Part 1 of a Schmaltzy Trilogy
#16 Goodbye Again -- John Denver 1972
I see how you people are – you love the sappy stories. Well, I can’t blame you; a lot of the time, this is why we listen to music – because of the memories it conjures. There are some songs I play to recall a memory more clearly. There are other songs I can’t even listen to 
because they break my heart (Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” is one of them). So, I have a trilogy of tunes that I’ll offer over the next few days that tell a little bit about the Food Guy and me.
John Denver rose to prominence in the early 70s, and practically every single he released was a hit. At the time, I was a disillusioned sophomore at the University of Northern Iowa, and I wanted to quit. My dad said, “Get a job or don’t come home.” So I ended up in the Navy, and after boot camp and an extended stay training as a journalist/broadcaster, I was transferred to Key West, Florida in 1972, the first enlisted WAVE on the air base on Boca Chica. I met the Food Guy on a blind date – a Marine officer from Camp Lejeune on temporary orders who was attending Scuba School. We hit it off immediately, but swore we wanted nothing permanent. He was there for a month and then went back to Camp Lejeune. We wrote back and forth, and he came back on additional temporary orders a few months later, this time for just two weeks. I had fallen hard for him, in violation of our agreement, and we had a long talk a couple nights before he was due to return to Camp Lejeune about how (he thought) it wouldn’t work. (Note: If you want to scare the crap out of a Marine Force Recon 1st Lieutenant, just say the “L-O-V-E” word.)
So, we were on tenuous ground the morning the alarm when off at dawn so he could catch a ride back to his quarters and leave Key West. Shortly after that, he was going on a Mediterranean cruise. I figured I’d never see him again. We had agreed to write – but it was “Goodbye Again.”
This tune was often combined with “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” often enough that many thought the two went together. However, “Leaving” was written at least two years before “Goodbye Again.” The song was released on the album Rocky Mountain High in 1972, again on John Denver’s Greatest Hits in 1973. Denver performed the medley “Leaving on a Jet Plane/Goodbye Again” in his Wildlife Concert (released as an album) in 1990. All those versions are excellent. He had a beautiful voice and a way with lyrics, and his voice seems to have matured and mellowed by 1990.
After the Food Guy left, I was doing my best to remember we had agreed “no ties.” The radio had come on when the alarm went off, and as I rolled over in bed to grab my glasses, the song “Goodbye Again” began to play. My heart was broken.
It's five o'clock this morning, and the sun is on the rise
There's frosting on the window pane, and sorrow in your eyes
The stars are fading quietly, the night is nearly gone
And so you turn away from me, and tears begin to come
CHORUS: And it's goodbye again, I'm sorry to be leavin' you
Goodbye again, as if you didn't know
It's goodbye again, and I wish you could tell me
Why do we always fight when I have to go
It seems a shame to leave you now, the days are soft and warm
I long to lay me down again, and hold you in my arms
I long to kiss the tears away, and give you back your smile
But other voices beckon me, and for a little while
CHORUS
I have to go and see some friends of mine, some that I don't know
Some who aren't familiar with my name,
It's something that's inside of me not hard to understand
It's anyone who listens to me sing
And if your hours are empty now, who am I to blame
You think if I were always here, our love would be the same
As it is the time we have, is worth the time alone
And lying by your side, the greatest peace I've ever known
CHORUS
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