"Whispering Jesse" revisited

Earlier today, one of John Denver's loyal fans emailed me John's explanation of his song, "Whispering Jesse", after which this blog is named:

There is a ski run at Snowmass called Whispering Jesse. I have no idea the story behind the name, but I've always loved it and wanted to write a song with that title. I also have a little girl now whose name is Jesse, and I wonder about what connection she may have with this song - although it happened long before she was born. I have a cabin in the high country, not far from Aspen. While I was there one night a few years ago, I dreamed about an old man sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of an old folks' home, looking off at the mountains in the distance and thinking of the life he had had there, the woman he had shared it with, the love that was theirs and the cabin they called home. I awoke with tears in my eyes. I lay awake for awhile, thinking about the dream, and then fell asleep. I had the same dream again, and once again awoke with tears in my eyes. This time, I got out of bed, picked up my guitar and walked outside to the lake, and in the beginning of the day wrote this song, which is perhaps my own personal favorite.

According to the fan, she found this paragraph on the Internet some time ago and saved a copy, which turned out to be a good idea because it is no longer posted there. I have done my share of searches and have never come across it before.

Back in March 2005, when I wrote "Where the name comes from", in which I told the story of my friendship with John, I guessed that the song was named after the Snowmass ski run and that John's daughter Jesse Belle was named after the song. Based on what John has to say, it looks like those were good guesses.

During one of my Internet searches, I found an excerpt from an article I believe appeared originally in an issue of the Snowmass Sun newspaper from a few years ago. It was a light-hearted attempt to explain some of the more colorful ski run names at Snowmass. The story behind Whispering Jesse went something like this:

When the ski area was being developed in the mid-1960s, one of the managers was a man named Jesse Caparrella. He had a reputation for shouting at his employees and thus became known as "Whispering" Jesse, like the tall guy whose nickname is "Shorty." So when it came time to name the newly cut ski runs, somebody--possibly somebody with a grudge--must have wanted to immortalize the nickname.

Whispering Jesse it was, and Whispering Jesse it remains. As far as I know, Mr. Caparrella still works for the Aspen Skiing Company, which oversees the Snowmass ski area, having celebrated his 50th anniversary with the company at the end of the 2005-2006 season.

I also happen to know that the cabin John mentions in his explanation is located on Warren Lake, near the top of Smuggler Mountain, a few miles east-southeast of downtown Aspen, at the end of the steep and rocky Smuggler Mountain Road. According to his assistant, Stephanie Ryan, John used the cabin frequently as a weekend getaway for family and friends. Most of that area is public land, so it would still be possible to visit the lake and try to find the cabin where the song was written.

Correction: An alert John Denver fan pointed out that I was wrong about the lake where John's cabin was located. It was Woods Lake, not Warren Lake. Woods Lake is located northeast of Ruedi Reservoir, which is due north of Aspen, off the Eagle-Thomasville Road. You can find it easily using Google Maps. I guess the ten years since John's death have clouded my memory. At least I got the "W" right.

Where the name comes from

The name "Whispering Jesse" has multiple meanings for me. It is the name of one of my favorite ski runs at Snowmass, a steep and rolling slope punctuated with islands of spruce trees that give the illusion of intense speed when passed at close range. It is also the title of one of my favorite John Denver songs. Some of his fans think the song is about his daughter Jesse Belle, but she was born after the first album to include the song, Higher Ground, was released in March, 1988. More likely, Jesse Belle was named after the song.

Here are the lyrics:

I often have wandered in deep contemplation
It seems that the mind runs wild when you’re all alone
The way that it could be
The way that it should be
Things I’d do differently if I could do them again

I’ve always loved spring time, the passing of winter
The green of the new leaves and life goin’ on
The promise of morning
The long days of summer
Warm nights of loving her beneath the bright stars

I’m just an old cowboy from high Colorado
Too old to ride anymore, too blind to see
I sleep in the city now
Away from the mountains
Away from the cabin we always called home

I dream I left there
On an old Palomino
Whispering Jesse rode right by my side
I long to hold her
To hear her soft breathing
The touch of her cool hands on my fevered brow

Whispering Jesse still rides in the mountains
Still sings in the canyons
Still lives in my heart

Words and music by John Denver

I like to think that John, who was an avid skier, also liked the ski run, so much that he put its name into his song.

