More John Denver
- This early Orange Label RCA pressing earned Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides
- We guarantee that it’s fuller, bigger and clearer than any copy you have ever heard or your money back
- Superb engineering by Ray Hall— the recording is from 1971 but in some ways it sounds as good as if it had been made in 1961 — high praise in these parts!
- “… this was at the beginning of a golden period for Denver when his songs would dominate the easy listening airwaves, especially his big hit singles.” – All Music
NOTE: The record has a noticeable dishwarp which we had no trouble playing perfectly. If your rig struggles with dishwarped records, best to pass on this one.
This vintage RCA pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.
What the Best Sides of Poems, Prayers and Promises Have to Offer Is Not Hard to Hear
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1971
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
What We’re Listening For on Poems, Prayers and Promises
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, lost in the mix. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
- Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Poems, Prayers And Promises
Let It Be
My Sweet Lady
Wooden Indian
Junk
Gospel Changes
Side Two
Take Me Home, Country Roads
I Guess He’d Rather Be In Colorado
Sunshine On My Shoulders
Around And Around
Fire And Rain
The Box
AMG Review
After several albums in which he had allowed cover versions to dominate the sets, John Denver returned with an album, Poems, Prayers & Promises, in which he had written over half the songs. He should have had more confidence in his own songs, for this was at the beginning of a golden period for Denver when his songs would dominate the easy listening airwaves, especially his big hit singles.
“Take Me Home Country Roads” and his first U.S. number one, “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” both surprisingly failed to reach the charts at all in the U.K.; however, the opening title track set the scene for the whole album, pleasant acoustic songs sung by Denver backed in most cases by the picking and strumming of his acoustic guitar.
Poems, Prayers & Promises was actually released in 1971 but was reissued after Rocky Mountain High nearly reached the Top Ten in 1973, and it became his second Top 20 album.