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Very Important American Poll

What is the greatest song in American history?

"A Horse with No Name"	4 votes
"Lonely People"	1 votes
"Sister Golden Hair"	1 votes
"Tin Man"	3 votes
"Ventura Highway"	7 votes

Edgy DC Jun 03 2007 08:45 PM

I've enjoyed these and when Dickshot lets the weekend slide without one, I want to jump in and answer the questions that were deemed unanswerable before YouTube and forums and stuff. I decided to steer the boat a little off course and revisit the career of America. It's easy enough to forget these guys without troubling your conscience, and I kinda had until Cooby posted the "Ventura Highway" clip below and I was suckered in by how gorgeous that guitar lick was played by the guy who kind of looks like a short Meat Loaf with Jim Morrison's hair. (He also sings lead on "Lonely People.") Digging deeper into their legacy, I think they forgot themselves too, having made a conscious market move in the late seventies to go from a solid but fading folk rock outfit to an unlisentable adult contemporary act. I don't know if this more was precipitated by them going from a trio to duet, or the sad mutation came first and led to the the downsizing, but I'm pretty sure the guy who quit was the one (Lee Bunnell?) playing that pretty guitar lick. Most of these clips are taken from that same high-quality audience-free run through. Each of the trio here gets a crack on lead vocals. Anyhow, America needs you. Needs you to pick from among these WTFM classicks. "A Horse with No Name" "Lonely People" "Sister Golden Hair" (stage clip worth it just to see 1973 high-schoolers rocking out in the audience) "Tin Man" "Ventura Highway"

Gwreck Jun 03 2007 09:11 PM

American lyrics with deep meaning: On the first part of the journey I was looking at all the life / There were plants and birds and rocks and things Plants, birds, rocks AND things? Wow.

Johnny Dickshot Jun 03 2007 09:39 PM

Easy one for me. I thought I posted it in a conversation with Cooby, btw.

Willets Point Jun 03 2007 10:33 PM

I wish YouTube would let me fast forward past all that damned tuning. Tell me, which came first: George Harrison's "What is Life?" or "Sister Golden Hair" because they sound like the same song to me?

cooby Jun 04 2007 04:33 AM

I have always thought that Ventura Highway was their best song. It was a nice change in style for them, almost as though someone else wrote it for them.

metirish Jun 04 2007 06:42 AM

Oh you mean the band "America"...voted for "Ventura Highway",cool poll.

Johnny Dickshot Jun 04 2007 07:18 AM

The Meat Loaf guy who quit was Dan Peek who went Christian on 'em. Mildly inneresting stuff about America -- most of their good stuff was produced by George Martin. Most of the album titles began with the letter H. They were sons of US soldiers stationed in Europe and formed in London. Homecoming History Hat Tick Holiday Hideway, etc etc

metirish Jun 04 2007 07:27 AM

There Wikipedia entry was interesting... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_%28band%29 they are still together...and to add to Dickshots list. Here & Now - out 2007,their first major studio album in twenty years.

TransMonk Jun 04 2007 07:32 AM

I gave my vote to Tin Man. He looked lonely and has a lot of heart.

Edgy DC Jun 04 2007 07:37 AM

Willets Point wrote: Tell me, which came first: George Harrison's "What is Life?" or "Sister Golden Hair" because they sound like the same song to me? This can't be understated. George is oft said to have had a disappointing career by post-Beatle standards, except that his main triumph, All Things Must Pass, was a tremendously influential album, defining the folk-rock crossover sound with the melodic slide guitar over the lightly strummed 12-string acoustic-electric. (America seems big on Ovation guitars, the brand Edgy plays.) Together with the country-rock hybrid of the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Radio, ATMP was one of two albums responsible for that sun-baked mellow rockin seventies sound you love, hate, or hate but grudgingly respect. AmericaBreadJacksonBrownAlCooperEagelesMidPeriodDylanEmmylou FleetwoodMacFlyingBurritoBrothersDobieGrayNicoletteLarsonLightfoot PocoPurePrarieLeagueRonstadtJDSoutherSupertramp It all flows from there. And Neil Fuckin' Young of course.

cooby Jun 04 2007 07:57 AM

TransMonk wrote: I gave my vote to Tin Man. He looked lonely and has a lot of heart. I like Tin Man too, and although I didn't vote for it, it is the one that has been running through my head all morning

Willets Point Jun 04 2007 08:11 AM

Edgy DC wrote: that sun-baked mellow rockin seventies sound you love, hate, or hate but grudgingly respect. I seem to fall in the indifferent to hate part of the spectrum. I voted for "Lonely People". I remember it cheering me up when I was bummed as a teenager.

Edgy DC Jun 04 2007 08:15 AM

It worked. You didn't give up until you drank from the silver cup.

Batty31 Jun 04 2007 12:46 PM

When I was a kid, "A Horse with No Name" was one of my very first "favorite songs". I have vivid memories of hearing that song everywhere I went when it was popular. Whenever I hear it today, it reminds me of being a little kid again (which is actually a bad thing...)

sharpie Jun 04 2007 01:24 PM

Ventura Highway. Couldn't stand these guys when they were big, can tolerate these songs a bit better now but they still weren't very good. Not sure I'd burden All Things Must Pass with the freight loaded on it in Edgy's post. Too Phil Spectorian with loads over overdubbed backing vocals to engender the likes of Poco et al. The credit/blame must stay firmly entrenched with Sweetheart of the Rodeo and John Wesley Harding.

