"Leaving on a Jet Plane" is a song written by John Denver in 1966 and most famously recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. The original title of the song was "Oh Babe I Hate to Go" but Denver's then producer, Milt Okun, convinced him to change the title.
The song was initially recorded in 1967 by the Chad Mitchell Trio, and later that same year by Spanky and Our Gang. Peter, Paul and Mary's version first appeared on their 1967 Album 1700; however, it did not become a hit until they released it as a single in 1969. It turned out to be their biggest (and final) hit, becoming their only #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. It was the second to last #1 single of the 1960s. The song also spent three weeks atop the easy listening chart. The song was also sung by the crew of the space shuttle in the movie Armageddon.
I thought of two old songs, this one and Gordon Lightfoot singing "Early Morning Rain", but I think this song is closer to the sense of my poem.
I must apologize but I have no sound at all at the moment on either of my computers. My older laptop has decided to freeze in the start up after it decided all on its own to shut down last night. That was the computer that had the sound. This computer has decided to force me to massage it and manually open the wi-fi driver in order to have internet. At the same time the windows sound driver has disappeared beyond my skill to find it. In an unrelated issue my Blue Parrot blue tooth device has refused to start up too. That device is a hundred bucks to be a head set instead of an ear piece only, and the input is voice activated. It's made for trucker's cabins. I might be pissing off the technical gods somehow.
Not having any way to verify the quality of any sound media, I would never just post anything.
"Walking On Clouds" was the second poem posted with "The Ring Of Light" reprised yesterday.
Walking On Clouds
I look from above
To the clouds that cover you,
Keep you from my sight.
The clouds seem to say
I could float, even walk there
In mid-sky out past
The place you still live,
Home that I left, leaving you.
The sun's rays reach me
In horizontal
Lines that slice me right to left
Like you asking me.
January 17, 2009 2:06 PM
First Posted June 18, 2009
Amelia too...
ReplyDeleteI was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
it was the strings of my guitar
Amelia * it was just a false alarm
The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture post card charms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh, Amelia it was just a false alarm
I wish that he was here tonight
It's so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm
A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus * ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams Amelia - dreams and false alarms
Joni Mitchell