a ripe one don’t get a hard one
    Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
    All winter with out `em’s a culinary bummer
    I forget all about the sweatin’ & diggin’
    Everytime I go out & pick me a big one

    Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
    What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
    Only two things that money can’t buy
    That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes

    You can go out to eat & that’s for sure
    But it’s nothin’ a homegrown tomato won’t cure
    Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
    You can make your very own tomato juice
    Eat `em with egss, eat `em with gravy
    Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
    Put `em on the site put `em in the middle
    Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle

    If I’s to change this life I lead
    I’d be Johnny Tomato Seed
    `Cause I know what this country needs
    Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
    When I die don’t bury me
    In a box in a cemetary
    Out in the garden would be much better
    I could be pushin’ up homegrown tomatoes

    (written by Guy Clark)

  3. Whispering Jesse

    Whispering Jesse

    I often have wandered in deep contemplation,
    It seems that the mind runs wild when you’re all alone.
    The way that it could be, the ways that it should be.
    Things I’d do differently if I could do them again.
    I’ve always loved spring time, the passing of winter.
    The green of the new leaves and life going on.
    The promise of morning, The long days of summer,
    warm nights of loving her beneath the bright stars.

    I’m just an old cowboy from high Colorado, too old to ride anymore, too blind to see.
    I sleep in the city now, away from my mountains, away from the cabin we always called home.
    I dreamed I left there on an old palomino. Whispering Jesse rode right by my side.
    I long to hold her, to hear her soft breathing, the touch of her cool hand on my fevered brow.

    Whispering Jesse still rides in the mountains, still sings in the canyons, still lives in my heart.

    (written by John Denver)

  4. Never A Doubt

    Never A Doubt

    There was never a doubt, never a doubt in my mind, we were meant to be lonely.
    Never a doubt, I knew that I’d find you some day.
    There was never a doubt, after all of those nights all alone, all those desperate mornings.
    Never a doubt, there was never a doubt in my mind.

    I suppose there have been times when you felt like a room filled with darkness,
    not a window around.
    There must have been moments you felt you were truly alone.
    Then again, each of us knows in a night of unbearable sadness, still a light can be found.
    In each morning the promise that someday your true love will come.
    I suppose there are some people who never believe in the magic, oh, the magic of love,
    they think nothing is precious and life is just pleasure and pain.
    Then again, each of us knows when a heart has been broken, it’s tragic, oh the magic of love.
    Even that which is broken with love can be mended again.

    All the things that you fear, at the most they mean nothing.
    All the sorrow and sadness can just disappear.
    There was never a doubt, never a doubt in my mind, we were meant to be lonely.
    Never a doubt, I knew that I’d find you some day.
    There was never a doubt, after all of those nights all alone, all those desperate mornings.
    Never a doubt, there was never a doubt in my mind.
    Never a doubt, there was never a doubt in my mind.

  5. Deal With The Ladies

    Deal With The Ladies

    I like to deal with the ladies, I like to give ’em a real hard time.
    Like to make ’em sigh, like to make ’em cry over me.
    I like to swing with the good times. I like to have me a real live ball.
    Doing what I can like a dirty old man, tee hee.

    Like to have ’em just hanging around, wondering where I’ve been.
    Like to see ’em with their big brown eyes, just a drinking me in.
    I like to deal with the ladies, I like to hang ’em up on my line.
    Treat ’em kinda rough, but they never get enough of me, rat tat tat tat tat.

    Like to have ’em just hanging around, wondering where I’ve been.
    Like to see ’em with their big brown eyes, just a drinking me in.
    I like to deal with the ladies, I like to hang ’em up on my line.
    Treat ’em kinda rough, but they never get enough of me, rat tat tat tat tat.

  6. Sing Australia

    Sing Australia

    I come to Australia as many people do, to see the old koala, hitch a ride on a kangaroo.
    To hear somebody call me “Mate” and call somebody “Blue,”
    to hear an Aborigine play a didgeridoo.
    Some of you came as prisoners two centuries ago,
    some of you come as kings and queens your blessing to bestow.
    Some of you stand all swelled with pride, some with shattered wings,
    but all of us come with open hearts to hear Australia sing.
    In the desert, in the city, in the mountains and in the sea.
    In the stories and in the people I can hear Australia sing.

