America: Comprehensive History - Part 2 (1978-1990)

Billboard reported of the band's July 3, 1978, concert at the Universal Ampitheater in Los Angeles:

America performed 21 songs from its eight WB albums in a 100-minute set here July 3, the first of two nights in a soldout Independence Day booking.

It was the next to last stop of America's latest cross-country tour and Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell have had lots of time to make necessary adjustments to cover the departure of Dan Peek, the third original member of the trio, a year ago.

The duo's solution to the problem of how to handle Peek's best- known material was simply to delete it from its repertoire. All of America's many top 50 hits were presented except the four Peek wrote: "Don't Cross The River," "Lonely People," "Woman Tonight," and "Today's The Day."

Beckley is clearly the better singer of the two remaining members. His fluid, clear vocals graced his compositions "I Need You" (which he said is the first song he ever wrote), "Muskrat Love," "Daisy Jane" and "Sister Golden Hair," the closer.

Bunnell's vocals were somewhat more ragged, but still managed to deliver the necessary punch to his songs "Tin Man," "Sandman" and "Riverside," the latter which opened the set. He also provided a welcome sense of humor, introducing "Ventura Highway," he joked sarcastically, "We made a lot of money off this song," and in front of the encore, "A Horse With No Name," he noted wryly, "Well it's time to drag out the nag, I guess."

The duo was backed by a five-man band which featured blowing sax and alternately tropical and jazzy vibes. A number of the songs in the last half of the set sported expanded, complex arrangements; an ear-pleasing development at first which unfortunately wore thin as one song after another built to an all-out rocking finish. Also the overuse of sound effects--bird sounds and the like--taxed their appeal.

Several of the warmly nostalgic numbers reflected the influence of producer George Martin, especially "Daisy Jane," with its poignant cello pop sound. One song offered from the duo's upcoming album, "Norman I Miss Your Smile," dedicated to Norman Bel Geddes, a designer of the '20s and '30s.

The Live album ended America's contract with Warner Brothers, and they did not re-sign. By the end of 1978, they had entered into a deal with Capitol Records, and set out to record their first studio album without Dan Peek. For the effort, much of the old team was retained from Warner. Willie Leacox stayed on drums, David Dickey provided bass, Jim Calire worked the sax, and Tom Walsh added percussion. America once again sought the services of George Martin, and by 1979 they came out with a new release, called Silent Letter, in reference to the fact that the album broke the string of studio albums that started with the letter "H".

Silent Letter was another example of the quality production Martin had to offer. Some of the standout cuts included "Only Game In Town", a hard-rocking, brassy song about the perilous dating life, "And Forever" and "All Around", both slick, disco-flavored numbers (at a time when disco was at its peak in popularity), and "All My Life", a more characteristic Martin-esque song which many America fans still turn to in their more romantic moments. "Norman I Miss Your Smile" never did appear on the album, or any other, and remains America's best-known unreleased track. Unfortunately, all attempts at hit singles failed, and the album was only able to climb to number 110 in July 1979.

Nonetheless, America did make the charts in 1979 with The Mamas & The Papas standard, "California Dreamin'", which hit number 56 in April. The song, released on American International, was recorded for the movie "California Dreamin'". From then on, that number became a familiar tune in concert.

The first few years at Capitol were difficult for America. As Bunnell explains, "That whole period was really strange for us. We changed everything. Changed management, changed labels. In order to increase sales, we were looking to do anything that might work. We thought, Let's seek outside writers and producers. We were making desperate moves to recapture sales. Capitol wanted us to do that, and our management wanted us to do that." Still Beckley and Bunnell remained clear about what their musical goals were. "I remember one recording session in the 1970s where our producer suggested 'Why don't we put a disco beat here?'" Bunnell recalled. "But that wasn't what America was all about. Our core group of fans just weren't going to buy us going country or disco."

After the relatively poor commercial reception of Silent Letter, America opted for new blood for their second Capitol album. Bunnell and Beckley decided not to work with Martin, collaborating with Matthew McCauley and Fred Mollin instead. The result, 1980's Alibi, turned out to be one of their strongest albums. The song "Survival" was clearly geared to be a hit, with its exquisite production and lyrics (the line, "Just working on the art of survival," seems to capture America's predicament at the time), but unfortunately it failed to make any headway in the United States. Abroad was a different story; in Italy the song topped the charts, and America did extensive touring there.

Alibi, which included such guest artists as long-time Warren Zevon cohort Waddy Wachtel, Eagles member Timothy B. Schmit, and future Mr. Mister lead Richard Page, had a number of great songs, including "Hangover", a clever song about a man who's "nothing but a drunken loser," and whose "liver's overfed," "Right Back To Me", a bouncy, pleasant and catchy tune, and "Coastline", a track which seems inspired by Christopher Cross's contemporary hit, "Sailing". Utilizing the great session artists Lee Sklar and Michael Baird on bass and drums, respectively, Alibi, more than any other studio album, catches the live flavor which has made America concerts so popular over the decades.

