Johnson was born in the small town of Alamosa, Colorado, in the south-central part of the state; he grew up in Denver. He started playing the guitar at 13. In 1963, he began attending Colorado State University to study music but his college career was truncated when he won an international talent contest two years later. First prize included a deal with Epic Records. Epic released the song "Hills", written and sung by Johnson, as a single. Johnson began extensive touring of clubs and colleges, finding a receptive audience everywhere he went.
Wishing to hone his instrumental skills, in 1966 he set off for Barcelona, Spain, to the Liceu Conservatory, studying with the eminent classical guitarists, Graciano Tarragó and Renata Tarragó. Upon his return to the States, he joined Randy Sparks in a group called the New Society and did a tour of the Orient. When the band dissolved in 1967, he signed on with the Chad Mitchell Trio for a year, spending some of that time co-writing with another member, John Denver. The group was renamed Denver, Boise & Johnson. When the trio came to an end, Johnson made a radical departure from everything he had done previously by taking on a major supporting role in the off-Broadway production of "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris." The show visited New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago over the next year; by then, Johnson was ready to return to creating and performing his own music.
In 1971, Johnson signed with Atco Records to release his first album, There Is A Breeze, which was released in 1973 and produced by Johnson, Chris Dedrick, Peter Yarrow and Phil Ramone in New York and Toronto, Canada. Feeling this first effort wasn't a true reflection of his music (despite being a huge best seller in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area), Johnson self-produced his next LP in 1975, For All You Mad Musicians, relying more on his voice and guitar for a folk feel. He followed this up with Ain't Dis Da Life, where he added a rhythm section. With each new recording and his continued touring, his popularity was increasing. It was time to make a move on the national market.
Teaming up with Brent Maher and Steve Gibson in Nashville, Tennessee, Johnson created a two-song demo consisting of "Bluer Than Blue" and "Almost Like Being in Love" (the latter song from the Broadway musical Brigadoon). EMI America took one listen and wasted no time in signing him, quickly getting The Michael Johnson Album out in 1978. The first single, "Bluer Than Blue", became Johnson's first Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1978; the song became a chart-topping single on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Almost Like Being in Love" went to No. 91 on the R&B chart while hitting the Top 5 on the AC chart and the Top 40 on the pop chart. His next EMI album, Dialogue, provided his third big hit, "This Night Won't Last Forever" and a Gold Record for European sales of "I'll Always Love You."
Johnson recorded five albums in all for EMI and in 1985 moved over to RCA Records, where he adopted a contemporary country style that stayed compatible with his soft, mellow leanings; this shift was evident in his choice of duet partners country-pop singers Juice Newton and Sylvia. Johnson's change proved successful, as he scored five Top Ten country hits from 1986 to 1989, including the chart-toppers "Give Me Wings" and "The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder." After two country albums on RCA (plus two greatest hits collections), Johnson moved over to Atlantic Records in 1991, which effectively halted his commercial momentum. He recorded sporadically in the 1990s for smaller labels. In 1995, the country music group 4 Runner scored a minor hit with the single "Cain's Blood", for which Johnson co-wrote an updated version with Jack Sundrud of Poco. Johnson also proved to be a successful writer of print when he wrote "The Solo Performer" columns for the magazine Performing Songwriter from 1993 through 1998.
In August 2007, Johnson underwent successful quadruple bypass heart surgery. A charitable organization, "Friends of Michael Johnson," was temporarily set up to help defray medical expenses.
Johnson died July 2017, at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the age of 72.
True Love
Michael Johnson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Losing it causes a whole lot of heartache
True love ain't easy to find.
Sometimes you don't know you've got it
Till you leave it behind
There's a feeling I get when I think about you
Realize what we had was true
Could've saved it, but I was too blind
And never find another love like you
It was true love, and that's a hard love to find
'Cause I know true love takes a long tome to make
Losing it causes a whole lot of heartache
True love ain't easy to find
Sometimes you don't know you've got it
Till you leave it behind
Well I've known love burning hot, love turning cold
Until I lost it, I didn't know...
True love takes a long tome to make
Losing it causes a whole lot of heartache
True love ain't easy to find
Sometimes you don't know you've got it
Till you leave it behind
Sometimes you don't know you've got it
Till you leave it behind
The song "True Love" by Michael Johnson is a poignant reflection on the value of a true connection and the heartache that comes from losing it. The lyrics highlight the fact that true love is not easy to find, and that it takes a long time to build. Losing such love causes immense pain and suffering. The song conveys a sense of regret, as the singer reflects on a past relationship and realizes that what he had was true love.
The lyrics suggest that the singer did not recognize the value of his relationship until it was too late, and that he was blinded by his own shortcomings. The line, "Could've saved it, but I was too blind," suggests that the relationship could have been salvaged if only he had opened his eyes to what he had. The song is a lament for a love that was true, but that slipped away due to neglect or misunderstanding.
Overall, the message of the song is clear: true love is a rare and precious thing, and losing it can be devastating. It is a sobering reminder to appreciate the people we love, while they are still in our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
True love takes a long tome to make
Real love takes time to develop and build.
Losing it causes a whole lot of heartache
Losing true love hurts deeply and can cause a lot of emotional pain.
True love ain't easy to find.
It's hard to find genuine, true love.
Sometimes you don't know you've got it
Till you leave it behind
Sometimes we don't appreciate true love until it's gone.
There's a feeling I get when I think about you
Realize what we had was true
Thinking about you makes me remember how real and special our love was.
Could've saved it, but I was too blind
I realize now that I could have saved our relationship, but I was too ignorant or stubborn to see it at the time.
And I know I might search a lifetime through
And never find another love like you
I know that finding another love as genuine and real as you will be incredibly difficult, maybe even impossible.
It was true love, and that's a hard love to find
Our love was genuine, authentic, and rare to find.
Well I've known love burning hot, love turning cold
Until I lost it, I didn't know...
I've experienced shallow or fleeting love before, but I didn't realize the value of true love until I lost it.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
hawaiiguy1
i HATED when Michael crossed over to country with this '86 album...BUT, this was one of the songs that I LOVED on the Wings Album !