    Waltzing Matilda, the men of Gallipoli, Clancy of the Overflow and Crocodile Dundee.
    The myth of all creation, the teaching of Baiame, the legends of the Dreamtime for all eternity.
    And in this celebration, a brief two hundred years,
    the cost to build a nation in blood and sweat and tears.
    And if we stand divided, divided we shall fall. But if we stand together, we shall conquer all.
    In the desert, in the city, in the mountains and in the sea.
    In the stories and in the people I can hear Australia sing..
    Sing Australia, sing Australia, sing Australia, sing Australia.
    In the sails on Sydney Harbour I can hear Australia sing.

Side Two
  1. A Country Girl In Paris

    A Country Girl In Paris

    A country girl in Paris, moonlight on the Seine. Memories of Tennessee, Nashville in the rain.
    It’s such a contradiction, a heart that’s filled with pain,
    A country girl in Paris dreaming Nashville in the rain.
    She walks along the boulevard, Champs, Elysee.
    Thinks about a country boy three thousand miles away,
    Pride is such a hard thing, it’s such a price to pay
    to be all alone in Paris with true love so far away.

    Up upon Montmartre when she stops to rest awhile,
    all the artists look at her and they long to paint her smile.
    For even in her sorrow there’s something in her eyes
    that makes the young men jealous, makes the old men sigh.

    They say the loss of innocence is always linked to pain
    for once the heart is opened nothing ever is the same.
    And so the evening lends itself to lovers and romance,
    the way to heal a broken heart is to give true love just one more chance.

    A country girl in Paris, moonlight on the Seine. Memories of Tennessee, Nashville in the rain.
    It’s such a contradiction, a heart that’s filled with pain,
    A country girl in Paris dreaming Nashville in the rain.
    A country girl in Paris, longing for Nashville in the rain.

  2. For You

    For You

    Just to look in your eyes again, just to lay in your arms.
    Just to be the first one always there for you.
    Just to live in your laughter, just to sing in your heart.
    Just to be every one of your dreams come true.
    Just to sit by your window, just to touch in the night. Just to offer a prayer each day for you.
    Just to long for your kisses, just to dream of your sighs.
    Just to know that I’d give my life for you.
    For you, all the rest of my life, for you, all the rest of my life, for you alone, only for you.

    Just to wake up each morning, just to have you by my side.
    Just to know that you’re never really far away.
    Just a reason for living, just to say I adore. Just to know that you’re here in my heart to stay.
    For you, all the rest of my life, for you, all the rest of my life, for you alone, only for you.
    Just the words of a love song, just the beat of my heart.
    Just the pledge of my life, my love, for you.

  3. All This Joy

    All This Joy

    All this sorrow, all this promise, all this pain.
    Such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love.
    City of joy, city of sorrow, city of promise, city of pain.
    Such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love.
    World of joy, world of sorrow, world of promise, world of pain.
    Such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love.
    All this sorrow, all this promise, all this pain.
    But such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love. Such is spirit, such is love.

  4. Falling Leaves (The Refugees)

    Falling Leaves (The Refugees)

    Thank you for this precious day, these gifts you give to me.
    My heart’s so full of love for you, sings praise for all I see.
    Oh, sing for every mother’s love, for every childhood tear.
    Oh, sing for all the stars above, the peace beyond all fear.

    This is for the refugees, the ones without a home. A boat out on the ocean, a city street alone.
    Are they not some dear mother’s child? Are they not you and I?
    Are we the ones to bear this shame and they this sacrifice?
    Or are they just like falling leaves who give themselves away?
    From dust to dust, from seed to shear and to another day.
    If I could have one wish on Earth of all I can conceive,
    would be to see another Spring and bless the falling leaves.

    Thank you for this precious day, these gifts you give to me.
    My heart’s so full of love for you, sings praise for all I see.
    Oh, sing for every mother’s love, for every childhood tear.
    Oh, sing for all the stars above, the peace beyond all fear.

