An American Band (2004)

by Dan Peek

If had to choose a favorite band from the seventies, it would easily be America. I first became truly conscious of their work in the summer of 1975, when their two biggest hits were on the radio, “Sister Golden Hair” and “Daisy Jane,” both by Gerry Beckley. Two years later I received the LP History: American’s Greatest Hits as a Christmas present from my aunt and uncle, and after that I became a die-hard fan. I continued to purchase the band’s albums even after the departure of Dan Peek, as well as buying Peek’s Christian albums in the early eighties. In 2004 Peek wrote an autobiography of his early life and his time in the group. An American Band is the story of America from Peek’s perspective, and it is a fascinating one. Musicians will no doubt be frustrated by the almost complete lack of any musical analysis of the songs or albums, but as an oral history it is a very welcome look inside one of the biggest acts of the seventies. Unfortunately Dan Peek died in 2011, but that makes this record all the more valuable, especially since there is an extreme paucity of writing about the music and groups of that era. It is a very informally written book, but informative and entertaining nonetheless, and comes highly recommended.

Born in Florida to an Air Force family, Dan Peek had already lived in Greenland, North Carolina, Japan and New York by the time he was ten years old. Musical experiences were varied for him, being taught to sing three-part harmony with his brother and sister on car trips, piano lessons in Japan, and finally getting a guitar after the family had moved to Peshawar, Pakistan. Peek was in his first band at the age of 12, along with his brother and a couple of the other kids on base. They played at the Airmen’s Club and the NCO club for a year, until he and his brother were sent back to the United States to live with their grandparents in Missouri so that they could finish high school. The boys managed to put together another band, but after a year his dad was transferred to San Angelo, Texas, and so his family, now two boys, two girls, and mom pregnant with a fifth, packed up and headed south. Another year, another band, but this one was able to sign a contract to record some original songs, that is until Peek’s father was reassigned to southern Illinois, close enough to their grandparent’s farm that their mom bought a house in the very town where they used to perform so she could be near her parents. Finally, in 1967, a senior in high school, Peek’s father was transferred to London, and it was there that Peek met Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, as well as his future wife Catherine.

One of the fascinating things about Peek’s early adventures was the attitude of other military brats that he got to know in each new base the family moved to. The most striking example of this was when he came to London, excited to be in the land of the Beatles and wanting to experience all the culture had to offer. What he found there, in the U.S. high school was something he was utterly unprepared for.

                  Every prior place we’d lived the other military kids had all moved frequently and lived in some fairly
                  exotic locals . . . These people were whining about not being able to see their favorite TV series or
                  that the beer was served warm and the place was so foreign. Let me tell you about foreign. Foreign
                  is when a person wipes their behind with nothing but their bare hand and then cooks your food.
                  That’s foreign. England was not foreign, it was different and charmingly so.

Beckley and Bunnell were very different, though. Where Peek and Gerry Beckley and battled each other with competing bands, to hear Peek tell it he didn’t even know that Dewey Bunnell was interesting in anything but sports. But for the moment, that was the whole of it, and Peek moved to Virginia the following fall after graduation. I had always been mystified as to why Peek had attended Old Dominion University. His book, however, makes that perfectly clear. He had fallen in love with a girl named Christine, and her father took a transfer back to the states, to Virginia. Peek was simply following her. But with her family keeping them apart, his experimentation with drugs, and dismal grades he decided to go back to England.

He was surprised upon returning that Dewey Bunnell had taken his place in Gerry Beckley’s band. But the two evidently had a falling out. It wasn’t until a few months later, at a party that the three of them attended, that they gathered in the kitchen and began to sing and play together, and it became clear there was something special going on between the three of them. Unlike a lot of acts in the states, the three had no trouble getting offers for a recording contract; they just had to make the right decision. They eventually settled on Warner Brothers, who made a tentative agreement with them based on the success of a first album. Nevertheless, they immediately put them on retainer so they could quit their days jobs, found them an agent, and had them playing all over London. When they finally got into the studio and recorded their eponymous first album, America, Warners didn’t like any of the cuts for singles, and made them go into the studio again to record four more tracks in the hopes of getting something they liked. From that session came Dewey’s big hit, “A Horse with No Name.” With no hit single on the LP, the record could only manage to make it to number 30 on the British charts. But the American release almost fell victim to the same thing. Before they realized it, Warners in the U.S. had distributed ten thousand copies without the single and quickly rectified the situation. America’s first album in the U.S. went all the way to number one.

