Althouse: Reconsidering America.

May 27, 2015

Reconsidering America.

I scoffed at the idea, but Meade insisted, so... listen:

This is a band that got started in 1970, a year when I was in college and absolutely no one would give these guys any respect.

97 comments:

Jim said...: My wife hates them, but I listen to them on my iPad frequently.; 5/27/15, 8:47 AM
Wilbur said...: Sorry, but they get no respect from me. They sold a lot of records, but I found their music to be idiotic dreck.

A Horse With No Name, indeed.; 5/27/15, 8:50 AM
traditionalguy said...: I always liked that song. Great to hear it again. Thanks Meade.; 5/27/15, 8:51 AM
Fabi said...: I was thinking about them last week, but for a different song. They had a great bass player.; 5/27/15, 8:52 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Interestingly enough, I had that very song stuck in my head this morning and I know why. Last night's rerun of The Big Bang Theory was "The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification."

That's the one where Virtual Sheldon meets Steve Wozniak, whom Sheldon refers to as "The Great and Powerful Woz."

Woz. Oz. That's all it takes to get a song stuck in my head, apparently.

Really not too bad, I thought, so far as earworms go.; 5/27/15, 8:54 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: For "plants and birds and rocks and things" alone they are exalted.

I am Laslo.; 5/27/15, 8:59 AM
Meade said...: "Thanks Meade."

Pass through to Donald Douglas
who featured them on his blog this morning. Good tunes for the road while driving across... America.; 5/27/15, 9:04 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Good musicians. I've seen them on subway stops and street corners. America's got talent, and it rarely rises to the top.; 5/27/15, 9:09 AM
Jaq said...: "plants and birds and rocks and things" beats putting a Siamese cat on somebody's shoulder because you are desperate for a rhyme.; 5/27/15, 9:15 AM
Qwerty Smith said...: They didn't produce nearly as many decent songs as, say, Crosby, Stills, and Nash. But I don't think that explains the disdain. People don't disdain Tommy Tutone, and America probably beats him 4 to 1 in terms of hits.

Maybe it's because (1) they don't rock and (2) they don't make up for their lack of rocking by spewing hatred toward their namesake nation. They were all air force brats, and one left the band to record Christian rock. David Crosby sang like an angel and made up for it by banging tons of groupies, snorting mountains of blow, and sneering at his betters. Ditto James Taylor.

Also, hanging out with Neil Young might have helped. We might have had a higher opinion of John Denver, too, if he had cranked it up from time to time.; 5/27/15, 9:18 AM
who-knew said...: I was among those giving them no respect, but 30 years after the fact I find them very enjoyable (when I can tune out the lyrics). Except for Horse with No Name, that one is awful.; 5/27/15, 9:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Album owner here.; 5/27/15, 9:23 AM
Hunter said...: Ventura Highway is a very pretty song.; 5/27/15, 9:24 AM
J2 said...: Twee.; 5/27/15, 9:27 AM
cubanbob said...: Laslo Spatula said...

For "plants and birds and rocks and things" alone they are exalted.

I am Laslo.
5/27/15, 8:59 AM

Listening to those lyrics and getting an ear bug could cause one to go on a mass murder spree. I'm surprised Tricky Dick and the CIA didn't use the band as a secret weapon against the communists.; 5/27/15, 9:27 AM
J2 said...: Twee.; 5/27/15, 9:27 AM
steve uhr said...: Speak for yourself. They are on my Pandora artist list. Their album America has one great song after another.; 5/27/15, 9:28 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Nobody? I recall that they were on the cover of Time magazine, an honor they richly didn't deserve.; 5/27/15, 9:29 AM
Wince said...: I mean, they're no Bread, but hey.

Sometimes late when things are real
And people share the gift of gab between themselves
Some are quick to take the bait
And catch the perfect prize that waits among the shelves

But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn't, didn't already have
And Cause never was the reason for the evening
Or the tropic of Sir Galahad.

So please believe in me
When I say I'm spinning round, round, round, round
Smoke glass stain bright color
Image going down, down, down, down
Soapsuds green like bubbles

...So please believe in me

WTF?; 5/27/15, 9:30 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Sir George Martin gave them respect and produced one or more of their albums. I still run through a number of their songs on guitar, Ventura Highway, Horse with no name, Don't Cross the River, et al.; 5/27/15, 9:33 AM
Will Cate said...: Lightweight, for sure, but their music did soothe my teenage anxieties in the early 70s.; 5/27/15, 9:37 AM
Mr. D said...: "A Horse With No Name" is pretty awful, especially "the heat was hot." Hard to live that one down.

