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Ok, HEARTS was a smashing success & AMERICA was on top of the popular music
scene both domestically & internationally. HISTORY had been released & was
also a massive success. Sir George Martin re-mixed some of the songs recorded
before his time & the rest is HISTORY. The guys did a few promo photo shoots
wearing fencing outfits, displaying red hearts on the outside. The baby
boomers were buying records & attending live shows by the thousands. AMERICA
was prime time & the sweet smell of success was theirs. Sir George once
remarked that AMERICA was very underrated by the music critics: "they
don't do outrageous things to call attention to themselves; their melodies
are well organized, balanced & lyrical content is quite good". AMERICA
continued on their usual heavy tour schedule, of course the private jet (see
the photo insert in the HARBOR LP) made things a bit more enjoyable. Shows
were sell outs & it was not unusual for them to do consecutive nite shows in
the same venue in order to accommodate all of their fans. As a note, they
even attempted to move HORSE out of the encore & even drop it from the shows
- but no way, the fans screamed for it. Today it remains in the encore.
AMERICA's next project would be titled HIDEAWAY, recorded at the famous
Caribou Ranch & it is definitely here that George Martin's help in doing
arrangements would surface as a very strong plus for AMERICA. HIDEAWAY
featured a two segment instrumental titled HIDEAWAY Part I & II by none other
than MR. DEWEY BUNNELL. AMERICA opened concerts w/a tape of HIDEAWAY as a
prelude to the start of a fabulous evening. It is an outstanding instrumental
song that begs of a movie intro & closure, just plain outstanding. DEWEY
also did LETTER (originally called THE LETTER) & AMBER CASCADES. LETTER is a
tremendous, largely hidden, treasure. Please listen very carefully to it - the
more you hear it, the better it gets. No lie. The bass runs are superb &
DEWEY'S lyrical content weaves very neatly among a great arrangement. GERRY
came thru with a few unbelievable ballads of truth, honesty & personal
examination. Give a listen to LOVELY NIGHT, WATERSHIP DOWN, & WHO LOVES YOU.
WATERSHIP DOWN conveys a sad story of being down, but not out; with hope &
faith as a guiding light to lead to better days. WHO LOVES YOU is an
introspective look at the magic of being in true love & all the wonders &
questions of the self that one might ask. LOVELY NIGHT sure sounds like
GERRY'S answer to the old Drifters hit "Up On the Roof", with emotions &
feelings expressed in a much more sophisticated & perhaps abstract way.
HIDEAWAY featured AMERICA's last Warner's charted song by DAN PEEK,
TODAY'S THE DAY. DAN also did the song JET BOY BLUE with a little help from
his wife on lyrics. HIDEAWAY is a treasure of musical creativity & signaled
a turning point for AMERICA in musical adventurism, which included some more
electric guitar based songs.
Last Revised: 19 September 1997
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