His debut solo single, All Things Are Possible, issued on Pat Boone's Lamb & Lion label in 1979, became one of Christian rock's first big crossover hits, while Bunnell and Beckley contributed to the album of the same name. He vowed to kick his addictions and renewed his faith in Christianity. Peek duly set about overhauling his life. In retrospect I sincerely wish I'd been a teetotaller." He left the group by mutual consent in the summer of 1977. …There was a certain amount of naivety regarding drug use in the 60s and 70s. "I was taking hash, marijuana, cocaine, quaaludes, alcohol and tobacco. It could get pretty ugly." Peek's increasing drug dependency was also becoming a problem. "And what had once been an all-for-one camaraderie evaporated.
"All three of us were enormously competitive and it was a high-stakes game we were playing," admitted Peek. Tensions had long been part of the band's dynamic. A year later America scored their second US No 1 with Beckley's Sister Golden Hair.īut all was not as ripple-free as the music suggested. Lonely People released in December, became Peek's signature tune and made the US top five. Their follow-up, Homecoming (1972), which featured Peek's first great composition, Don't Cross the River, was only marginally less popular.įor their fourth album, Holiday (1974), the band drafted in George Martin as producer, who helped frame their songs in clever arrangements and give them a glossy studio punch.
Their first album, America, was a colossal hit too, reaching No 1 in their homeland, chalking up more than a million sales and earning them a Grammy for best new artist. Their smooth harmonies and readily accessible folk-rock sound chimed with the times, as did the hirsute wholesomeness of their image. I pushed for keeping it simple and direct, hence America."Ī Horse With No Name, issued in December 1971, was an immediate success. "Somehow the connection between its music and our quest for a name dovetailed. "There was an 'Americana' brand jukebox there that we played constantly," said Peek. While scouting for a record deal, Peek and Bunnell were still employed as dishwashers at the base cafeteria. The band secured early gigs at hippy hangouts in London such as Middle Earth and the Roundhouse, before landing a contract with Warner Brothers. "Dewey's Morris Minor was actually a great space to practice, as it had an immediacy and closeness that helped in really hearing the intricate harmonies and guitar licks we were fine-tuning." "From the summer of 1970 until our first album was released in 1972, we rehearsed four hours or more per day," explained Peek. They were still broke though, and for a time were forced to rehearse in Bunnell's car. On his return they became a trio, fired by the acoustic Americanisms of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. "Eventually I joined Gerry and two of his mates in a band called the Daze." In 1969 Peek left for a brief spell at university in the US, and Bunnell took his place in the fledgling group. "We immediately bonded as we were all obsessed with music. "We really hit it off as friends long before we became bandmates," Peek told me when I interviewed him two years ago. It was while attending London Central high school (for the children of US service personnel) in Bushey that he met Bunnell and Beckley. By the time his father transferred to an army base in West Ruislip, Middlesex, in 1967, Peek had also become a proficient guitarist and piano player. The frequent travel meant long journeys on the US highway, where Peek first began singing three-part harmonies with his brother Tom and sister Debbie. Born in Florida, he had already lived in Greenland, South Carolina and Japan before the age of 10. Like his fellow band members, Peek was the son of a US military serviceman and his early years were peripatetic. The biggest of these was their debut single, A Horse With No Name, which made the top three on both sides of the Atlantic and instantly earmarked them as the new Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Between 19, the year he quit for a solo career, Peek and his bandmates, Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley, scored an impressive run of hit singles and albums, mostly in their native US. The songwriting ability and vocal harmonies of the bassist Dan Peek, who has died aged 60, were an integral part of the success of the soft-rock band America.
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