But the significance of the song for me is more about John than it is about the song itself. I had the great good fortune to know John during the final years of his life. We were introduced by his assistant Stephanie Ryan shortly after she started working for him in 1994. Stephanie had worked for Marty Stouffer of Wild America fame for several years as a producer, and I was their computer consultant. When she left Marty to work for John, she suggested to him that they use me for their computer needs. It was the highlight of my professional career.

During the next three years, I got to know John both professionally and personally. He had always been an advocate for technology, especially as it positively affected the environment in ways such as reducing tree cutting and paper waste. He was a late adoptee of personal computers for his own use, however, so I spent many hours teaching him how to use his Macintosh laptop computers to do word processing and email, conduct research on the Internet, and generally keep his hectic life better organized. He was an eager student and would actually utter his famous "Far out!" when he had a new revelation about his computer and what it could do. He was also a humble man, astonished that a Yahoo search on his name would result in thousands of matches.

I saw John for the last time on the Tuesday evening before his death on Sunday, October 12, 1997. Stephanie and I were up at his house in Starwood getting him organized for his trip to Monterey. Stephanie was working on his agenda and I was working on making sure his laptop’s dial-up access would work when he got out there. John was in a great mood, more interested in socializing than in planning his trip. He had just recorded a new song, Yellowstone, that he wanted us to hear. So we went into his home studio to listen to a tape of it. There are some wolf howls in the song, so John was howling along while Stephanie and I laughed uncontrollably. Then we were off to his little music nook to hear a brand-new song he was still working on. He grabbed a guitar off the wall from among several hanging there, pulled out his piano bench, sat down, and immediately launched into the song. I can’t remember the melody but the lyrics told the story of two old lovers running into each other after many years. It reminded me a little of Harry Chapin’s Taxi, or Bob Dylan’s Tangled Up In Blue. More than anything, I was enthralled by the sound of his voice in that small space. I had seen John perform at Fiddler’s Green in Denver during his 1995 tour, but it was completely different to experience a personal concert. He strummed out of the song after a few minutes and said, "There’s a bridge that goes in there, but I don’t have it figured out yet." Stephanie and I just stared. "So what do you think?" he asked. All I could think to say was, "I can’t believe you can just pull a guitar off the wall, sit down and start playing like that! No tuning or anything!" He smiled one of his patented broad smiles and said, "But John, this is what I do."

Later, after Stephanie left to go home, John and I shared a couple of Fat Tires while making sure that he knew what he had to do to access his email and agenda from Monterey. When I was sure he had it down, I told him it was time to go. Since I had parked down by the guest house, he saw me out his back door. It was raining lightly. I thanked him for the music and the beer, and he thanked me for the computer help, then he said he was going to go sit and watch the storm roll in for a while. He clapped me on the back and then waved good-bye as I walked away.

I can’t find the quote now, but John once said that he had performed all over the world, and the thing that struck him wherever he went was that people are the same everywhere, that everybody wants the same things from life. I want to experience that feeling myself, to explore the world, meet the world’s people, and share in that sense of world community. To honor John’s memory, the sailboat that will take me there one day will be named Whispering Jesse.

Addendum 2/9/08: A loyal John Denver fan located the quote I couldn't find and sent it to me: "My music and all my work stem from the conviction that people everywhere are intrinsically the same," Denver said in a 1995 interview. "When I write a song, I want to take the personal experience or observation that inspired it and express it in as universal a way as possible. I'm a global citizen. I've created that for myself, and I don't want to step away from it. I want to work in whatever I do - my music, my writing, my performing, my commitments, my home and personal life - in a way that is directed towards a world in balance, a world that creates a better quality of life for all people."