After that, they got better. I put them in the same category as Bread — not particularly muscular, but pleasant enough if they pop up on a random shuffle.; 5/27/15, 9:38 AM
Mark O said...: Sister Golden Hair?; 5/27/15, 9:39 AM
lgv said...: In retrospect, I still don't like them.; 5/27/15, 9:41 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: America.
Seals and Croft.
England Dan and John Ford Coley.

Put them in any order you like.

I am Laslo.; 5/27/15, 9:42 AM
SteveR said...: Lots of young guys with a guitar in 1973 or so thought it was possible to get to that spot. Led Zeppelin, not a chance.; 5/27/15, 9:43 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Addendum - there's Bunnell with that hated period time piece of a guitar the Ovation. Way to bright sounding for its own (or anybody else's) good, plastic AND round backed so you could never sit and play without it sliding off your lap. Ovations and Earth shoes - gone and good riddance.; 5/27/15, 9:45 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Summer after this. I'll be up for Osh Kosh and will probably leave docked at Madison away from the fly in parking madness of upstate Wisconsin.; 5/27/15, 9:48 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Seals and Croft."

Now, I'm thinking of Brewer and Shipley...

It's an overload on excessively nonthreatening me.; 5/27/15, 9:48 AM
Meade said...: Hey, surfed, when you going to be putting that sailboat on Mendota? We'll get that fire burning strong right there and right then.; 5/27/15, 9:48 AM
Unknown said...: Ovation doesn't age, you get what you get, but the sound is good acoustic for any guitar I can afford.; 5/27/15, 9:55 AM
Anonymous said...: I love them! But, I was born in 1975 and just heard them on the radio. Basically, they're part of the soundtrack of my youth.; 5/27/15, 9:55 AM
Anonymous said...: This is the band that told America to chill out, man.; 5/27/15, 9:58 AM
Etienne said...: The saving grace, was that these guys didn't have to fear their songs coming out in elevator music style. "They were all, already there"; 5/27/15, 10:08 AM
Mr. D said...: America.
Seals and Croft.
England Dan and John Ford Coley.

Put them in any order you like.

I am Laslo

I think you've got 'em in the right order, Laslo.

England Dan and John Ford Coley are especially egregious — the essence of cloying personalities, shag carpets and chardonnay. As an aside, I'm pretty sure that "England Dan" is the brother of Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts.

And while we're mining the faceless mellow of the era, let's not forget Hamilton, Joe, Frank and Reynolds, the group that sounded like a law firm in Cedar Rapids.; 5/27/15, 10:09 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Ventura Highway is a good tune, and Sister Golden Hair has a nice mellow vibe. I remember liking Horse with No Name when I was a lil' kid, so maybe that colors it, but for an easy-listening smooth rock kinda band I don't mind America at all.; 5/27/15, 10:09 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "It's an overload on excessively nonthreatening me."

I mean... It's an overload on excessively nonthreatening men.

LOL.; 5/27/15, 10:11 AM
Anonymous said...: America had absolutely the worst lyrics ever written. It sounds like they are going for the intentional nonsense and wordplay that John Lennon was writing at the time, but without a particle of his abundant wit and artistry. They married this hopeless screed to catchy tunes that were performed with a good & catchy harmonic vocal blend. Its weird how huge the disparity is between the quality of the music and the quality of the lyrics. I find America totally unlistenable.; 5/27/15, 10:12 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: MC5 they're not.; 5/27/15, 10:15 AM
rehajm said...: England - Genesis

Canada - Nickelback

America - Ame-....STYX.; 5/27/15, 10:20 AM
Widmerpool said...: The album they made in '07 with some hip young fans, Here & Now, is quite good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVz92plQKbY

