Coxswain At The Wheel! Helm Hard A-Port! Midships! Save Our World!: “Calypso” by John Denver

John Denver’s second entry in this blog is really present because of a technicality; it was originally the B-side to his single “I’m Sorry,” which itself made number one, but once that song slipped from the top, radio stations started to play the other side and the single was officially flipped, with “Calypso” being listed for the four weeks it stayed in second place.

Aside from technicalities, I am pleased to address “Calypso” since it’s probably my favourite Denver song, with its full, sumptuous and madly optimistic arrangement. Written as a tribute to the research ship – a converted Royal Navy minesweeper which had actually been built in Seattle – used by Denver’s friend Jacques-Yves Cousteau, it appeared at a point where ecological and environmental concerns were coming to the fore, and those always underpinned Cousteau’s adventures, both on and off television (I was dazzled watching The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau as a child – this old French fellow in his mid-sixties fearlessly diving, swimming, researching and preserving). “Calypso,” the song, bounds along with unquenchable dolphin-like enthusiasm (how many times do pop songs contain the word “aye”?), sailing, not towards hell (cf. Roger Whittaker’s “The Last Farewell,” a transatlantic hit earlier the same year), but towards a future that was brighter and better than the one we ended up getting. “Wonderful Land” with a renewed conscience.

Date Record Made Number Two: 11 October 1975
Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 4
Records At Number One: “Bad Blood” by Neil Sedaka and “Island Girl” by Elton John
UK Chart Position: None

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