The album sported an unusual cover, created once again by the Diltz/Burden team, of a doll's head lying in the desert. The record itself had the novel feature of being divided into "Our Side" and "Their Side" instead of the usual "A" and "B" (in the days before CDs). Beckley said in a 1981 interview with America fan Steve Johnston that they couldn't come to an agreement with Capitol on which side would be the A side, so they opted not to have an A or B side at all. (For the record, America's preference ultimately prevailed, as is evidenced by the track listing on the new CD release of Alibi.) This dispute demonstrates just how solid and consistent the entire album was. Still, like its predecessor, the album didn't make any commercial headway, peaking at a meager number 142 in the U.S. in September 1980.

Several events on America's Alibi tour helped bring the group back into the spotlight for the first time since the mid-'70s. On July 5, 1981, America joined Three Dog Night, Jan and Dean, and John Sebastian in commemorating the Beach Boys' twentieth anniversary with a concert on a barge next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor, California. The concert, hosted by legendary DJ Wolfman Jack, was broadcast via satellite worldwide.

Later that year, while on a world tour, America became embroiled in an international controversy. The problem began when the United Nations declared a "cultural boycott" against South Africa because of its notorious apartheid policies of separating the races in favor of white domination of the black majority. Nonetheless, America went ahead with a 32-date tour of the nation in November 1981. When the group came under fire for ingoring the boycott, America manager Jim Morey responded: "We go where the money is, and the money was very good. We are very much against the apartheid policies, but even artists who don't go down there are selling records there. We felt that by not going, we weren't accomplishing anything."

Beckley commented, in probably an overly optimistic way, "I don't see how sealing it off would be anything more than sweeping dust under the carpet. We like to think our songs and our way of life--the fact that we're Americans having a good time--might give them hope that there is an outside world where this stuff doesn't happen."

Although America wasn't the only act breaking the boycott--the Beach Boys, Curtis Mayfield, the O'Jays, Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, and the Village People did as well--they received more than their share of negative publicity, despite playing a benefit concert for TEACH, an organization behind building schools in black communities in South Africa. Sue Robbins, former editor of the group's newsletter, explains that as a result of the South Africa tour the group was "blackballed" for several years in some corners of the music industry.

For America's third Capitol album, View From The Ground, America brought in Argent alumnus Russ Ballard to help with production, along with Bobby Colomby, on a couple tracks. Beckley and Bunnell themselves produced much of the album, the first time they had done so since Hat Trick. Guests such as Christopher Cross and Toto's Jeff Porcaro were brought in to help. Ballard's own composition, "You Can Do Magic", became the first single from the new album, and it took off. Replete with a sleek sound for the '80s and catchy lyrics, the Ballard composition caught fire and climbed up the charts, vaulting into the Top 40 and peaking at number eight, where it remained for a full month beginning in October 1982. The single was America's first chart hit in three years, and their first Top Ten single since "Sister Golden Hair" seven years before. The song helped carry the parent View From The Ground all the way to number 41 on the album charts, an enormous improvement over Alibi.

Riding on the coattails of "You Can Do Magic", the Iam Thomas-penned "Right Before Your Eyes" sailed to number 45 in January 1983, with its distinctive refrain referring to movie stars Rudolph Valentiono and Greta Garbo. So many people request it as "Rudolph Valentino" that Beckley notes that that was what they should have named the song.

With the resurgence of America's popularity came the release of obscure America material. The group was one of the first to be released on the infant LaserVision technology in 1981; the concert released on the laserdisc was recorded in New York's Central Park in 1979, including live versions of "Only Game In Town", "Foolin'", and "All Night" from Silent Letter, along with blazing versions of some of their best Warner material, including "Here", "Hollywood", and "Sandman". While the video production added some downright tacky scenes of dancing on the streets of New York City and Hollywood, and Dewey and Gerry lip-synching in their new Capitol studio, it also included an entertaining early music video for an edited "Horse With No Name" set in the desert, featuring running horses, Dewey and Gerry dueling their cars, and the entire band under a scorching sun. The disc seemed to be based on an earlier version of the film which included a version of "California Dreamin'" which was dropped during production of the laserdisc release for some unexplained reason.

The band was invited to play live on the King Biscuit Flower Hour for the second time (the first being in 1978) on September 4, 1982, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, while "You Can Do Magic" was climbing the charts. The concert was eventually released on CD in 1995. America was even invited to provide music for "The Last Unicorn" soundtrack, composed by Jimmy Webb.

Even Billboard magazine began watching them again, although its praise of the concert seemed sarcastically patronizing at best. Here's a description of a concert at Radio City Music Hall from the March 12, 1983, issue:

It was doubtlessly a sign of the city's cultural pluralism that throngs of quietly attired, medium-young couples flocked to Radio City to hear a band whose sound is conservative even by soft-rock standards. The lukewarm reception granted opening artist Robert Kraft may have been because the artist wasn't up to par that evening, but it's likely that even the middle class cynicism of his "metro-pop" lyrics sounded hard-edged to America's fans.

Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnel [sic] have not lost their power to deliver the mellowest harmonies this side of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, backed by tight, well-executed, studio quality rock. Even when they moved left of center with some calculated riffing, the band maintained the non-threatening stance that has made it a favorite with gentle-rockers.

America handled crowd-pleasing hits like "Ventura Highway," "I Need You" and "Tin Man" with finesse, adding songs from later LPs and closing with a bring-'em-to-their-feet "Horse With No Name." No Mudd Club, no CBGB, but definitely what this audience wanted--and got.

In following up the successful View From The Ground LP, America, riding on the popularity of Ballard's "You Can Do Magic", retained his services and set out to record a new album in 1983 in London and Miami with Ballard producing it in its entirety, along with playing many of the instruments. The result, Your Move, was a good album, but not as solid as View From The Ground. Ballard's fingerprints were all over the album, most notably in the similar percussion that most of the songs began with. Still, it had some strong songs that were as good as any America had done in the past, like "My Kinda Woman", a cheery, happy, melodic song, "She's A Runaway", a track with production as lavish as anything George Martin had produced, and "Someday Woman", a largely acoustic song which evolved into an intricate combination of harmony, electric guitars, and synthesizers as it progressed.

"The Border" was a song originally written by Ballard, but with lyrics fine-tuned by Bunnell. Featuring the sax of Raphael Ravenscroft, best known for his work in Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street", and the handy work of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the up-tempo song climbed the charts and spent three weeks at number 33 in August 1983.

With the help of "The Border" and the lingering success of "You Can Do Magic", Your Move got a fair amount of exposure. Still, it was only able to peak at number 81 in July 1983, and a second attempt at a hit single, Ballard's "Cast The Spirit", failed to take off.

For their next album, America jettisoned their unofficial third member (Ballard) and went high-tech, employing a dancy, synthesizer sound in tune with the times. They brought in three separate producers, Richard James Burgess, Richie Zito (who had just produced Berlin's Love Life album), and Matthew McCauley (who had helped with Alibi). They garnered help from talent such Steve Perry of Journey (who later featured Dewey "Stevie Baby" Bunnell in his "Oh, Sherrie" video), the composer Jimmy Webb (who wrote the charming "Stereo"), Bill Mumy (formerly little Will Robinson on the mid-'60s TV show "Lost In Space"), the ubiquitous Paulinho da Costa on percussion, and a host of other studio musicians--perhaps too many. Dewey and Gerry were basically relegated to vocal and songwriting roles, although they were credited as executive producers of the whole project.

The new album, Perspective, was released in October 1984, but fared poorly. There was no fanfare of any kind, and after just three weeks on the chart (peaking at number 185), it disappeard into oblivion, not even getting to a second print run to correct the spelling error on "Can't Fall Asleep To A Lullabye". Both of the extracted singles, "Can't Fall Asleep To A Lullaby" and "Special Girl", failed to chart. Perhaps the reason for the commercial failure of Perspective was that it was too experiemental for a group which was known for not experimenting much at all. The group had come full circle since its first album, as their soft, acoustic harmonies had been replaced by complex, synthesizer pop. While Perspective wasn't a bad album, it simply didn't sound like what America was expected to sound like. Bunnell's "Lady With A Bluebird" was an intruiging stab at reggae, while the cover of the Pointer Sisters' "See How The Love Goes" had Dewey singing a lusty song to a pulsating beat--both of which featured America's trademark harmonies in totally new settings.

America continued to tour after Perspective, and on June 1, 1985, their concert at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, California, was recorded as a live album. In the liner notes for the album, which was released in late 1985 as In Concert, Dewey reflects:

This is a real record. By that I mean it is an account of what we do. Putting our show on the road for some 15 years now has never ceased to amaze me, and this recording of a show done on the 1st of June 1985, in Santa Barbara, California is but an example of what could be heard in any night in any city.

In Concert featured songs extracted from the concert, including the old standards (such as an electrified "Horse With No Name") plus newer songs from Capitol: "Survival", "You Can Do Magic" and "The Border". It was the first America album to be released on the new compact disc format, but it failed to chart--the first time an America album was unable to crack Billboard's Top 200 album chart in its history.

The album vividly demonstrated how much Perspective had veered from the live sound they had perfected years before, and was an indicator of where they might have gone artistically had their contract with Capitol not expired upon its release. In Concert was a fitting way for America to close out its period at Capitol, because over the next few years the group focused on where the money was: touring. The act remained popular, and did lots of travelling, but no new recordings were made.

In 1988, America briefly made news when a superior court judge in Los Angeles ruled that they and Joni Mitchell were entitled to an $800,000 refund from the Board of Equalization, which had forced both to pay sales taxes on contracts they had made back in the 1970s.

While America was between recording contracts, Beckley kept himself busy with side projects. He produced a track for the "Simpsons Sing The Blues" sountrack in 1990, and soon after joined Andrew Gold and Timothy B. Schmit in singing doo-wop vocals on a couple songs for the "Cry Baby" soundtrack.