It's two CDs, and the second has new versions of some classics (including Tin Man); 5/27/15, 10:21 AM
BxBomber said...: Depends on what your doing and where you are. On a beautiful sunny summer day in the backyard with friends Ventura Highway, Sister Golden Hair and alot of that 70's light rock is just perfect.; 5/27/15, 10:25 AM
'TreHammer said...: I'm with EDH. Lyric-wise, WTF...but I've always enjoyed listening and playing America's music. As a 65 year old geezer, playing drums in a cover band, whenever we start into "Horse With No Name", the dance floor fills up and everyone sings along - 'TreHammer; 5/27/15, 10:31 AM
Earnest Prole said...: In casual contact America seemed at least partially authentic but closer inspection revealed it to be completely and utterly ersatz.; 5/27/15, 10:40 AM
The Sage of Altadena said...: Here's the line I've been puzzling over for years: "'cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain." Is it about someone giving you pain? Or not giving you pain? Or their non-presence alleviating pain? There's too many negatives!; 5/27/15, 10:40 AM
Earnest Prole said...: In casual contact America seemed at least partially authentic but closer inspection revealed it to be completely and utterly ersatz.; 5/27/15, 10:41 AM
Gahrie said...: It's an overload on excessively nonthreatening men.

Once again, women claim to want nice guys, but they really disrespect them and secretly want to be dominated by an asshole.; 5/27/15, 10:42 AM
William said...: A Horse with No Name has the ambience of profundity. Perhaps the lyrics don't mean anything, but you get the sense that there's some underlying meaning and that someday soon we'll catch on, and it will all become clear.; 5/27/15, 10:47 AM
Original Mike said...: Now I'll have that awful song in my head all day. "Thanks", Meade.; 5/27/15, 10:52 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Once again a good opportunity to plug the video series Yacht Rock; 5/27/15, 10:54 AM
Robert Cook said...: I hated them during their era, (my high school years and later), but in recent years when I hear their songs...I like them!; 5/27/15, 10:56 AM
Anonymous said...: rightguy2 said...
America had absolutely the worst lyrics ever written.

I dunno about that....

"Catch the wind, see us spin, sail away, leave today, way up high in the sky.
But the wind won't blow, you really shouldn't go, it only goes to show
That you will be mine, by takin' our time."; 5/27/15, 11:02 AM
LarryK said...: I'll see your Brewer and Shipley and raise you an Alliota, Haynes and Jeremiah.

I could see Time-Life sponsoring a "Soft Rock Legends" tour, featuring America, Bread, and Seals & Crofts. I wonder who would be the first to set a guitar on fire or smash the drum set...; 5/27/15, 11:15 AM
Unknown said...: Back in the 70's they belonged to the AM Radio Top 40 genre which was for the most part considered by kool kidz to be commercial ('mersh) or schlock and therefore undeserving of respect. BUT...while traveling in a vehicle equipped with only an AM radio the station would not be changed during one of their songs. Besides that, they smiled a lot. What kind of legit rock musician smiles? Any way, I'm out and I'm proud. Americawise, that is. Sister Golden Hair. Bop Shoo Bop; 5/27/15, 11:16 AM
LarryK said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/27/15, 11:17 AM
stan said...: If we are going to dump on bands for a lack of meaningful lyrics, how many tunes would be left? Seriously, a lot of the time you can't even understand them. If no one understands the words when sung, even poetic lyrics are pointless.

What we're left with is whether the music is fun to listen to.

America was and is fun to listen to. Further affiant sayeth nought.

QED; 5/27/15, 11:21 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/27/15, 11:28 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: They were an odd yet appropriate choice to do the soundtrack from the cult classic film "The Last Unicorn".; 5/27/15, 11:29 AM
bleh said...: Terrible song.; 5/27/15, 11:30 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: I loved that movie as a child. You know what other movie I loved that had a ridiculous hippy-dippy soundtrack by a non-threatening man? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I couldn't get enough of that movie as a kid, but I never liked the music in it.; 5/27/15, 11:31 AM
LarryK said...: An ocean really is like a desert with its life underground and a perfect disguise above, except oceans are filled with water and deserts completely dry.; 5/27/15, 11:41 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/27/15, 12:14 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: This is a band that got started in 1970, a year when I was in college and absolutely no one would give these guys any respect.

And I can understand why! It was only a year later that Jethro Tull put out a lyrically important work about snot running down someone's nose...; 5/27/15, 12:15 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: If anyone still wonders why the world hates America, they just need to listen to this clip.; 5/27/15, 12:33 PM
Fabi said...: Ovation guitars require a trigger warning.; 5/27/15, 12:39 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: "Bound to Fall" is a really great song covered by the Byrds and also by Steven Stills. I found out last week it was co-written by Mike Brewer of Brewer and Shipley. So I guess he's not a total zero.; 5/27/15, 12:42 PM
79 said...: "..It was only a year later that Jethro Tull put out a lyrically important work about snot running down someone's nose..."

