It's About Time

by William RuhlmannJohn Denver continued to proselytize for his favorite causes, love, peace, and freedom (in the great outdoors), on It's About Time, but on a personal level he was fending off depression due to the woman who dumped him on his last album, Seasons Of The Heart (presumably his wife Anne, from whom he was divorced in 1983). Then, he had seemed reconciled to the breakup, singing with gentle equanimity about people who just can't get along. By It's About Time, he wasn't keeping up that much of a front. In "Thought Of You," "he called her up in the middle of the night hoping she was alone"; in "Falling Out Of Love," he sang of "this sense of failure/such an incredible loss"; and in "I Remember Romance," he wallowed in his memories. Somehow, though, Denver pulled himself together enough, with the help of his pals, Rita Marley and the Wailers, who played on the track "World Game," to go back to preaching universal brotherhood. Emmylou Harris joined him on one of his patented Western anthems, "Wild Montana Skies," and he called upon God (under various names, naturally) to assist him elsewhere. Unfortunately, Denver hadn't only lost his true love. His fans were deserting him, too. It's About Time was Denver's lowest charting album in 12 years.