Mark Cohen, Peak to Peak. I am 56 years old. I like 60s and 70s rock and old, twangy country. I don’t like rap. I’ve always associated rap with thumping loudspeakers, inner city gangs, and songs that vilify the police or glorify violence to women.

Those who study the history of rap often trace modern rap back to the south Bronx in the late 1970s. The first rap song commercially released was “Kim Tim III (Personality Jock)” by the Fatback Band in 1979. The next year the Sugar Hill Gang released “Rapper’s Delight.” Then along came Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dog, Ice Cube, N.W.A., 50 Cent, and many others. I never liked their “music” and still don’t.

But one night last week I was drinking red wine and listening to some old John Denver songs when I came to an astonishing realization – John Denver invented rap music.

What is rap music? One common definition is that rap is a genre where the artist speaks the lyrics rather than sings them. Typically the lyrics rhyme and there is a strong beat.

With that definition in mind, consider John Denver’s 1975 hit, “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.” John Denver speaks the first three verses of that song without any musical accompaniment whatsoever, but there is clapping to a strong beat:

Well, life on the farm is kinda laid back,

Ain't much an old country boy like me can't hack,

It's early to rise, early in the sack,

I thank God I'm a country boy.

Well, a simple kinda life never did me no harm,

A raisin' me a family and workin' on a farm.

My days are all filled with an easy country charm,

Thank God I'm a country boy.

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me ol' fiddle,

When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle,

And life ain't nothin' but a funny funny riddle,

Thank God I'm a country boy.

Spoken lyrics? Check.  Rhyme? Check. Strong beat? Check. “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” is a rap song!

This realization hit me like a ton of bricks. Rap music did not originate in the south Bronx in 1979; it originated with the live recording of “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” on August 26, 1974, at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. John Denver invented rap music.

And if that don’t prove that “life ain’t nothin’ but a funny funny riddle,” I don’t know what will.