Please close the internet down for the rest of today....a winner has been called.
Congratulations N.of the O.O.O.; 5/27/15, 12:46 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I didn't say he was a zero. I was opposed to the ultra-soft rock of that time, but some songs were lovable in spite of that. We all liked "One Toke Over the Line." Nothing by America ever made the cut, and we even rejected what happened to Neil Young with "Harvest." America was like weak Neil Young and now here was Neil Young self-weakening.; 5/27/15, 12:58 PM
PackerBronco said...: Nice clip, but it could have used more cowbell.; 5/27/15, 1:12 PM
Anthony said...: I never had cared for them a whole lot but downloaded the Best Of... from iTunes (superb recording btw) and adore several of the songs. Lyrics are a bit....odd.....but no more so than many others. Really takes me back to the 1970s (I was a teenager thru much of them).; 5/27/15, 1:12 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: Best or worst "take" of "One Toke Over The Line"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg; 5/27/15, 1:13 PM
eddie willers said...: we even rejected what happened to Neil Young with "Harvest."

I hope you came back in time for "Rust Never Sleeps".; 5/27/15, 3:27 PM
David said...: Letting the music take center stage. What a concept.

(Try not to think about the lyrics though.); 5/27/15, 3:43 PM
Skyler said...: In 1975-1977 I was living in Keflavik, Iceland and in 7th and 8th grade. Everyday at lunch after I finished eating I would meander to the library to read Mad Magazines and put the headphones on and listen to the music piped in from the library system. Everyday they would play America. Very nice music and whenever I hear them I go back to Keflavik.; 5/27/15, 3:57 PM
Anonymous said...: Wow, so many comments and not one Doors reference.; 5/27/15, 4:32 PM
Richard Lawrence Cohen said...: They'll be in Medina, MN on May 30!

The problem with them didn't have to do with musicianship; it was that they were 110% imitation Neil. As Rolling Stone sarcastically observed in a review of them, they were "Neil Young's favorite group." "Horse with No Name" was released in the US in Jan. 1972 and "Heart of Gold" in April 1972 (both songs recorded in 1971), and both were inescapable on the radio if you listened for more than ten minutes. If anything, "Horse with No Name" got more airplay -- if such a thing was possible.; 5/27/15, 4:41 PM
Bricap said...: What would Prince have done if America had never written Ventura Highway?

Wishin' on a falling star
Waitin' for the early train
Sorry boy, but I've been hit by purple rain
Aw, come on, Joe, you can always
Change your name
Thanks a lot, son, just the same; 5/27/15, 5:19 PM
Carol said...: Ehh, love that song. Yeah don't know what it really means. But it makes me think of driving north on the 101 to SF. Their stuff was all very vague and impressionistic, pretty much like my own state of mind at the time. Adrift, without a plan, but feeling I was really in the moment, really living. But looking back, it's more like the years the locust hath eaten.; 5/27/15, 5:33 PM
Roughcoat said...: I heard that in 1971 the lyric "cuz there ain't no one for to give you no pain" was inadvertently downloaded into a NORAD computer in the Cheyenne Mountain complex and it immediately went to DEFCON 1 "Cocked Pistol" level and started the launch sequence for our ICBM fleet. The sequence was canceled by downloading Bob Dylan singing "Canadee Io" into it--after which it committed suicide by overloading its circuits and exploding. Just before its demise it printed out a note saying, "FUCK YOU, BLOW IT THROUGH THE JASMINE OF YOUR MIND."

True story. Reportedly.; 5/27/15, 5:37 PM
Roughcoat said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/27/15, 5:43 PM
Roughcoat said...: I like Brewer and Shipley. I apologize for that.

Fyi, an entire set of Brewer and Shipley perfomring live at Ebbets Field in Denver in 1974 can be played and downloaded free at a certain website. I was working as a bartender at Ebbets Field at the time.

I apologize for that, too.; 5/27/15, 5:46 PM
BudBrown said...: Songs are still playing on the classic rock stations. I
listen not remembering most of the band names or the players',
but sheesh if I dont remember the next lines coming. After a while
tho I start remembering people being driven to get 8 track players. And drilling
holes all over the car for the speakers. I had one hole courtsey
of a friend who'd gotten a jig saw and swore the half hole was in the same place
where he'd cut in his car. And thinking back it was a time when a lot
of the lyrics were ? I blame Dylan and Rimbaud.; 5/27/15, 7:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Roughcoat,

That NORAD piece was effing brilliant. I'm still laughing at that last line. Perfect.

