AMERICA: Harmony Rock At Its Purest

“Ventura Highway?

Bunnell: “Ventura Highway” is my most cohesive song in terms of staying power and that little spark of youthful optimism and the California thing. That was inspired literally by the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in California-Oxnard and Ventura all the way up to Santa Maria. I wrote this in England reminiscing about California and that sun and surf thing.

“Muskrat Love?”

Beckley: Originally this song was brought to us by our bass player, David Dickey. He was a big fan of the Willis Alan Ramsey album, One, which was a fantastic earthy album produced by Leon Russell.  When we heard the song we thought it had some great harmonies, and we worked it up as the cover song for the Hat Trick album. It became a single, and that caused a bit of a fuss because we were known to be singer/songwriters. To highlight the one song that we hadn’t written was a bit awkward. Years later, Captain & Tennille recorded it. They thought it was our song. They homogenized any of the remaining soul out of it and claimed it for themselves.

“Tin Man?”

Bunnell: “Tin Man” is kind of a hodgepodge of lyrical imagery. Usually when I write a song some single line inspires me. I have always loved The Wizard of Oz. The basic premise that everyone has a brain or a heart or courage is that line, “Oz never did give nothing to the tin man that he didn’t already have.” That’s the central theme of the song. There’s a lot of kaleidoscopic imagery in the song. In those days you tried to cram as much into the three minutes as you could and that’s what I was doing with that song.