Three Years After It Was First Released, Pure Prairie League’s First Hit Single Saved the Band From Extinction

Songs can be resilient creatures. Even as the individuals who create them can undergo all sorts of turmoil, the songs themselves have a way of finding their way to an audience, especially if there’s something special about them.

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Take, for one example, “Amie” by Pure Prairie League. The song earned hit status three years after its release. By that time, the band that recorded it lacked a record deal. And the guy who wrote it had left the band due to a jail sentence.

Pure but Never Simple

Pure Prairie League formed in Ohio at the start of the 70s. A five-piece by 1972, they earned a record deal with RCA and released their self-titled debut. Their name came from a reference in a 1939 film starring Errol Flynn.

Right from the start, the band’s membership was somewhat volatile. For example, 60 percent of Pure Prairie League departed between the making of their first and second albums. Craig Fuller, the chief songwriter, soldiered on for Bustin’ Out, also released in 1972, with some hastily assembled fill-in players. One of those men, Mick Ronson, would go on to join David Bowie in his Spiders From Mars backing band.

Bustin’ Out featured the first appearance of “Amie”, a melancholy love song written and sung by Fuller. Originally conceived as a rocker, the band decided to do it in acoustic form. The fingerpicking guitar interludes lent the song a bluegrass edge. It wasn’t originally released as a single. But Bustin’ Out nonetheless latched onto the country rock craze and hit the Top 40. That’s when chaos enveloped the band.

Belated Breakthrough

In 1973, Craig Fuller was sentenced to prison time for evading the draft for the Vietnam War. He served six months and neglected to rejoin Pure Prairie League when he was released. Nonetheless, a new version of the group kept after it, playing countless shows on college campuses even after they were cut loose from their record deal.

All that extra work paid off. “Amie” had gained such traction that RCA decided to release the song as a single in 1975. The song immediately found its footing on pop radio and made it all the way to No. 27 on the charts.

That earned the band a new record deal with RCA, leading to their 1975 comeback album Two Lane Highway. Pure Prairie League had one big pop hit. In 1980, with pre-country stardom Vince Gill as their lead singer, they crashed the Top 10 with the soft-rock smash “Let Me Love You Tonight”.

Behind the Lyrics of “Amie”

“Amie” wonderfully captures the limbo area occupied by a couple who can’t quite decide if they’re right for each other. The narrator bemoans the fact that the title character has moved on to a degree. “But now, you’re off with someone else and I’m alone,” Fuller sings. “You see, I thought that I might keep you for my own.”

He suggests that they shouldn’t let the past color their decision. “All the things we thought weren’t proper could be right in time,” he explains. But they’re ultimately paralyzed by their confusion. “And can you see that I don’t know if it’s you or if it’s me?” he asks. Finally, having decided that he wants to move forward with her, he puts the ball in her court: “Well, Amie, what you wanna do?”

In a full-circle moment, Craig Fuller reformed the Pure Prairie League in 1998 after they’d been away for a decade. Chances are they played “Amie” at just about every show, considering that the song brought them back from extinction once before.

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