America - Ventura Highway | Poal: Say what you want.

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IN 1972, Dewey Bunnell was living in a cluttered cowman’s house on a farm outside London and trying desperately to tap into some musical inspiration. Bunnell and his band, America, were fresh from their debut album and its No. 1 hit “A Horse With No Name,” and the pressure was on for a new single. That’s when Bunnell latched onto an old memory of the Pacific Coast Highway.

Bunnell, like his bandmates, was a military brat, and in the early 1960s his father had been stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc. On weekends, the family of five would pile into their Ford Country Squire station wagon and head south for a day at the beach or Disneyland. “One time, it was 1963 when I was in seventh grade, we got a flat tire and we’re standing on the side of the road and I was staring at this highway sign. It said ‘Ventura’ on it and it just stuck with me. It was a sunny day and the ocean there, all of it.”

And what about that one curious line about flying reptiles -- “Seasons crying no despair, alligator lizards in the air” -- where did that come from? Bunnell laughed. “The clouds. It’s my brother and I standing there on the side of the road looking at the shapes of clouds while my dad changed the tire.”

He states that the song "reminds me of the time I lived in Omaha as a kid and how we'd walk through cornfields and chew on pieces of grass. There were cold winters, and I had images of going to California. So I think in the song I'm talking to myself, frankly: 'How long you gonna stay here, Joe?' I really believe that 'Ventura Highway' has the most lasting power of all my songs. It's not just the words — the song and the track have a certain fresh, vibrant, optimistic quality that I can still respond to".

The entire band often made some contributions to the compositions, however, and while Dewey Bunnell gets solo songwriting credit on this song, he did get some help. The band's other primary songwriter, Gerry Beckley: "the guitar lick on 'Ventura Highway' is something that Dan [Peek] and I put together that really wasn't a part of the song. The song is of course, super strong on its own. We had a friend back in England, when he heard it with the guitar lick, he said, 'Oh, you've ruined it!'"

"That's Gerry and Dan doing a harmony on two guitars on the intro. I remember us sitting in a hotel room, and I was playing the chords, and Gerry got that guitar line, and he and Dan worked out that harmony part. That's really the hook of the song".

IN 1972, Dewey Bunnell was living in a cluttered cowman’s house on a farm outside London and trying desperately to tap into some musical inspiration. Bunnell and his band, America, were fresh from their debut album and its No. 1 hit “A Horse With No Name,” and the pressure was on for a new single. That’s when Bunnell latched onto an old memory of the Pacific Coast Highway. Bunnell, like his bandmates, was a military brat, and in the early 1960s his father had been stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc. On weekends, the family of five would pile into their Ford Country Squire station wagon and head south for a day at the beach or Disneyland. “One time, it was 1963 when I was in seventh grade, we got a flat tire and we’re standing on the side of the road and I was staring at this highway sign. It said ‘Ventura’ on it and it just stuck with me. It was a sunny day and the ocean there, all of it.” And what about that one curious line about flying reptiles -- “Seasons crying no despair, alligator lizards in the air” -- where did that come from? Bunnell laughed. “The clouds. It’s my brother and I standing there on the side of the road looking at the shapes of clouds while my dad changed the tire.” He states that the song "reminds me of the time I lived in Omaha as a kid and how we'd walk through cornfields and chew on pieces of grass. There were cold winters, and I had images of going to California. So I think in the song I'm talking to myself, frankly: 'How long you gonna stay here, Joe?' I really believe that 'Ventura Highway' has the most lasting power of all my songs. It's not just the words — the song and the track have a certain fresh, vibrant, optimistic quality that I can still respond to". The entire band often made some contributions to the compositions, however, and while Dewey Bunnell gets solo songwriting credit on this song, he did get some help. The band's other primary songwriter, Gerry Beckley: "the guitar lick on 'Ventura Highway' is something that Dan [Peek] and I put together that really wasn't a part of the song. The song is of course, super strong on its own. We had a friend back in England, when he heard it with the guitar lick, he said, 'Oh, you've ruined it!'" "That's Gerry and Dan doing a harmony on two guitars on the intro. I remember us sitting in a hotel room, and I was playing the chords, and Gerry got that guitar line, and he and Dan worked out that harmony part. That's really the hook of the song".

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