Song 723: This week the playlist features Sunshine on My Shoulders by John Denver, written by John Denver, Dick Kniss and Mike Taylor, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In early 1974 my wife and I left the chilly Windy City area and found a nice place to reside in Atlanta, GA, and so I soon got to enjoy feeling the Sunshine on My Shoulders as I sat on our house's porch, often with my guitar in hand. As Mr. Denver's hit climbed the charts, I felt it fit our situation very well and I would frequently harmonize with his vocal as it rode the airwaves. I got a job at a nearby pizza joint and became their featured pianist, though I didn't get paid to do any lead vocals myself. In that era, as the nefarious War on Drugs unfolded, I often felt relieved that Sunshine almost always makes me high, so I didn't have to rely on Mary Jane. A few years earlier I had shared a joint in Atlanta with a friend, and he told me that it made him wonderfully high, which surprised me because I felt no noticeable lift at all from the smoke. I did not condemn him or others for their attraction to weed - in fact, I had a lot of respect for him, regardless of what made him feel good, and I'm sure we would have agreed that Sunshine on the water looks so lovely.
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