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Verse 1
Where the snowy peaks gleam in the moonlight,
Above the dark forests of pine,
And the wild foaming waters dash onward,
Toward lands where the tropic stars shine;
Where the scream of the bold mountain eagle
Responds to the notes of the dove
Is the purple robed West, the land that is best,
The pioneer land that we love.
Chorus
Tis the land where the columbines grow,
Overlooking the plains far below,
While the cool summer breeze in the evergreen trees
Softly sings where the columbines grow.
Verse 2
The bison is gone from the upland,
The deer from the canyon has fled,
The home of the wolf is deserted,
The antelope moans for his dead,
The war whoop re-echoes no longer,
The Indian's only a name,
And the nymphs of the grove in their loneliness rove,
But the columbine blooms just the same.
Verse 3
Let the violet brighten the brookside,
In sunlight of earlier spring,
Let the fair clover bedeck the green meadow,
In days when the orioles sing,
Let the golden rod herald the autumn,
But, under the midsummer sky,
In its fair Western home, may the columbine bloom
Till our great mountain rivers run dry.
Where the Columbines Grow (Click on the flag for recording link)
"Where the Columbines Grow" was adopted as the official state song on May 8, 1915, by an act of the General Assembly. The words were written and the music composed by A.J. Fynn. Traveling by horse and wagon to visit Indian tribes in the San Luis Valley in 1896, Fynn received inspiration to write the song after he came across a beautiful Colorado mountain meadow which was covered with columbines. He dedicated the song to the Colorado pioneers.
"Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver (our 2nd State Song)
"Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver (our 2nd State Song)
"Rocky Mountain High" is primarily inspired by John Denver's move to Aspen, Colorado three years before its writing and his love for the state. The song was considered a major piece of 1970s pop culture and became a well-associated piece of Colorado history. Denver started writing this song during the Perseid Meteor Shower which happens every August. He was camping with friends at the tree line at Williams Lake near Windstar (his foundation in Colorado) and all of a sudden there were many shooting stars and he noticed "The shadow from the starlight"... thus the line from the song. He says that while the inspiration struck quickly, it took him about nine months to complete the song. After the song's release in 1973 there was some controversy as some people thought that it encouraged drug use. Denver, in 1985, responded by saying that these people had obviously never experienced the beauty and wonder of the Rocky Mountains.
The State of Colorado already had a state song when "Rocky Mountain High" was proposed in Senate Joint Resolution No. 07-023 on March 08, 2007. Adopted in 1915, "Where the Columbines Grow" has been serving Colorado for almost 100 years.
Challenges were made to "Where the Columbines Grow" over the years and in the early nineties a group of fourth graders from Fort Collins decided that the 1972s "Rocky Mountain High", a popular folk-pop tune by John Denver would make a great replacement for "Where the Columbines Grow." This idea didn't get very far.
Tragedy struck on October 12, 1997 when John Denver died in a plane crash off the coast of California. Within a month, Fort Smith fourth-grader Kari Neuman rallied her Johnson Elementary School classmates for a letter-writing campaign to change the official state song to "Rocky Mountain High." Again, the idea didn't get off the ground.
Ten years after Denver's death, Colorado Senator Bob Hagedorn succeeded in elevating "Rocky Mountain High" to the status of a second state song by Senate Joint Resolution.
On March 12, 2007, the Colorado General Assembly declared that we, the members of the General Assembly, do hereby designate John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" as one of the official state songs ranking equally with "Where the Columbines Grow".
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
He was born in the summer of his 27th year,
Comin' home to a place he'd never been before.
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again.
You might say he found a key for every door.
When he first came to the mountains his life was far away,
On the road and hangin' by a song.
But the string's already broken and he doesn't really care.
It keeps changin' fast and it don't last for long.
But the Colorado rocky mountain high,
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky.
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye.
Rocky mountain high.
He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below.
He saw everything as far as you can see.
And they say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun
And he lost a friend but kept his memory.
Now he walks in quiet solitude the forest and the streams,
Seeking grace in every step he takes.
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake.
And the Colorado rocky mountain high,
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky.
You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply.
Rocky mountain high.
Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend.
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more,
More people, more scars upon the land.
And the Colorado rocky mountain high,
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky.
I know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly.
Rocky mountain high.
It's Colorado rocky mountain high,
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky.
Friends around the campfire and everybody's high.
Rocky mountain high.
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