Rocky Mountain High

John Denver made his home in Aspen, and the mountains changed him. In the summer of nineteen seventy-two he camped near Williams Lake above Aspen and stayed up watching the Perseid meteor shower with friends. That night became Rocky Mountain High, written with guitarist Mike Taylor and released that same year.

The song reached number nine on the American charts in nineteen seventy-three. Some radio stations initially refused to play it, suspecting the word high was a drug reference. Denver insisted it was about the euphoria of altitude and open sky.

He kept his home in Aspen until he died in October of nineteen ninety-seven when his experimental aircraft went down into Monterey Bay. He was fifty-three. Nearly a decade later, a campaign by fans pushed lawmakers to act, and in March of two thousand and seven the legislature made Rocky Mountain High an official state song.

It shares that honor with Where the Columbines Grow, which has held the title since nineteen fifteen. Colorado has two official state songs, and most residents cannot name the older one. That tells you something about how thoroughly John Denver's version won.