Lured by the artists that David Geffen was managing--as well as the massive tax hit they were taking in England--Gerry and Dewey decided that the three of them should go to L.A. Geffen quickly severed their ties with everything back in London and got them a new deal with Warners in L.A. The band decided to record at the Record Plant in Hollywood and produced one of their best albums, Homecoming, named to commemorate their return to the United States. To back them on bass and drums they hired Hal Blaine and Joe Osborne, studio veterans who had played on hundreds of hit records. During that same time, Stevie Wonder was using the studio and aided in the production. The big hit this time was also by Dewey, “Ventura Highway,” and both made the top ten, the single at number eight and the LP at number nine. While Dewey got married shortly after the first album came out, Dan finally married Christine after the two of them had been separated for over a year. With Gerry still being single, the band was in a strange place and it was good to read that from Peek’s perspective this showed up in the third album, Hat Trick. There’s a bizarre energy to the music, with a lot of over production and songs that are, frankly, less than interesting. And it didn’t help that the band had completely produced the album on their own. In fact, the only hit was written by someone else, “Muskrat Love,” which Warners hated, but the band forced them to release. This time the band was helped in the studio by Joe Walsh and Tom Scott among others, but the LP still only managed a meager number twenty-eight on the charts.

While America was a headlining act and radio staple, the trend was not good, and when it came time for the next album Dan told Gerry that they needed to get a real producer. He suggested the best one he could think of, George Martin, the producer of The Beatles, and the rest of the band was in full accord. The results on the album Holiday, recorded in Martin’s AIR studios in London, were immediate and dramatic, resulting in terrific songs like “Tin Man,” “Lonely People,” and “Another Try,” and the LP going to number three in the album charts. The only backup musician for the sessions was Willie Leacox on the drums, while Gerry and Dan traded off on bass. Bassist David Dickey had wanted to become a full member of the group at the time, but he was turned down and offered the touring spot instead. When he felt slighted by the group just prior to the tour, however, he left for L.A. but was forgiven in time to make the next album, Hearts. This time they moved up to the Record Plant in Sausalito, with Gerry providing the hits “Sister Golden Hair” and “Daisy Jane,” and the whole band coming up with one of their most infectious tunes, “Woman Tonight.” This was the height of their popularity, going to number four on the album charts and inspiring the label to release their greatest hits package next, re-engineered by George Martin and titled History.

Unfortunately a rift formed in the band and things began to gradually deteriorate. The next album, Hideaway, was recorded at the Caribou Ranch in Colorado and produced the group’s last Top 40 hit, Dan Peek’s “Today’s The Day.” The album was also the first since Hat Trick to fail to make the top ten. Though Peek was ready to leave the band at this point, they still owed Warner Brothers another album and after retreating to Hawaii, Peek demanded that the last album be recorded there. The result was Harbor, the most disparate collection of songs to date, and none of the three singles released were able to chart. The album itself still recorded a respectable twenty-one on the album charts, but the heyday of the group was clearly over. Up to this point Peek’s book is mercifully free from Christian proselytizing, but as he was forced out of the group and began to look for a Christian record label to sign with he gives in to the need to testify. Nevertheless, the circumstances surrounding his first solo album, All Things are Possible, are fascinating, especially the machinations in the Christian record industry that are every bit as cutthroat as the secular side. Of course, there is much, much more in the book about his personal life and the relationship between the three members of the band that is priceless. For anyone who loves the group, An American Band is required reading as well as being a rewarding history of one of the greatest groups of the seventies.