December
29th marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the debut, eponymous
album by America, which was issued on this day in 1971.
The band
was formed in the UK, just outside London in 1970, by American students:
Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek and Gerry Beckley. All three of their career
military fathers were stationed at the United States Air Force base at
RAF South Ruislip. The group took the breezy folk-rock sounds of CSNY
and made them even more airy, creating the template that would define
‘70s soft rock for the entire decade. The group’s name was inspired by
the Americana jukebox in their local mess hall, but also its primary
purpose was to ensure they were not mistaken for Brits attempting to
sound American. Right out of the gate, the trio’s mix of seamless three
part harmonies and tight musical arrangements scored them hits on both
sides of the Atlantic with songs like Horse With No Name, which has
become an oldies radio staple.
When I was growing up in the
1970s, particularly by the time the rancor of punk took hold in the
latter years of the decade, music like that epitomized by America became
anathema to me. For a long time, I looked down on it as an example of
the blandness of MOR pop. But something strange happened as the 21st
century has unwound and my perspective on that decade has changed.
Somewhere along the way, I started to hear their music in an entirely
different light and gradually started to find a place for it in my
personal musical landscape. Something about its light, effortless ease
became intoxicating to me, and when I compared it to what was dominating
the charts in the contemporary pop world, it stood head and shoulders
above the computer perfected, auto-tuned soulless “soul” ravaging the
charts today. No, there’s nothing particularly challenging about any of
it, but it manages to deliver a kind of nostalgia for a lost era that
brings me back to summer sun and gentle breezes when being a kid was
uncomplicated and nonthreatening.
