John Denver states on the intro to the song on his 1975 live album “An   
   Evening with John Denver” that he learned the song from Arlo and that it was   
   written by a mutual friend of theirs Steve Goodman.  John says he made a few   
   changes to suit his own    
   purposes when he recorded it and that Steve was in the studio with him to work   
   through them.  Maybe John thought he was really participating in improving the   
   song or maybe more likely by being added as a co-writer he and his management   
   were just trying    
   to get it on the royalties.  I hear it’s often the case that recording   
   artists would try to get in on writing credits maybe for appearances or I   
   suppose more for the royalties.   Regardless John told the story very   
   publically on a triple platinum    
   selling album and properly gave all the credit to Arlo and Steve.   Some   
   business gamesmanship that didn’t pan out perhaps but not a liar.  The 1971   
   Aerie album that John recorded it on is overall awesome by the way and is how   
   I first became familiar    
   with the song.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)