THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK:
From Poem, to Ballad, to Folk Song 29 Years Ago: 1971

American Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle on a Venice Beach and Santa Monica Beach Where John Denver Played Songs

John Denver was a songwriter/singer/musician who by writing songs on wild nature was a poet naturalist. He lived in the mountains of Colorado, but spent a good deal of time in Los Angeles on the beaches from Venice to Santa Monica learning and perfecting his craft. I never met him in person, but spiritually, I can connect with his ballads and songs. I hope this song about eagles and hawks moves you as it does me to think about Nature first rather than ourseleves.

In 1971, his album called AERIE was released to the public for sale. The photos on the album of John Denver with an Eagle as nearly as large as him is impressive. The background scenery is not known to me but in my imagination there is the general look to it as being the Carrizo Plain where I lived and worked for 5 years or the Modoc Plateau country where I also lived and worked for 5 years. In both Modoc and Carrizo I sang this ballad as I have the lyrics memorized. I wonder if the spirit of John Denver flies over Carrizo and Modoc. I will always think of that photograph as those two vast landscapes in my minds eye.

Also on the back of the album the word AERIE is defined for the public as follows:

aer-ie (ari, ir, i)n. the nest of a bird of prey, as an eagle or
a hawk. 2. a lofty nest of any large bird. 3. the brood in the
nest; the young of a bird of prey. 4. an elevated habitation
or situation. Also, aery, eyrie, eyry.

The album text tells us also that the Song is by John Denver and Mike Taylor. It states that the song is two minutes and ten seconds in length. The 12 String Guitar is played by John Denver, the Bass by Dick Kniss, Guitar by Mike Taylor, Percussion by Gary Chester, and Piano & Organ by Paul Griffin.

A very good friend recently produced a CD for me of Eco-Songs - Various Artists (July 2000) that included THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK. It is great. Other songs on the CD include Calypso also by John Denver, To The Last Whale by Crosby & Nash, If a Tree Falls by Bruce Cockburn, Wildflowers by Tom Petty, Here We Are In The Years by Neil Young, and many more. Thank you and thank you to all the musicians that write songs about wild Nature and the plight of our wild Earth.

THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK
by
John Denver and Mike Taylor
1971

I am the Eagle, I live in High Country
in Rocky Cathedrals that reach to the sky
I am the Hawk and therer's blood on my feathers
but time is still turning they soon will be dry
And all those who see me and all who believe in me
share in the freedom I feel when I fly

Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops
Sail o'er the canyons and up to the stars
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future
And all that we can be and not what we are.

 
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