"Take Me Home, Country Roads" is a song written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert and John Denver that plays on Appalachia Radio in Fallout 76. It also appears in the Fallout 76 trailer.
While the most popular rendition of the song was recorded by Denver, the version appearing in-game and in its trailers is a cover performed by New York-based doo-wop group Spank.[1] It was produced by Copilot Music + Sound, a music content company that had previously created the Nuka-World theme song.[2][3]
The "Fallout Radio" Spotify playlist promoting the Fallout TV series includes the original version performed by John Denver.[4]
Lyrics[]
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like the breeze
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home, country roads
All my memories, gather round her
Miners' lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrops in my eye
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home, country roads
I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And driving down the road I get a feeling
That I should've been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home (Take me home), Country roads (country roads)
Why don't ya, take me home (Take me home), country roads (Country roads)
Why dont ya, take me home (Take me home), country roads (Country roads)
Why dont ya, take me home (Take me home), country roads (Country roads)
Notes[]
- Bethesda Softworks promised to donate 100% of the proceeds made from the sale of the cover song to Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization focused on providing affordable housing to those in poverty.[5]
- The song begins with the guitar riff leitmotif used by The Ink Spots for the majority of their music.
- The song is mentioned in-game in Fallout 76's Appalachia Radio,[6] and by Sam Nguyen, who tells a story about hearing the song on the radio and how it inspired him to move to Appalachia.[7]
- Bethesda Softworks uploaded a video of John Denver’s rendition of the song, prior to the official release of the version used in Fallout 76, but it is unclear if the video itself is still accessible, as it is an old video.
Quotes[]
Variety Magazine interviewed Todd Howard, Pete Hines, and the founding members of Copilot Music + Sound regarding the production of the song on July 31, 2018.[8]
“One of the early challenges as an arranger was, ‘How do you keep the song intact, which is very straight ahead harmonically and thematically, and somehow get it to meet in the middle with the jazz harmony and the swing feel of that earlier music?” says Copilot co-founder Ravi Krishnaswami. “We tried to create something that felt not only like two great musical traditions smashed together, but a cohesive piece of music that stands on its own.”
To bring the essence of the Ink Spots to life, Copilot co-founder Jason Menkes tapped New York City vocal group Spank to take a crack at merging the musical worlds of ‘30s doo-wop and ‘70s country.
The band’s cut was so successful, the Bethesda team decided to break from its normal tradition of releasing a soundtrack after a game has been released (“Fallout 76” doesn’t hit retail until November) and instead put a strategy in place for the song to capitalize on the trailer’s viral buzz. That included partnering with Habitat For Humanity as the campaign’s charity partner, with all proceeds from the “Country Roads” iTunes download going to the organization.
That the song found an audience so quickly on the July 4 audience was a surprise not lost on Pete Hines, Bethesda’s senior VP of global marketing and communications. “The first thing I thought was, ‘Wow, that was fast.’ I thought people were out to the beach, but they wasted no time whatsoever,” he says. “We started to get an inkling that might be the case after we premiered the trailer at E3 and people on social media kept sending me short videos of different karaoke bars where somebody sang ‘Country Roads.’ I thought, ‘This is getting to be a thing,’ so to see how quickly the song shot to No. 1 sort of validated our decision to do something right away and not have someone else do the marketing for you.””Group member Scout Ford was interviewed by the expatalachians website on March 5, 2019 regarding the recording process.[9]
According to Ford, the recording process for the song was fairly involved, with Fallout 76’s creators sending guidance on the specific harmonies they were looking for in the song and Spank giving several recordings to the game makers. “We did it according to what the client wanted, but we were able to layer the harmonies with our own sound,” Ford said.
When asked which if any of the hundred versions of “Country Roads” inspired his take on the song, Ford was resolute. “When I listened to it, I heard John Denver,” he said. “It was a great song, it was sung well, and people can feel it. It’s like classical music. People feel it even when they can’t understand it,” Ford said.”Videos[]
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ Pete Hines' twitter "IT’S FINALLY HERE. Download Country Roads cover now. It was recorded by our friends at CoPilot with a group out of New York called Spank. You’ve never heard of them, but maybe seen them performing on the streets of New York."
- ↑ iTunes
- ↑ YouTube: Take Me Home, Country Roads; Fallout 76 (Original Trailer Soundtrack); Bethesda Softworks Music account
- ↑ Fallout Radio - Spotify
- ↑ PCGamer
- ↑ Julie: "Terminals here in the station say this was the most popular song pre-war. I can't take a real survey, but I'm betting it's still true today. Here's 'Country Roads.'"
(Julie's dialogue) - ↑ Sam Nguyen: "My ma and I used to move around a lot. We never had a place we called home. I remember I was about ten years old when I met this other kid at a junkyard. He offered to teach me how to fix up old radios, and we'd sell them for fifty caps a piece. So the first one I get working, I turn the dial, and out comes this song about West Virginia. Best song I ever heard. And ever since then I've always wanted to visit. I mean yeah, I get that it's just a song. But you never know. Maybe it's got a point, and this place, right here, is where I belong."
(Sam Nguyen's dialogue) - ↑ Songs for Screens: How a John Denver Classic Resurfaced Thanks to ‘Fallout 76’ @ Variety Magazine
- ↑ ‘Country Roads:’ How John Denver’s Hit Became the World’s Most Popular Song @ expatalachians.com