    (written by John Denver)

  5. Bread And Roses

    Bread And Roses

    As we go marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
    a million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray
    are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses.
    For the people hear us singing, bread and roses, bread and roses.

    As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men.
    For they are women’s children and we mother them again.
    Our lives shall not be sweetened from birth until life closes.
    Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, but give us roses.

    As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days
    for the rising of the women means the rising of the race .
    No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
    but the sharing of life’s glories, bread and roses, bread and roses.

  6. Alaska And Me

    Alaska And Me

    When I was a child and I lived in the city, I dreamed of Alaska so far away.
    And I dreamed I was flying over mountains and glaciers,
    somehow I knew that I’d live there one day.
    Well it took me some growing, and a fair bit of schooling,
    and a little bit of trouble to get on the move.
    And I felt like a loser but I turned out the winner, when I came to Alaska the land that I love.
    Here’s to Alaska, here’s to the people, here’s to the wild and here’s to the free.
    Here’s to my life in a chosen country, here’s to Alaska and me.

    I was born in a cabin on little Mulchatna, raised in hard times but I had a good life.
    From the first time I flew with my father a singing, I knew that I’d wind up a bush pilot’s wife.
    We sleep near the sound of a slow running river and wake up most mornings to a drizzling rain.
    And we face every day like the first or the last one with nothing to lose and Heaven to gain.
    Here’s to Alaska, here’s to the people, here’s to the wild and here’s to the free.
    Here’s to my life in a chosen country, here’s to Alaska and me, oh, here’s to Alaska and me.

Side One
  1. Higher Ground

    Higher Ground

    There are those who can live with the things they don’t believe in,
    They are giving up their lives for something that is less than it can be.
    Some have longed for a home in a place of inspiration, some will find the emptiness inside.
    By giving it all for the things that they believe, they believe.
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.

    I will stand on my own, I will live up to this vision.
    I will trust in what I feel and follow my heart until it brings me home, brings me home
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.

    Keep me through the night, lead me to the light.
    Teach me the magic of wonder, give me the spirit to fly.
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.
    Maybe it’s just a dream in me, maybe it’s just my style.
    Maybe it’s just the freedom that I’ve found.
    Given the possibility of living up to the dream in me,
    you know that I’ll be reaching for higher ground.

    (written by John Denver, Lee Holdridge and Joe Henry)

  2. Homegrown Tomatoes

    Homegrown Tomatoes

    Ain’t nothin’ in the world that I like better
    Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
    Up in the mornin’ out in the garden

    Get you a ripe one don’t get a hard one
    Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
    All winter with out `em’s a culinary bummer
    I forget all about the sweatin’ & diggin’
    Everytime I go out & pick me a big one

    Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
    What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
    Only two things that money can’t buy
    That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes

    You can go out to eat & that’s for sure
    But it’s nothin’ a homegrown tomato won’t cure
    Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
    You can make your very own tomato juice
    Eat `em with egss, eat `em with gravy
    Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
    Put `em on the site put `em in the middle
    Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle

    If I’s to change this life I lead
    I’d be Johnny Tomato Seed
    `Cause I know what this country needs
    Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
    When I die don’t bury me
    In a box in a cemetary
    Out in the garden would be much better
    I could be pushin’ up homegrown tomatoes

    (written by Guy Clark)

  3. Whispering Jesse

    Whispering Jesse

    I often have wandered in deep contemplation,
    It seems that the mind runs wild when you’re all alone.
    The way that it could be, the ways that it should be.
    Things I’d do differently if I could do them again.
    I’ve always loved spring time, the passing of winter.
    The green of the new leaves and life going on.
    The promise of morning, The long days of summer,
    warm nights of loving her beneath the bright stars.

    I’m just an old cowboy from high Colorado, too old to ride anymore, too blind to see.
    I sleep in the city now, away from my mountains, away from the cabin we always called home.
    I dreamed I left there on an old palomino. Whispering Jesse rode right by my side.
    I long to hold her, to hear her soft breathing, the touch of her cool hand on my fevered brow.

    Whispering Jesse still rides in the mountains, still sings in the canyons, still lives in my heart.