Signed, Sealed, and Crofted.; 5/27/15, 8:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Ann,

Fortunately, life kicked Neil's ass a bit and he wrote two very good albums after Harvest: On the Beach and Tonight's the Night, both of them dark gems. Those are his best albums.; 5/27/15, 8:32 PM
chickelit said...: Richard Lawrence Cohen wrote: The problem with them didn't have to do with musicianship; it was that they were 110% imitation Neil.

And Bob Dylan in turn was particularly bothered by Neil Young's "Heart Of Gold": (Trigger warning: the link goes to me at Lem's) Of course, Dave Van Ronk was pretty put out by Dylan's version of "House Of The Rising Sun." Musicians copy.; 5/27/15, 8:38 PM
Helenhightops said...: How about Seals and Croft's "Cows of Gladness":

Milk the cows of gladness, before they all run dry.
Search the rim of madness, before you lean and sigh.
Become a parch of dryness, before you stoop to drink.
Ascend the arch of whyness, before you try to think.
Now lay me down, lay me down.
Churn the butter of happiness. And be my guest.
Milk the cows of gladness.
Put them out, out to pasture, beneath the olive trees.
That line the hillsides of a distant gracefulness.
So they might feed and flourish in abundance.
And you and I may live.
Dye the shirt of wisdom, the colors of the west.
Approach the skirt of isdom, with waves that mount and crest.
Feed the hay of havoc, to the mouths that starve for such.
And milk the cows of gladness, with a firm and gentle touch.
Now lay me down, lay me down.
Churn the butter of happiness. And be my guest.
Milk the cows of gladness.
Put them out, out to pasture, beneath the olive trees.
That line the hillsides of a distant gracefulness.
So they might feed and flourish in abundance.
And you and I may live.; 5/27/15, 8:43 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: I always thought it was "smoke grass stain dry dog food". I like my way better.; 5/27/15, 10:50 PM
T J Sawyer said...: Thanks, Meade. I ordered the Greatest Hits via the Amazon link. Enjoy the profits.

1993 was arguably the high water mark for music at the Minnesota State Fair grandstand show. America opened for the Beach Boys on the night we were there. I trust that the professor made the trip to St. Paul earlier in the week when Santana opened for Dylan.; 5/27/15, 11:09 PM
Michael The Magnificent said...: BarrySanders20 said...

Best or worst "take" of "One Toke Over The Line"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

Good Lord, that is so wrong! OMG!; 5/27/15, 11:25 PM
Michael The Magnificent said...: I trust that the professor made the trip to St. Paul earlier in the week when Santana opened for Dylan.

Speaking of "wrong," Santana opening for Dylan? That's so backwards! Dylan couldn't carry a tune in a fucking basket with a gun to his head! Santana's farts were unintentionally more in tune than Dylan was with a pitch pipe!; 5/27/15, 11:45 PM
David Blaska said...: To paraphrase Delta House frat member Otter:

"You can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth "America."

[Leads the Deltas out of the hearing, all humming the Star-Spangled Banner]; 5/28/15, 8:04 AM
Meade said...: I know it's only America, it isn't Ol' Hoopty
( but I like it.); 5/28/15, 9:34 AM
Kenneth Burns said...: Everyone worried about the uncertain future of the major seventh chord strummed on acoustic guitar. And then America came along.; 5/28/15, 10:54 AM
Jim said...: In 1970, I was listening to King Crimson, Elton John, Dr. John, and Hot Tuna. By the 1990's America's brand of pop was what I was listening to, such as The Tin Man and Horse With No Name. They had some catchy songs, I thought, even if it is not great art. I don't think that they were trying to do great art.; 5/28/15, 6:29 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: this was a bad recording as well as not being what I would think of when thinking of them. I greatly enjoyed a horse with no name. In any case, even with the limits of this clip, if at any time between oh 1900 and the present day France or Germany could produce such music, they would burst like a zit from pride.; 5/28/15, 9:44 PM
LA_Bob said...: I was always ambivalent about America, but I always have thought "Oz never did give nothin' to the Tin Man, that he didn't, didn't already have" is one of the great and moving lyrics of all time.; 5/28/15, 9:58 PM
Popville said...: Props to "Tin Man", tho my favorite America tune is Three Roses; 5/29/15, 6:11 PM