“Matthew” (From Back Home Again, 1974)
One of Denver’s most affecting songs—and one that indicates a real belief in the idea of being a good person and living life the right way—is “Matthew.” Loosely based on the short life of his uncle, the song forgoes total accuracy for the sake of creating a touching ode to a genuine person.
During the live Wildlife Concert in 1998, he introduced the song by saying, “This song was written about my Uncle Dean. Dean was the second-youngest of my dad’s brothers; there were nine boys and two girls—eleven children in that family. Dean and I worked on wheat harvests a couple of summers together. We were very, very close. He was a great inspiration to me. He was killed right around his 21st birthday in a car accident. I thought about him and the things he inspired in me, about life on the old Deutschendorf family farm that my father was raised on, and all that meant to me, and out of it came this song.”
“All of My Memories” (From Aerie, 1971)
In “All of My Memories,” Denver longs for home while out on the road. Amid a never-ending cycle of hotel rooms and long, endless highways, Denver dreams of more pastoral settings—the only place that seems fitting for the singer to be.
He sings: Somewhere in the shade near the sound of a sweet singin’ river / Somewhere in the sun / where the mountains make love to the sky / Somewhere to build me a faith, a farm, and a family / Somewhere to grow older, and somewhere a reason to try.
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