Before the lyrics Almost heaven are sung by the late John Denver, most people instantly recognize the timeless classic 1971 song Take Me Home, Country Roads the second they hear the plucking of the strings of the acoustic guitars at the very beginning — but have you ever wondered about what was the actual inspiration for the writers of the song?
This Road Inspired “Take Me Home, Country Roads” Song?
Look no farther than exit 10 on Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg, which is a city located in Maryland and is considered a suburb of the District of Columbia. The highway sign with no fewer than seven abbreviations alerts motorists that they are approaching the exit to Clopper Road.
Heading west on Clopper Road from Interstate 270, you would not be blamed if your initial thought was “how could this road have inspired such a bucolic song” as your motor vehicle sits in traffic.
Land which belongs to the campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the Department of Commerce of the United States is on the right side when facing east towards Interstate 270. On the east side of Interstate 270, Clopper Road becomes West Diamond Avenue — so the eastern terminus of Clopper Road is essentially at Interstate 270.
One evening after a week of performances which were sold out, John Denver came back to the basement apartment of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert — who were married and later wrote the 1976 hit song Afternoon Delight as part of the Starland Vocal Band — to “swap songs and party.”
According to the official Internet web site of Bill Danoff, “That night, he helped us finish writing a song that changed all of our lives. ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ was inspired by a drive to a family reunion in Gaithersburg along Clopper Road — which back then was still a country road. When we first sang the song together the following night, it seemed as though the audience would never stop applauding. Next show same thing. We knew we had a hit.”
At one point, Clopper Road is a busy thoroughfare that is five lanes wide with a concrete and grass median — and plenty of traffic lights. The Clopper Road of today likely would not have inspired the song Take Me Home, Country Roads for Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver — all of whom are credited with writing the first hit song for Denver that he sang himself…
…but head further west around Seneca Creek State Park, and Clopper Road is only two lanes wide with curves — emulating more of a country road. The view in the above photograph faces southeast towards Interstate 270…
…while the view of Clopper Road in the above photograph faces northwest; and this busy “country road” temporarily widens to three lanes at the traffic signal at its intersection with Mateny Road.
Head further northwest on Clopper Road to approach the small unincorporated community of Boyds. The western terminus of Clopper Road is just over the small hill on the right in the above photograph…
…where motorists are forced to turn left onto White Ground Road, which is a “rustic road” that the Miller Family “adopted”.
In the background facing northeast are railroad tracks and a few buildings which house commercial businesses on Barnesville Road. Beyond that is the confluence of Tenmile Creek and Little Seneca Creek at Black Hill Regional Park, where one can hike on several trails.
Beyond the western terminus of Clopper Road — which is greater than seven miles from the eastern terminus at Interstate 270 — is acreage of mostly woods.
On the north side of Clopper Road near its terminus is a small parking lot for the Boyds train station, which is little more than a bus shelter next to the railroad tracks. The Brunswick line runs through Boyds between the District of Columbia and Martinsburg in West Virginia — and one can also travel to Frederick in Maryland via a branch on this line as well. Additional photographs of the railroad tracks themselves can be viewed in this article here at The Gate With Brian Cohen.
The western terminus of Clopper Road is barely two lanes wide with no markings painted on the pavement, which emulates a true country road for only a short distance of approximately 100 yards. The markings — as well as a marked improvement of the pavement itself — occurs once the concurrency of Clopper Road and Maryland State Highway 117 begins heading east towards Gaithersburg and Interstate 170.
“Bill Danoff can’t put a number on how many times he’s been asked to explain how a guy from Massachusetts could write such a beautiful song about a state that he has hardly ever visited”, according to this article from the Internet web site of West Virginia University, whose students sing the song after all victories by their sports teams at home. “Danoff had some other West Virginia associations to draw from as well. He became friends with actor Chris Sarandon, a Beckley native who was once married to actress Susan Sarandon, as well as a group of hippies from a West Virginia commune who used to sit in the front row of the little clubs in which his band used to play.”
Final Boarding Call
Imagine Johnny Cash singing Take Me Home, Country Roads, as the song was originally intended for him. Well, Johnny Cash did sing the song with John Denver at least once.
Also, Rhododendron was reportedly the original name of the song, as it is the state flower of West Virginia.
The song prevailed over the decades and around the world — despite the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River primarily being located in western Virginia — to the point when House Resolution 40 was passed by the West Virginia Legislature on Friday, March 7, 2014, which declared the song to be the fourth official state song of West Virginia. Earl Ray Tomblin — who is the 35th governor of the state and remained as governor until 2017 — signed the resolution into law on Saturday, March 8, 2014. The other three songs are This is My West Virginia, The West Virginia Hills, and West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home.
Despite the bizarre fact of this song about West Virginia of a road in Maryland inspiring a man from Massachusetts to write it, I can say this from personal experience: repeatedly listening to Take Me Home, Country Roads play while in West Virginia definitely works — especially on the rural country roads that took me to the ruins of the abandoned town of Brooklyn and New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, which became the newest national park in the United States on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
All photographs ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
