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Why Is 'Take Me Home Country Roads' Going Viral Again, And Again, And Again?
There are some songs that transcend time and distances, resounding gloriously across both the internet and real life. Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver is indisputably one of those songs. The over 52-year-old song is much older than many of the Zoomers who know every word to it, but it has become as key a part of internet culture and real-life culture. So let's explain why the internet is obsessed with this song.
Where Did 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' Come From?
'Take Me Home, Country Roads' was written by Taffy Nivert and Bill Danoff on a drive along Interstate 81, through the western part of the state of Virginia. They sold the song to John Denver and perfected it with him in the days between Christmas and New Year's in 1970. The song became Denver's first big hit.
From there, it gained icon status, and it has been posted for about as long as the internet has been around.
Why Is 'Country Roads' Trending Now?
A viral video of a middle school teacher recording her students singing as a chorus to the song, knowing every word, has circulated widely on X in the past few days. "Why this song?" she asks, as the kids start to belt out the lyrics.
Middle schoolers across the country are going wild for John Denver’s “Take me home, country roads” pic.twitter.com/3oeyUjlubL
— TRACKER DEEP (@tracker_deep) January 29, 2024
Why This Song?
It's a sing-along classic with a tune that's easy to carry. It's also about endlessly relatable themes: going home, loving the earth and fondly remembering the past. 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' is one of those songs that is just drifting in the air. No American remembers the first time they heard it, because they can remember no moment in their lives when they hadn't yet heard it. It's the feeling of freedom, windows cracked down, whistling homeward down the highway.
This is such a universal feeling that even the European mind can comprehend it, just as well as any American mind can.
Is 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' About West Virginia?
No.
While the song has been adopted as one of West Virginia's state anthems, the actual geography referenced in the song exists in the western part of the neighboring state of Virginia. The Shenandoah River runs mostly in northwestern Virginia, through the famous Shenandoah National Park, while the Blue Ridge Mountains run through western Virginia, not West Virginia.
This point of contention has also inspired many internet arguments. The writers of the song and John Denver had never really even been to West Virginia at the time of its writing.
For the full history of 'Take Me Home, Country Roads,' be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
