Echoes of Empowerment: The Resonance of 'What One Man Can Do' in Modern Times
How John Denver's Music Continues to Inspire Action and Change
Image from Aspen Historical Society
John Denver’s 80th birthday is December 31st. My wife, Donna Lipman, lived in Aspen in the 1990s and she and her husband Terry Lipman became close friends with John Denver. Donna sang with John Denver during that time.
Just before Terry Lipman passed he was working on a passion project and sadly he was not able to complete it. But the memories of his efforts and John Denver’s legacy live on.
Recently, a close friend of Donna’s, John St. Augustine asked if she would like to speak on his radio show about John Denver. I have included a link this the interview below.
What does this have to do with AI?
One of John Denver’s songs has the title “What One Man Can Do”, a song paying homage to the futurist Buckminster Fuller (Bucky) which was written in 1982.
To prepare for the interview, Donna wanted to locate Terry’s notes for the film and she located most of them in time. I had little doubt she already knew what she wanted to say given the hundreds of conversations she’s had with others about John Denver and all her work with the Windstar Foundation with her then husband,Terry, who passed away in 2009.
But this just seemed like a perfect opportunity for me to explore an idea using ChatGPT. Donna had her own notes. She questioned what would ChatGPT even know about John Denver. I suggested that John Denver’s legacy of wanting to create a better world for all of us is well known. People have written about it for years. Despite his unfortunate death in 1997, many people around the world loved and admired his vision. ChatGPT has likely been trained on his legacy. She concurred.
So I created the following prompt to give ChatGPT enough context hopefully for a complete response. Seeing the response put a smile on her face as she felt others would appreciate seeing the summary in a blog post with a link to the radio interview. And it might just inspire one person to step forward and make a difference in their community for the betterment of others.
Here is the prompt I created. Try it out yourself!
Tell me about the legacy of John Denver from the perspective of John Denever's song called "What One Man Can Do". This song is about the legacy of Buckminster Fuller and his philosophy that there is more than enough for others in this world. However, the idea is more than a song, it's to inspiration to pick up the mantel and do something to reach the hearts and souls of others. John Denver wanted this song to be a call to people around the world to step out and make a difference in the lives of others.
Listen to Donna’s interview on John St. Augustine’s podcast “Remembering John Denver on His 80th Birthday”. Her portion starts around 47:40 however, I recommend you hear the entire show. Donna also reveals the story of when I fell in love with her 🥰.
Tom