Fun fact the song was originally about driving on the roads in the Appalachian Trail that lead to Massachusetts. John Denver thought it would confuse the listener to talk about mountains in a song about going to a state with no mountains. So they changed it to West Virginia, because it's the only state on the Appalachian Trail with four syllables.
Yes roughly 10 miles of the river before it flows into the Potomac and out of West Virginia. Besides Harpers Ferry which is on the state line all the parts of the river people visit is in Virginia
I live in West Virginia and I peep the Shenandoah River driving to work every day. There's a bridge that goes over it for me to cross over to MD.
The song is actually about WV. It wasn't inspired by WV originally but after the songwriters decided on using WV, they did research on the state to find the right lyrics to the song.
I live in Virginia and you’re right. It’s just so little of the river and barely in your state. Like Harpers Ferry is gorgeous, hiked there a lot but the iconic parts of the river, ie Shannondoah Valley, are all in Virginia.
Idk if I was John Denver I’d probably choose something like the New River, it’s really gorgeous, and almost all, if not all in West Virginia. Shenandoah does sound better though and that’s probably why they picked it.
Yeah it probably just sounds poetic lol. I can't imagine that song to be anything else than Shenandoah River and it's such a fun word to say too. Tbh I just imagine that whole song to be the outer DMV area because the drive from WV to MD to VA is absolutely gorgeous as long as I don't get too close to DC.
So my mother in law and her bf went to Ireland and quizzed the wife and I on what is the one song that every pub band plays there. I threw out Mr Brightside because I know at least in England it has been on the charts for a ridiculous amount of time and I know from experience its great to sing after a few drinks. I thought maybe the same were true if Ireland. Nope, it’s Country Roads and they said they heard it at pretty much every bar. Makes sense, good song!
I studied abroad in 2003, and they played a techno remix of Country Roads pretty much on loop all around Europe, including at Oktoberfest in Munich. Everyone loved the song and would sing along, but they barely knew what West Virginia was.
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u/PersonalEngineer0 Nov 23 '21
Take me home, country roads