‘Amber Cascades’: the 1976 song that eerily foreshadowed America becoming a duo
Having announced themselves to a global audience with their 1971 endlessly cryptic hit ‘A Horse With No Name’, folk rock trio America appeared to have all the potential to take the world by storm.
The sons of American Air Force personnel who were all stationed in London, the trio Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek and Gerry Beckley were an unusual prospect in and of themself; an act who were making music ostensibly aimed towards pacifist hippies yet raised in military backgrounds. No matter how contradictory their very existence seemed to be, very little of their work seemed to be directly in reference to either the war that was raging on in Vietnam, nor was it explicitly in favour of their fathers’ associations.
In fact, their music didn’t seem to be about anything at all, not that listeners were able to decipher anyway. Bunnell’s lyrics were often surreal and would fly off into dreamlike situations, painting scenes that were hard to conjure up without the aid of strong psychedelics, but their ambiguity didn’t seem to get in the way of their popularity, and suddenly, after the release of their debut single, America were receiving acclaim and offers from all angles.
They’d quickly establish a working relationship with illustrious producer George Martin, who by this time had had a significant amount of his schedule freed up due to the breakup of The Beatles, and he’d go on to offer his services for five of their albums between 1974 and 1979. Being able to corral one of the most celebrated figures in the industry to work with them should have been a sign that the band were evidently doing something right, but their fortunes rapidly began to decline after their initial success.
A significant change would befall the band halfway through the decade, with founding member Peek choosing to call it a day and resign from his position with the band. He’d struggled with plenty of issues relating to substance abuse throughout his rise to fame, and found himself having some sort of epiphany that told him he needed to step away from the group shortly after the release of 1977’s Harbor.
He’d end up going on to become a major exponent of Christian contemporary music, which was a gigantic U-turn for someone who had once been in a psychedelic group and was heavily influenced by his drug use, but as surprising as this move may have been, did the band actually foreshadow this pivot before it happened?
Taken from their 1976 album, Hideaway, ‘Amber Cascades’ is another typically cryptic song courtesy of Bunnell, but two of the most striking lines appear to align with the trajectory that Peek would experience. Even though there’s no definitive line on what the lyrics to the song actually mean, the imagery that Bunnell conjures up seems to have many parallels to the two different chapters of his bandmate’s life.
“It’s time for another beer run / Or something that’s equally true,” seems to be the most logical explanation for what the ‘Amber Cascades’ of the title are referencing; the love of a crisp, golden beverage as it pours from the tap and down the gullet. However, with the second half of the line, it suggests that there’s something beyond this that has answers to their questions, with a later line referencing faith in a higher power as Bunnell exclaims, “We turn to a man who walks on the water,” in the song’s chorus.
While there’s no evidence to suggest that the song is hinting that one of their members was on a path to changing his ways and cleaning up his act, the imagery bizarrely seems to hint at major changes to come. Even if the ‘Amber Cascades’ aren’t anything to do with alcohol, it could easily be interpreted as the sun setting on the horizon, alluding to one chapter coming to an end, only to rise again in a new chapter. But who knows – knowing America, the song could quite easily be about absolutely nothing.
