In the Canadian Journal of Musical Purism (Spring 2003, Volume XXXVIII, pp. 45-53) Dr D. Petna has argued that 'Wild Montana Skies' is not a genuine Momma 'n' Daddy song; it's just about a guy who comes to feel at home in the wilds of Montana. But in a crushing riposte by Sam Garroner (CJMP forthcoming) Petna is shown to have overlooked the thematic complexity of 'Wild Montana Skies'. Garroner doesn't limit himself to pointing out that both the mother and the father of the child being sung about figure centrally in the early part of the song. He emphasizes the linked facts that it is the boy's momma who appeals for him to be given a home in the natural habitats of Montana and that she then promptly dies so that her lapsed parenthood immediately passes into that quarter ('he learned to know the wilderness'). In case there should be any further doubt about the song's meaning, we are told that the momma's appeal calls for her son to be given 'the wild wind for a brother'. Garonner's conclusion brooks no further quibble - and I quote - 'If his brother is to be the wind, his momma 'n' daddy surrogates can only be those wild Montana skies themselves, or if not them, then something quite as elemental, like the clouds, or rain, or snows, or rocks, or other stuff like that.'
Drummond Petna's footling objections, if I may add a point on my own behalf, cause him to overlook the dialectical intelligence in the lines:
There was somethin in the city that he said he couldn't breathe
And there was somethin in the country that he said he couldn't leave
The contrasting attitudes to the city and the country are clinched by that final near-rhyme.
http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2007/05/the_momma_n_dad_1.html
Wild Montana Skies - There’s tragedy in this song, but all the listener is left with is exhilaration. You could think of this as one of a trio, an ode to land flanked by Calypso, which celebrates the sea, and Rocky Mountain High, which applauds the air. Together or apart, they are testaments to the utter exuberance being out in nature can provoke.
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=what+is+the+significance+Wild+Montana+Skies%22+by+John+Denver&d=4626118012504602&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=47abedae,70eba69d