Edgy DC Jun 04 2007 01:25 PM

And yet something favorite can't be all bad. Horse is sneaking up on Ventura. Song Faxx: "A Horse with No Name" As reported when I published "Orsulak Game," when this hit the charts for the then unknown America, it was largely thought to be about heroin. Many also thought Neil F. Young was the artist. "Lonely People" According to some internet source, Dan Peek now performs "Don't give up until you... drink from the silver cup You never know until you try" as "Don't give up until you... drink from the silver cup And give your heart to Jesus Christ" "Sister Golden Hair" A lot of people thought this was about a nun. They are stupid. It was also read as a plea for common law marriage. Relax, people "Tin Man" I'm having a lot of trouble learning anything about this song and figuring out the cryptic meaning and the internet isn't helping. "Ventura Highway" When Jesse "The Mind" Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota, he threw a big inaugural ball, opening up the party atmostphere even to the point of reclaiming the titile "The Body" for an evening. A hgihlight of the party was the booking of America, a favorite because their signature hit (and the poll's leader) inadvertantly shares Jesse's name, a coincidence that kind of glosses over that it's a pretty melancholy song to be glossing over on inauguration night. Band facts: This seems like an eh cover for a Greeatest Hits album. But, amazingly, it was done by a young graphic artist who did funny voices named Phil Hartman.

TransMonk Jun 04 2007 01:52 PM

="Edgy DC"]"Tin Man" I'm having a lot of trouble learning anything about this song and figuring out the cryptic meaning and the internet isn't helping. ="Highway Highlight Box Set Booklet"] Bunnell's "Tin Man" was released as Holiday's first single, reaching #4 in the fall of '74. The song was a return to the soaring melodicism of "Ventura Highway," and it reestablished America on the airwaves. Still, Dewey has mixed feelings about "Tin Man": "The song is jumbled in my mind--there's not a lot of cohesiveness. I had really liked the chords, those major-sevenths. It was up and kind of bouncy, with a little Latin-y feel to it. That's how it is: I get the chords and the melody, and then I have to get some words." Bunnell unravels the lyric as follows: "My favorite move of all time was probably The Wizard Of Oz, it still amazes me how great that movie is. And here's my classic use of bad grammar: 'Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man...' Another god-awful use of the language. But it served the purpose. But that was really the only cohesive thought I had. How do I convey that? The first verse--I guess that was a little bit of paranoia. We were being exposed to more and more sophisticated people, and there were times that I found myself with my foot in my mouth, saying things I wish I hadn't. The first verse is very ambiguous. 'The Tropic of Sir Gallahad' is a whole other image to me about being chivalrous or a gentleman. 'Spinning round, round, round, smoke glass stain bright colors...'--that's all just purely kaleidoscopic imagery. The melody definitely dictated those words, because it was a swirling, rising thing." "Tin Man" almost didn't become a hit, Beckley recalls: "The single had stalled, and John Hartmann [the band's new manager *and Phil Hartman's brother] went in and did this full-on rant with Warners and kick-started it, and it went back up the charts again, which is very hard to do. John was not willing to let this die." * - added by me http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/song/song036.htm

Frayed Knot Jun 04 2007 02:07 PM

]It all flows from there. And Neil Fuckin' Young of course. Some on that list (esp Emmylou) will claim it all flows from Gram Parsons. America was on one of the late-night shows a few weeks back. Ryan Adams is among the handful of modern musicians helping them out with this new album.

Edgy DC Jun 04 2007 02:10 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Some on that list (esp Emmylou) will claim it all flows from Gram Parsons. Thus my co-crediting of Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Kid Carsey Jun 04 2007 02:45 PM

Of the choices, I took Horse ... but my favorite America song is Sandman. I don't know what the hell he's talking about, but it hauntingly great .... Ain't it foggy outside All the planes have been grounded Ain't the fire inside? Let's all go stand around it Funny, I've been there And you've been here And we ain't had no time to drink that beer 'Cause I understand you've been running from the man That goes by the name of the Sandman He flies the sky like an eagle in the eye Of a hurricane that's abandoned Ain't the years gone by fast I suppose you have missed them Oh, I almost forgot to ask Did you hear of my enlistment? Funny, I've been there And you've been here And we ain't had no time to drink that beer 'Cause I understand you've been running from the man That goes by the name of the Sandman He flies the sky like an eagle in the eye Of a hurricane that's abandoned I understand you've been running from the man That goes by the name of the Sandman He flies the sky like an eagle in the eye Of a hurricane that's abandoned I understand you've been running from the man That goes by the name of the Sandman He flies the sky like an eagle in the eye Of a hurricane that's abandoned I understand you've been running from the man That goes by the name of the Sandman He flies the sky like an eagle in the eye Of a hurricane that's abandoned

Edgy DC Jun 04 2007 02:49 PM

Sandman: American Metal.

Willets Point Jun 04 2007 02:54 PM

"Lonely People" is looking lonely.

Kid Carsey Jun 04 2007 03:01 PM

Thanks Edge, fun stuff. They must like the song too.

Kid Carsey Jun 04 2007 03:10 PM

I like all these songs really. Horse just reminds me of growing up and the lyrics were so mysterious to a youngin. I like the harmonica/piano thingy in Lonely. "I've been one poor correspondent and I've been too too hard to find but it doesn't mean you ain't been on my mind" Phwam. Tin is just plain catchy. I like the music in Ventura, but the words don't do nothing for me. I'm not a California guy, I guess.

Rockin' Doc Jun 04 2007 04:10 PM

Damn, this thread brings back memories of my long gone youth.

cooby Jun 04 2007 04:12 PM

Rockin Doc, I was about to say the very same thing