The recent news of the passing of Tina Turner (May 24, 2023) had me looking for the television special “John Denver and the Ladies” where John performed one of his songs with Tina Turner. I had forgotten about the little ‘shtick’ they did when John introduced Tina….very iconic of the silly stuff that television producers wanted out of John. It was funny and cute though, I’m glad it was included in this YouTube video, shared in the John Denver Channel.
After the ‘shtick’ John and Tina went on to perform “Downhill Stuff” a song John wrote. The song is a little bit about skiing, and a little bit about letting go.
It’s funny (ironic, maybe) that neither John nor Tina had it easy….Tina had to fight very hard for her solo career and John had to fight very hard to shake the ‘gosh-golly’ image that was forced upon him. In the end, they were both successful beyond their wildest dreams but if they wrote a song about getting there, it would be more like ‘Uphill Battle’ rather than ‘Downhill Stuff.’
It looks like they put John’s band on the set as well as Tina’s band…seeing that there were 2 drum sets and multiple players doubling on other instruments. It was fun to recognize the very famous saxophone/flute player Jim Horn – also James Burton on electric guitar, Hal Blane (RIP) on the drums, Denny Brooks (RIP) on acoustic guitar (right next to John). Do you recognize anyone else?
Thanks for sharing this!!!
Loved seeing you guys in Salem, Va. I hope you guys make it back to the east coast!!!!
We will try to be on the East Coast as much as possible! Thank you Kathy!
That was an awesome blog! We always enjoy them. We will miss Diane tremendously but hope she will have a peaceful and somewhat pain free retirement! Looking forward to seeing yawl again!
Thanks Irene! Diane will join us when she feels up to it!
Wow ,thank you for that video,that was a great album as well.it was a rock and roll side of John.
It certainly was David! It kind of shocked us a little, but it was certainly fun to listen to that album – “JD”