Colorado Songs

February 19, 2009 11:01 AM

A friend of mine needs Colorado songs. That is to say, she is looking for songs either (preferably) about Colorado or by Colorado bands. Yes, John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" we know; also Bob Seger's "Get Out of Denver." Also thinking of The Fray and a few others; but does anybody know any songs about Colorado or Colorado places?
posted by koeselitz to media & arts (45 comments total)

"Please Come to Boston" originally by Dave Loggins (I think) and covered by a few others.

"Please come to Denver with the snowfall
We'll move up into the mountains so far that we can't be found
And throw "I love you" echoes down the canyon
And then lie awake at night till they come back around
Please come to Denver
She said no, boy, would you come home to me"
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 11:04 AM on February 19, 2009

Cripple Creek is a song about a place in Colorado.
posted by schyler523 at 11:05 AM on February 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

How about Things to do in Denver When You're Dead?
posted by BobbyVan at 11:05 AM on February 19, 2009

Great song..."Colorado" by Flying Burrito Brothers.
posted by billysumday at 11:05 AM on February 19, 2009

John Denver also had "Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado"
posted by grateful at 11:07 AM on February 19, 2009

Colorado by the Flying Burrito Brothers:

Hey Colorado it was not so long ago
I left your mountain to try life on the road
Now I'm finished with that race it was much too fast a pace
And I think I know my place Colorado I wanna come home
There was a woman but I left her far behind
I could have loved her if I only had the time
But I stopped along the way just long enough to say
Lord I'd really really like to stay
But my lady knows I've got to go
I was too young to know what I've done
I made my plans but I was wrong yes I was wrong
Hey Colorado is it too late to change my mind
I've done some thinking and I'm trying hard to find
The way to come back home
Oh I've been so very long alone
Won't you take care of your own Colorado I think I'm coming home
posted by amyms at 11:08 AM on February 19, 2009

The Rentals - Colorado
Willie Nelson - Denver
Tom Russell - Denver Wind
posted by diamondsky at 11:09 AM on February 19, 2009

Ring Them Bells by Ethan Daniel Davidson:

And as I roll up of the floor and grab a lungful
of that brown Coca-Cola smog
I know it's too late to leave a good-looking corpse now
I been laying dead here in Denver for far too long
posted by The World Famous at 11:10 AM on February 19, 2009

Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way?
posted by thejoshu at 11:12 AM on February 19, 2009

These are stretches, but if you need them, consider "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (Marvin Gaye or Diana Ross) or U2's "Elevation".
posted by BobbyVan at 11:18 AM on February 19, 2009

Townes Van Zandt, "Colorado Girl"
posted by neroli at 11:19 AM on February 19, 2009

Dan Fogelberg's Nether Lands is conceivably about Nederland, CO. The song and album of the same name were recorded in a studio near Nederland.
posted by fuse theorem at 11:20 AM on February 19, 2009

You can throw a dart at any John Denver album, actually, but "Starwood in Aspen" is a good song.

Bob Dylan's version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" includes the line "I bid farewell to Colorado, where I was born and hardly raised."

Then there's the late great Dan Fogelberg, who - while his brothers moved to Chicago and St. Paul respectively - spent time "in Colorado, when I'm not in some motel."
posted by Saucy Intruder at 11:21 AM on February 19, 2009

The Flatlanders - "Rose From the Mountain"
posted by LionIndex at 11:22 AM on February 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Songs of Colorado

Ft Worth Blues

Rocky Mountain High

Colorado Christmas

Someday Soon

Get Out Of Denver

Colorado Girl

Old Dominion

Rhode Island Is Famous For You

Man Of Constant Sorrow

California Zephyr

Colorado

Colorado

West Texas Wind

Colorado Country Morning

I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado.

The blog that I linked to above which lists these includes the specific song lyric and a youtube link to each one as well.
posted by ND¢ at 11:23 AM on February 19, 2009

Colorado Kool-Aid performed by Johnny Paycheck and written by Phil Thomas
posted by Viomeda at 11:23 AM on February 19, 2009

Cannibal The Musical all takes place in Colorado (the territory), and concerns "the only convicted cannibal in American history", Alfred Packer, but doesn't ever mention Colorado by name, IIRC.
posted by nomisxid at 11:24 AM on February 19, 2009

The Colorado state song! Hopefully extra bonus points for the supercute kids that are singing it. 2:25 in.....
posted by anitanita at 11:28 AM on February 19, 2009

Of wait, this time with link....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nepf9pd-apc&feature=related
posted by anitanita at 11:28 AM on February 19, 2009

Here' s my list:
The Flobots- from Denver
Ludlow massacre- Woody Guthrie
Where the Columbines Grow- A.J. Flynn
Colorado- Merle Haggard
posted by Viomeda at 11:30 AM on February 19, 2009

Townes van zandt, as above ("colorado girl") and "My proud Mountains"...warning: it will tear you to pieces.
posted by notsnot at 11:32 AM on February 19, 2009

Georgetown - The Tobasco Donkeys

Wish I could give you a link but there doesn't seem to be one
posted by Seamus at 11:35 AM on February 19, 2009

Colorado 88- 3-CD live album by Phish
posted by Viomeda at 11:43 AM on February 19, 2009

Colorado from the Lemmings soundtrack is the best Colorado song ever. Sung by Chevy Chase before he was in Saturday Night Live.
posted by Sculthorpe at 11:44 AM on February 19, 2009

Grizzly Bear's Colorado.

