Line #43 Music/America


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/America_band_3104.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Left to right: Gerry Beckley, Dan Peek and Dewey Bunnell.]]
3
4	->''"I've been through the desert on a horse with no name,\
5	It felt good to be out of the rain,\
6	In the desert you can remember your name,\
7	'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain."''
8	-->-- '''"A Horse with No Name"'''
9
10	America is a SoftRock band, originally formed in London, but based out of California for virtually all of their career, who had their greatest success in TheSeventies. While never critical favorites, they had a handful of hits which are fondly remembered by fans. The band's vintage lineup consisted of Gerry Beckley, Dan Peek, and Dewey Bunnell. Peek left the group in 1977 and died in 2011, but Beckley and Bunnell continue to tour and record as America to this day.
11
12	Among their hit songs are "A Horse with No Name", "I Need You", "Ventura Highway", "Tin Man", "Lonely People", "Sister Golden Hair", "You Can Do Magic", and... "Muskrat Love". ("A Horse with No Name" and "Sister Golden Hair" are more pleasant to humans.)
13
14	[[Music/TheBeatles George Martin]] produced five of this band's albums.
15
16	----
17	!!Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold''', current members in ''italic''):
18
19	* '''''Gerry Beckley''''' – vocals, guitars, percussion (1970–present)
20	* '''''Dewey Bunnell''''' – vocals, guitars, percussion (1970–present)
21	* '''Dan Peek''' – guitars, bass, keyboards, harmonica (1970–77; died 2011)
22
23	----
24
25	!!''You're the one who can put out the tropes'':
26	* AlbumTitleDrop: A subversion—while ''Your Move'' has a standard title track, the title is also dropped in the video to the album's lead single, "The Border".
27	* ArtisticStimulation
28	* TheBandMinusTheFace: Never the same after Dan Peek left.
29	* BuffySpeak: 'There were plants and birds and rocks and things' in "A Horse with No Name".
30	* CaptainObvious: In "A Horse with No Name", the singer feels the need to point out that 'The heat was hot'.
31	* ChronologicalAlbumTitle: ''Hat Trick'' is a kind of StealthPun example; it's their third album, and "hat trick" is a sports term that denotes a player or team accomplishing a feat three times.
32	* CoverAlbum: ''Back Pages'', which even includes a cover of [[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel "America"]].
33	* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: The three members of the classic lineup met while attending a U.S. military high school near London.
34	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Check out the comments here for examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk-7n1hdK3M
35	* GreatestHitsAlbum: ''History'', featuring cover art by Creator/PhilHartman (who was an artist before he became a comedian and actor), is the most famous one, though since it was released in 1975, it does not feature later period hits such as "You Can Do Magic" and "The Border".
36	* HeartbeatSoundtrack: "Daisy Jane".
37	* IceCreamKoan: "A Horse with No Name"
38	* IdiosyncraticAlbumTheming: [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming They once gave seven consecutive albums titles beginning with the letter H.]] (Their greatest hits collection was titled ''History'' simply to fit this pattern.) Later in their careers, they did four more in a row like that.
39	* IntercourseWithYou: "Muskrat Love"
40	* LocationSong: "Ventura Highway".
41	* LongRunnerLineUp: Type 2, with Beckley and Bunnell since 1977.
42	* LyricalShoehorn: "A Horse with No Name" contains lines like "there were plants and birds and rocks and things", "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment the heat was hot]]" and "cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain".
43	* MilitaryBrat: In real life; see Everyone Went to School Together. Note also that Dewey Bunnell was born in England. [[note]] A Yorkshireman to be precise, born in Harrogate! [[/note]]
44	* NameAmnesia: The song "Horse with No Name" claims an AvertedTrope example; because you're alone, it's actually easier to maintain your identity since [[WhatYouAreInTheDark no one is around to influence you]].
45	* RealMenWearPink: Gerry Beckley appeared in publicity photos for one album in a pair of pink overalls...with no shirt underneath.
46	* SillyLoveSongs: "Sister Golden Hair"
47	* TheNotRemix: ''History'' features these for several early songs, resulting in subtle-but-noticeable changes from the original album versions.
48	* TitleTrack: ''Hat Trick'' and ''Your Move'' are straight examples. Three other albums are minor aversions. ''Hideaway'' has tracks titled "Hideaway Part I" and "Hideaway Part II". The standard version of ''Here & Now'' averts this, but the version sold at Best Buy includes "Here & Now" as a bonus track. Finally, the closing track on ''Back Pages'' is Music/BobDylan's "My Back Pages".
49	* TextlessAlbumCover: The aforementioned ''History: America's Greatest Hits'' had one of these in its original vinyl release (albeit with a title sticker on the shrink wrap), as did ''Hideaway'' and ''Harbor''. Later reissues of all three had cover text added.
50	* UnpluggedVersion: Songs such as "A Horse with No Name" and "Sandman" use no electric guitars.
51	* VocalTagTeam: They had no official lead singer; generally, whoever wrote a song was the one who sang it.
52	* WordSaladLyrics: "Ventura Highway" contains a couple of lines which writer Dewey Bunnell claims contain meaning but which listeners would be hard pressed to decipher, chiefly the line about "alligator lizards in the air".
53	** Maybe they were having a semantic/philosophical discussion on the [[ShapedLikeItself tautology]] involved in the phrase "alligator lizards", as something to pass the time on the drive to Ventura...

Context Music / America