Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time with this book!
Review: If I could have given this book a negative number, I would have. The 190-page book could have been cut in half; only that much is actually about John Denver. Collis leads the reader to believe the book is a biography about Denver, when in fact he jumps between issues and events surrounding Denver's life. He accuses him of being a "wife-beater", and does give an example, albeit one brief example towards the back of his book. Collis is more interested in telling us about his favorite music stars of the time than giving any information about the artist the book proclaims to be about.
As someone said before, if you want to know about Denver, read his autobiography "Take Me Home", rather than wasting your precious time and money on Collis' biography. There's also a movie that made a better impression on me than this attempt to describe Denver's life, "Take Me Home: The John Denver Story". Don't make the same mistake I did by reading this.
Rating:
Summary: Shame, Shame,Shame
Review: Pass this one up, folks.In my opinion,this is a very mean spirited piece of work.John Denver was a remarkable talent and a committed humanitarian. he deserves better than this.To leave readers with the impression that he was a wife beating drunk is unforgivable.
Rating:
Summary: A Cut & Paste Job
Review: Readers, if you want to learn something about John Denver's life or his place in music history, don't waste your time with this book. I have serious doubts about the "facts" Collis presents, considering that within the first 62 pages Collis informs us that:
* the distance from Ft. Worth to El Paso is "the best part of 1,500 miles" (p. 42)--which will come as quite a surprise to most Texans, who think the true distance is less than half that
*Texas Tech is in Austin (p. 42)--what a shock to the TTU students who've been attending classes in Lubbock since 1925
*Don Kirshner "formed his Monkees by selecting. . .Mickey 'Circus Boy' Dolenz and Davy Jones. . . [and] Peter Tork, an enthusiastic mimer of the bass guitar" (p. 62)--Don Kirshner didn't "form" the Monkees; Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson did. Kirshner was brought in as musical supervisor after Micky (spelled without an "e"), Davy, Peter and Mike were hired (see p. 31 of Glenn Baker's _Monkeemania_). And by the way, Peter is a consumate musician who plays 10 instruments, including bass.Each of these facts would have been very easy to check. Collis didn't bother, which provokes doubts about the accuracy of anything else he writes in _Mother Nature's Son_. Nor is there evidence of original research; Collis' sources, when he troubles himself to credit them, are magazine interviews and clips from John Denver's autobiography. This book is a clip job. Read the original sources, especially John's _Take Me Home_, to get the facts in context.
Rating:
Summary: A Cut & Paste Job
Review: Readers, if you want to learn something about John Denver's life or his place in music history, don't waste your time with this book. I have serious doubts about the "facts" Collis presents, considering that within the first 62 pages Collis informs us that:
* the distance from Ft. Worth to El Paso is "the best part of 1,500 miles" (p. 42)--which will come as quite a surprise to most Texans, who think the true distance is less than half that
*Texas Tech is in Austin (p. 42)--what a shock to the TTU students who've been attending classes in Lubbock since 1925
*Don Kirshner "formed his Monkees by selecting. . .Mickey 'Circus Boy' Dolenz and Davy Jones. . . [and] Peter Tork, an enthusiastic mimer of the bass guitar" (p. 62)--Don Kirshner didn't "form" the Monkees; Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson did. Kirshner was brought in as musical supervisor after Micky (spelled without an "e"), Davy, Peter and Mike were hired (see p. 31 of Glenn Baker's _Monkeemania_). And by the way, Peter is a consumate musician who plays 10 instruments, including bass. Each of these facts would have been very easy to check. Collis didn't bother, which provokes doubts about the accuracy of anything else he writes in _Mother Nature's Son_. Nor is there evidence of original research; Collis' sources, when he troubles himself to credit them, are magazine interviews and clips from John Denver's autobiography. This book is a clip job. Read the original sources, especially John's _Take Me Home_, to get the facts in context.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Technical Insight Into The Music
Review: The dust cover is SO misleading (example: there is no reference to 'wife beating' in the actual book.) I was delighted to read Collis' critique of Denver's music; the author appears impressed with many of John's songs, and the explanations as to why are most interesting. Also, John Collis pays honest tribute to John Denver's generous efforts to improve this planet. This book is considerably less critical than John's autobiography 'Take Me Home'; however, there is little new in the way of biographical information. I recommend this book to readers who are eager to learn more about the musical angle of Denver's career.