    (written by John Denver)

  4. Never A Doubt

    Never A Doubt

    There was never a doubt, never a doubt in my mind, we were meant to be lonely.
    Never a doubt, I knew that I’d find you some day.
    There was never a doubt, after all of those nights all alone, all those desperate mornings.
    Never a doubt, there was never a doubt in my mind.

    I suppose there have been times when you felt like a room filled with darkness,
    not a window around.
    There must have been moments you felt you were truly alone.
    Then again, each of us knows in a night of unbearable sadness, still a light can be found.
    In each morning the promise that someday your true love will come.
    I suppose there are some people who never believe in the magic, oh, the magic of love,
    they think nothing is precious and life is just pleasure and pain.
    Then again, each of us knows when a heart has been broken, it’s tragic, oh the magic of love.
    Even that which is broken with love can be mended again.

    All the things that you fear, at the most they mean nothing.
    All the sorrow and sadness can just disappear.
    There was never a doubt, never a doubt in my mind, we were meant to be lonely.
    Never a doubt, I knew that I’d find you some day.
    There was never a doubt, after all of those nights all alone, all those desperate mornings.
    Never a doubt, there was never a doubt in my mind.
    Never a doubt, there was never a doubt in my mind.

  5. Deal With The Ladies

    Deal With The Ladies

    I like to deal with the ladies, I like to give ’em a real hard time.
    Like to make ’em sigh, like to make ’em cry over me.
    I like to swing with the good times. I like to have me a real live ball.
    Doing what I can like a dirty old man, tee hee.

    Like to have ’em just hanging around, wondering where I’ve been.
    Like to see ’em with their big brown eyes, just a drinking me in.
    I like to deal with the ladies, I like to hang ’em up on my line.
    Treat ’em kinda rough, but they never get enough of me, rat tat tat tat tat.

    Like to have ’em just hanging around, wondering where I’ve been.
    Like to see ’em with their big brown eyes, just a drinking me in.
    I like to deal with the ladies, I like to hang ’em up on my line.
    Treat ’em kinda rough, but they never get enough of me, rat tat tat tat tat.

  6. Sing Australia

    Sing Australia

    I come to Australia as many people do, to see the old koala, hitch a ride on a kangaroo.
    To hear somebody call me “Mate” and call somebody “Blue,”
    to hear an Aborigine play a didgeridoo.
    Some of you came as prisoners two centuries ago,
    some of you come as kings and queens your blessing to bestow.
    Some of you stand all swelled with pride, some with shattered wings,
    but all of us come with open hearts to hear Australia sing.
    In the desert, in the city, in the mountains and in the sea.
    In the stories and in the people I can hear Australia sing.

    Waltzing Matilda, the men of Gallipoli, Clancy of the Overflow and Crocodile Dundee.
    The myth of all creation, the teaching of Baiame, the legends of the Dreamtime for all eternity.
    And in this celebration, a brief two hundred years,
    the cost to build a nation in blood and sweat and tears.
    And if we stand divided, divided we shall fall. But if we stand together, we shall conquer all.
    In the desert, in the city, in the mountains and in the sea.
    In the stories and in the people I can hear Australia sing..
    Sing Australia, sing Australia, sing Australia, sing Australia.
    In the sails on Sydney Harbour I can hear Australia sing.

Side Two
  1. A Country Girl In Paris

    A Country Girl In Paris

    A country girl in Paris, moonlight on the Seine. Memories of Tennessee, Nashville in the rain.
    It’s such a contradiction, a heart that’s filled with pain,
    A country girl in Paris dreaming Nashville in the rain.
    She walks along the boulevard, Champs, Elysee.
    Thinks about a country boy three thousand miles away,
    Pride is such a hard thing, it’s such a price to pay
    to be all alone in Paris with true love so far away.

    Up upon Montmartre when she stops to rest awhile,
    all the artists look at her and they long to paint her smile.
    For even in her sorrow there’s something in her eyes
    that makes the young men jealous, makes the old men sigh.

