The day we met the members of folk-rock band America
JEFFREY DAVIES reminisces about the day he met the three members of rock band America
AHORSE With No Name was their first and most successful hit single. Released in 1971, it was quickly followed by more hits including Sandman, Ventura Highway and Everyone I Meet is From California - they are the folk/rock band America. Formed in 1970 by Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek - who sadly passed away ten years ago - the high school friends met as sons of US Air Force personnel stationed in London, which is where they began performing. Still touring and recording more than 50 years later, I interviewed the Grammy Award-winning band, famous for their close vocal harmonies and light acoustic folk/rock sound, before their gig with Family at Bristol Beacon, formerly known as Colston Hall, in 1971...
AMERICA is about to conquer Britain! So said band member Dan Peek, just minutes after he and fellow America band members Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell completed their last minute sound check, before their much-awaited gig as support band to Family at the Colston Hall. Although the affable trio resemble Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young musically, they say they are influenced by all of the music around them and also “by the many things happening in the world”. “Our music is ever changing. I mean you can put all the standard labels like soft rock and acoustic harmony band and all that if you want to, but I think it’s hard to put labels on music nowadays,” a most welcoming Dan Peek, 21, told me.
“We’re changing a lot, more so than some groups. We’re going through the changes that most groups go through over a period of years, only we’re going through them in a period of months and even weeks. Therefore it’s hard to pinpoint where we are.”
An ‘ever-changing’ band musically. So who are their fans?
“Our music is for everybody. For all audiences. We obviously do a lot of shows for an audience. But basically we play for ourselves,” a friendly Gerry Beckley, 20, said.
“You see, being progressive has never been defined to me in any two-word sentence. I suppose really we are a contemporary band playing for people in our age group, around
20-ish. We are a support band mostly, so the audience we play for depends mainly on who is top of the bill. If we’re playing with The Who then obviously heavy rock fans are going to come along. If we’re playing with Cat Stevens or someone like that, then a different audience is going to come,” he added.
“Festivals are strange for us because we have no experience of playing outdoor things, and an acoustic band outdoors is almost a dead loss. You communicate with three people. The rest is just hard.”
Was Gerry’s last comment a reference to the recently held open-air rock concert at the Oval?
“Yep. It was one of those strange things. We followed Mott the Hoople. Now remember we had no experience of outdoor things at all and yet playing on the same bill were The Faces, The Who, Quintessence and Lindisfarne. A crazy electric line-up. We were really out of place being an acoustic band,” Gerry recalled, with a smile.
America have been together as a band for just over a year.
“Before that we worked together in a semi-pro dance band known as Daze, and we used to cover numbers for kids’ dances and things.”
America’s first album was very successful - and they have followed it up with a maxi-single which consists of three songs: Sandman, Everyone I Meet Is From California and, of course, A Horse With No Name. How did that maxi-single come about?
“We went to live on a farm in California for a while. It was the first rest we’d had in a long time. The sun was great. It just gave us a good sunny-surf feeling and so we just wrote away,” an engaging Dewey Bunnell, 20, replied.
Of the maxi-single’s three tracks, which is more representative of them as a group?
“They’re all pretty representative of us. I think it’s more us than any other stuff on the previous album. It is all us. No one else had anything to do with the writing and arranging, just us. It’s more of us as a group now, it’s a good cross-section. And we all fused nicely on it,” said Dewey.
What about the songs - which one of you does the writing?
“It’s a three-way thing. The songs are actually each written by Dan, Gerry and myself, but the arrangements are between the three of us. We write a skeleton song and think about what would be a good thing to do with it.”
A Horse With No Name - a straight forward song title or a euphemism for something sinister?
“No, it’s not sinister. It’s about looking for and finding some quiet and peaceful place away from the rigours of everyday life. It’s a simple as that ,” said Dewey, who wrote the lyrics.
Many bands admit to being influenced by other bands. Does America draw on any particular influences when writing and performing?
“We don’t use drugs but we do like your light and bitter. Coca Cola’s pretty good too,” Dewey joked, much to the amusement of Dan and Gerry.
A great start in the music business, I remarked. What next?
“Well, we’ll make another album. A killer album with more and better music, more amazing music. Like Muhammed Ali we are the greatest! And that’s no idle boast,” Dan answered.
“But seriously we need the public. Everything depends on them. We don’t really want to get involved with too many singles though. We hope to bring out a smaller package for people who don’t buy albums.”
You’ve got your career all mapped out before you, I remarked.
“Yeah. We’re going straight to the top,” a friendly Dan smiled confidently.
With a couple of press tickets thrust firmly into my hands by America’s PR people, my evening was sorted out. A great gig, I went back stage to find out what Dan, Gerry and Dewey made of their reception in Bristol.
“I thought it was pretty good. Nice people. It was great. All over England we’ve had a good reception. Sometimes American bands like ours - apart from Dewey who was born in Yorkshire - wonder about what kind of reception they’ll get when they go on tour to another country. We needn’t have worried. This was great,” Gerry answered, with Dan and Dewey nodding in smiling agreement.
We are a support band mostly, so the audience we play for depends mainly on who is on top of the bill. If we’re playing with The Who then obviously heavy rock fans are going to come along. Gerry Beckley