Rating:
Summary: A Cut & Paste Job
Review: This book is difficult to read; the writing style, often compared to a term paper is somewhat accurate. He is not completely accurate in statements and I often wondered if research was actually done for this book or if he mainly gleaned stories from rag magazines and decided to consider them as factual pieces of information to pass along. Please read John's autobiography first before looking to other forms of information on John's life; John is brutally honest about himself, both good and bad, and his book reads as a truly factual account of his life (better yet, read the book and get the recorded copy read by John to get the true feelings that he had about his life, family & himself). Collis' book reads and feels fake for the most part, and although this man clearly is NOT a John Denver fan, you don't really have to be to be aware of all that John had accomplished in his life. The next book I buy and read about John will have to be written by best friends and/or family members before I'm willing to trust content. This one for me was not on the mark because both of what I know factually and instinctively. This one is NOT going on my book shelf as a keeper, that's for sure.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult to read
Review: This book is difficult to read; the writing style, often compared to a term paper is somewhat accurate. He is not completely accurate in statements and I often wondered if research was actually done for this book or if he mainly gleaned stories from rag magazines and decided to consider them as factual pieces of information to pass along. Please read John's autobiography first before looking to other forms of information on John's life; John is brutally honest about himself, both good and bad, and his book reads as a truly factual account of his life (better yet, read the book and get the recorded copy read by John to get the true feelings that he had about his life, family & himself). Collis' book reads and feels fake for the most part, and although this man clearly is NOT a John Denver fan, you don't really have to be to be aware of all that John had accomplished in his life. The next book I buy and read about John will have to be written by best friends and/or family members before I'm willing to trust content. This one for me was not on the mark because both of what I know factually and instinctively. This one is NOT going on my book shelf as a keeper, that's for sure.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading title and description
Review: Unlike many of the other reviewers, I am not such a dyed-in-the-wool Denver fan that I take this book's shortcomings personally. For what it is, it's fine. But this is NOT a biography. It's more like a college term paper. The author conducts a 175 page music review, focusing on quotes from others, articles in music magazines, and demographic data available to anyone. It is misrepresented as a biography. There is almost no information here about the man or his personal or inner life, his relationships with others, his struggles or victories. It was SO BORING and superficial; a 5 page magazine article could have done the same thing and done it more effectively. A total waste of paper.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading title and description
Review: Unlike many of the other reviewers, I am not such a dyed-in-the-wool Denver fan that I take this book's shortcomings personally. For what it is, it's fine. But this is NOT a biography. It's more like a college term paper. The author conducts a 175 page music review, focusing on quotes from others, articles in music magazines, and demographic data available to anyone. It is misrepresented as a biography. There is almost no information here about the man or his personal or inner life, his relationships with others, his struggles or victories. It was SO BORING and superficial; a 5 page magazine article could have done the same thing and done it more effectively. A total waste of paper.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful Treatment of John Denver's Music
Review: When I first heard of John Collis' "John Denver: Mother Nature's Son," I was tempted to ignore it, but I knew I'd not be able to do that. The dust jacket was very off-putting; what could the pub- lishers have been thinking of to put blatant lies where everyone would see them? Fortunately, the book itself was more accurate. The author went into this project prepared to denigrate John's music. That he found it difficult to do so is clear, testifying to the fact that the music is much better than critics realized. I appreciated Mr. Collis' complimentary remarks about John's voice, which to me has always been the number one factor in his amazing career. The music, too, is given more respect than Collis obviously intended. I'm glad he was finally able to see the light. I did find it a bit irritating that so much space in such a short book was devoted to marginally interesting material, such as Mr. Denver's family history and the musical timeline in which he oper- ated. Such information would have been appropriate in a full-scope book but not in one that covers only 175 pages. It almost gave the impression that the material needed to be padded, never a good idea in any kind of writing. What is there, however, is fairly informative. It should be pointed out that there are several errors: John Denver did NOT offer the Russians any amount of money to take part in their space program; as he pointed out many times, that was the price tag the Russians put on the project and Mr. Denver did not intend to pay that. The information in the first chapter about Mr. Denver's tragic plane crash and the investigation is also misleading, implying Mr. Denver did not perform a pre-flight check, when in fact, the NTSB report indicates clearly that he did. Overall, I found the book mildly interesting. I am always happy to find my assessment of John Denver's voice and music supported.
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