I know, I should try harder.
posted by rokusan at 11:44 AM on February 19, 2009

TQ - Westside (Denver Remix)
posted by mattbucher at 11:44 AM on February 19, 2009

Let's try again. Colorado.
posted by Sculthorpe at 11:45 AM on February 19, 2009

Most anything by C.W. McCall, like Wolf Creek Pass, or Riverside Slide.
The Grateful Dead, I Know You, Rider.
posted by the Real Dan at 11:50 AM on February 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Limon by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
posted by Gungho at 12:38 PM on February 19, 2009

Limon by Slim Cessna's Auto Club who, by the way hails from Denver.
posted by Gungho at 12:39 PM on February 19, 2009

Colorado by Railroad Earth
posted by euphorb at 1:06 PM on February 19, 2009

Oh, man, there's a great song on an old National Lampoon album, written by Tony Hendra and Christopher Guest, performed by Chevy Chase. Transcribed completely from memory, so there may be some errors, but this is pretty close:

Stuck in this old city now where living ain't no fun
Where steel and glass and concrete cancel out the wind and sun
And I'm thinking of last winter now when we walked in hand in hand
On the trails of the Colorado Rockies.

The wind sang us a lullaby, the snow was thick as cream
And icicles were chandeliers like crystals in a dream
And the streams were strips of diamonds, and the hills were white as snow
And a bear ate all our soybeans in the night.

Oh, Colorado's calling me
From her hillsides, to her canyons, to her rivers and her trees
When blizzards snap the power lines, and all the toilets freeze
It's December in the Colorado Rockies.

We had time and space and freedom, we had love and peace to spare
Though we ran out of things to smoke, and say and eat and wear
On the morning of the avalanche, the Yeti kidnapped Blanche
And took her to his cave up in the Rockies.

Oh, Colorado's calling me (John Belushi yells from the audience "Hey You!)
From her hillsides, to her canyons, to her mesas and ravines
And infection hepatitis was all that came to stay
In the winter in the Colorado Rockies.

The baby didn't die until we burned off all our wood
Considering we ate her raw, she tasted pretty good.
Then the fascist health inspectors dug us out and mailed us home
Excpet for Blanche, who wouldn't leave her mate.

Oh, Colorado's calling me
From her hillsides, to her canyons, to her rivers and her trees,
They tell me I'll be cured soon, but I'm ready to return
Where it's April in the Colorado Rockies.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:13 PM on February 19, 2009

Uh, damn, or what Sculthorpe said...
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:14 PM on February 19, 2009

Tom Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner: "Maybe you're standing on the corner of 17th and Wazee Streets, out in front of the Terminal Bar" (now this place)
posted by milkrate at 1:39 PM on February 19, 2009

Gordon Lightfoot wrote "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" about the plight of a down on his luck folk singer in Boulder. Nanci Griffith did a cover on Other Voices, Other Rooms
posted by hydropsyche at 1:53 PM on February 19, 2009

You Wild Colorado by Johnny Cash
(from Orange Blossom Special)
posted by ibeji at 1:57 PM on February 19, 2009

Nobody's Fat In Aspen by Christine Lavin
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:43 PM on February 19, 2009

The great Hold Steady song The Cattle and the Creeping Things has two lines about Denver. Kind of a stretch, but an awesome song.
posted by myeviltwin at 7:40 PM on February 19, 2009

Colorado from the Lemmings soundtrack is the best Colorado song ever

"When blizzards snap the power lines
and all the toilets freeze
in December in the Colorado Rockies"

Amen
posted by Neiltupper at 9:06 PM on February 19, 2009

"Across the Great Divide" by The Band.
posted by doncoyote at 9:49 PM on February 19, 2009

The Samples is a Colorado band, as are Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
posted by coolsara at 10:09 PM on February 19, 2009

The Beauty Shop - Denver
posted by Jorus at 4:44 AM on February 20, 2009

3oh 3 is from Boulder. Their current single is "Don't Trust Me."
Tickle Me Pink is from Fort Collins (and graduated from my high school!). I think their single out now is called "Typical."
I'm not sure if they're still together, but I was a big fan of Mission 19 a few years ago. They went to Colorado State University.
posted by lilac girl at 8:15 AM on February 20, 2009

Sculthorpe, thanks for the amazon link--I downloaded a bunch of National Lampoon stuff last night, including "Colorado." I'm amazed that my lyrics transcription is almost (though not quite) perfect, considering that I'd not heard the song in at least 10 years.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:19 AM on February 20, 2009

I forgot to mention that KCSU, Colorado State University's radio station streams online for free. If you listen to them for awhile or poke around the website you'll find loads of small Colorado bands.
posted by lilac girl at 8:27 AM on February 20, 2009