    They say the loss of innocence is always linked to pain
    for once the heart is opened nothing ever is the same.
    And so the evening lends itself to lovers and romance,
    the way to heal a broken heart is to give true love just one more chance.

    A country girl in Paris, moonlight on the Seine. Memories of Tennessee, Nashville in the rain.
    It’s such a contradiction, a heart that’s filled with pain,
    A country girl in Paris dreaming Nashville in the rain.
    A country girl in Paris, longing for Nashville in the rain.

  2. For You

    For You

    Just to look in your eyes again, just to lay in your arms.
    Just to be the first one always there for you.
    Just to live in your laughter, just to sing in your heart.
    Just to be every one of your dreams come true.
    Just to sit by your window, just to touch in the night. Just to offer a prayer each day for you.
    Just to long for your kisses, just to dream of your sighs.
    Just to know that I’d give my life for you.
    For you, all the rest of my life, for you, all the rest of my life, for you alone, only for you.

    Just to wake up each morning, just to have you by my side.
    Just to know that you’re never really far away.
    Just a reason for living, just to say I adore. Just to know that you’re here in my heart to stay.
    For you, all the rest of my life, for you, all the rest of my life, for you alone, only for you.
    Just the words of a love song, just the beat of my heart.
    Just the pledge of my life, my love, for you.

  3. All This Joy

    All This Joy

    All this sorrow, all this promise, all this pain.
    Such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love.
    City of joy, city of sorrow, city of promise, city of pain.
    Such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love.
    World of joy, world of sorrow, world of promise, world of pain.
    Such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love.
    All this sorrow, all this promise, all this pain.
    But such is life, such is being, such is spirit, such is love. Such is spirit, such is love.

  4. Falling Leaves (The Refugees)

    Falling Leaves (The Refugees)

    Thank you for this precious day, these gifts you give to me.
    My heart’s so full of love for you, sings praise for all I see.
    Oh, sing for every mother’s love, for every childhood tear.
    Oh, sing for all the stars above, the peace beyond all fear.

    This is for the refugees, the ones without a home. A boat out on the ocean, a city street alone.
    Are they not some dear mother’s child? Are they not you and I?
    Are we the ones to bear this shame and they this sacrifice?
    Or are they just like falling leaves who give themselves away?
    From dust to dust, from seed to shear and to another day.
    If I could have one wish on Earth of all I can conceive,
    would be to see another Spring and bless the falling leaves.

    Thank you for this precious day, these gifts you give to me.
    My heart’s so full of love for you, sings praise for all I see.
    Oh, sing for every mother’s love, for every childhood tear.
    Oh, sing for all the stars above, the peace beyond all fear.

    (written by John Denver)

  5. Bread And Roses

    Bread And Roses

    As we go marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
    a million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray
    are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses.
    For the people hear us singing, bread and roses, bread and roses.

    As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men.
    For they are women’s children and we mother them again.
    Our lives shall not be sweetened from birth until life closes.
    Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, but give us roses.

    As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days
    for the rising of the women means the rising of the race .
    No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
    but the sharing of life’s glories, bread and roses, bread and roses.

  6. Alaska And Me

    Alaska And Me

    When I was a child and I lived in the city, I dreamed of Alaska so far away.
    And I dreamed I was flying over mountains and glaciers,
    somehow I knew that I’d live there one day.
    Well it took me some growing, and a fair bit of schooling,
    and a little bit of trouble to get on the move.
    And I felt like a loser but I turned out the winner, when I came to Alaska the land that I love.
    Here’s to Alaska, here’s to the people, here’s to the wild and here’s to the free.
    Here’s to my life in a chosen country, here’s to Alaska and me.

    I was born in a cabin on little Mulchatna, raised in hard times but I had a good life.
    From the first time I flew with my father a singing, I knew that I’d wind up a bush pilot’s wife.
    We sleep near the sound of a slow running river and wake up most mornings to a drizzling rain.
    And we face every day like the first or the last one with nothing to lose and Heaven to gain.
    Here’s to Alaska, here’s to the people, here’s to the wild and here’s to the free.
    Here’s to my life in a chosen country, here’s to Alaska and me, oh, here’s to Alaska and me.

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