On Harvard Square in Boston, a bistro plays John Denver’s ageless classic Country Roads on a loop through a pair of rickety loudspeakers. A couple of youngsters enter and spontaneously break into a song, “Take me home, country roads…” The man behind the cash desk quips: “Poor John, he didn’t think it would become a World Cup song.”
Denver composed the first lines of the song in 1971, traveling from Maryland with his girlfriends to a concert in West Virginia when he crashed, broke his thumb, finished it the day he was discharged, and performed it live the next day. He died in 1997 when the experimental plane he was flying crashed in Monterey Bay, California.
Although he touched countless genres, Denver’s country folk songs, which spoke of nature and simple rural life, would live on as cultural icons for decades. But he couldn’t have imagined that a song about longing and nature would become the USMNT’s post-World Cup single and create a sensation among fans and players alike, blasting arenas and public spaces from Seattle to Miami, California to Alaska.
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The moment the match ends, Denver’s energetic, trembling voice, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, takes over. The players hum it, the crowd gathers and even Argentina coach Maurico Pochettino tries to play the song.
It has become one with the players. Defender Auston Trustee will say. Before the final group game: “I think ‘Country Roads’ is a very American song, and to hear it in that stadium, everyone singing along, it’s a dream come true. It’s a feeling you can’t describe,” said defender Austen Trusty.
Even those who grew up outside the country like Folarin Balogun said he related to the song. “My mom knows all the lines. I’ve heard it a thousand times. It’s a soft but inspiring song,” he said. “Part of being American is knowing the ‘country road,'” said defender Chris Richards. His Dutch-Surinamese-American teammate Sergio Dest reflected: “It’s a great song, it’s a great song … it fits the moment. After the game, it’s nice to see everyone singing and we listen to it a lot in the dressing room as well.” The song was also reportedly heard from coach Pochettino’s office.
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The story behind how this song became a national anthem is also fascinating. It was not among the songs recommended by team members when FIFA asked them to play during breaks. Their recommendations are “Win” by Jay Rock, “The Show Goes On” by Lupe Fiasco, “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi and “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. America should be spoiled for choice with the vast spread of music and musical movements, from jazz and blues to hip-hop and R&B, not to mention the various rock and metal bands it has spawned.
But FIFA’s World Cup chief strategy officer, Amy Hopfinger, who worked with the USA counterpart for nearly two decades, felt something was amiss. She felt that most of the songs could not generate mass appeal. “I heard Win after the Paraguay game and I thought it was not a shared moment,” she told the New York Post.
She inquired from her former colleagues for more suggestions. The Association finally broke through to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline, only to realize that England and the Netherlands had also featured the song in their in-stadia playlists. “I decided to work on myself, I canceled Sweet Caroline and replaced it with Country Roads,” she said.
Eventually, Country Roads and Livin’ on a Prayer did it. But the Bon Jovi chartbusters, though more energetic, failed to establish a distinct connection that could bring the masses together. It was also watched by Australian fans when it was played during the break at Seattle’s Lumen Stadium.
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The chosen song surprised some fans, as it is supposed to be a scary song, not one that would get an adrenaline rush in a sports arena. “When I first heard it, I thought it was a little weird,” says Kenneth Jones, who is part of the fan group American Outlaws. And of course, this song has a deep meaning,” he added.
Country Roads was adopted and tweaked by various football clubs in England. Manchester United famously improvised the lines: “Take me home, United Road”. But now in his native home, Denver, West Virginia and the Appalachian Mountain Range have found a resonance again. “I want to hear it on July 19,” says Jones. Like the whole country.