Comments for America, Harbor

Politcal Poachers is typical Dewey! Sarah is a nice offering from Gerry...

I think I like this album more than most America fans, or even the guys themselves. It has a fun sound that reflects the beautiful surroundings they were in when they recorded the album. "Sergeant Darkness" and "Political Poachers" are standouts. Great poster - I had it up in my dorm room throughout college.

one of my favorite all time songs is sargent darkness.do you know where I can find cassette of harbour?

Not a bad album even thought it didn't produce a hit. It does however have one of the very few America songs that I dislike, Slow Down. I hate disco.

After the commercial disappointment of "Hideaway" (and not without reason), America attempted to return to their roots with "Harbor". Commercially they failed. However, the tracks on this album are as good as any previous LP. "Sargeant Darkness" may be the finest Gerry Beckley composition to date and "Don't Cry Baby" is as good as any of Dan Peek's work. I actually heard "God of the Sun" on KHJ in Los Angeles (before they went country). That was a treat. The song "Monster" has a guitar track that is very similar to Gerry Beckley's work on Dan Fogelberg's "(There's A) Place In The World For A Gambler".

I also had the poster up on my dorm wall.

Overall, not a bad album. It had its moments of brilliance ("Sgt Darkness") and fun ("Down To The Water") Some of the songs ("God Of The Sun", "These Brown Eyes" and "Don't Cry Baby") sounded unfinished. "Are You There" is a great song though....nice guitar solo from, I presume, Dan. And I would not call "Slow Down" a disco tune. Funky yes, but disco, NO. Jim....Erie, Pa

I want to know what Gerry was into during the recording of this album. His Songwriting on this album is truly remarkable!!! "Sarah"-where the heck did that one come from? It sounds like a song that travelled through the Universe just to end up at his fingertips-it brilliant. And "Sargeant Darkness" -the Number One AMERICA song that never was. Too bad Warner Brothers didn't see it that way. They really missed the mark."Harbor" does have some duds on it-but I think it's just the result of being in Hawaii and just enjoying themselves. Maybe they should've kept the original title-"Harry Goes Surfing".It might have caught on.

I haven't yet heard anyone else say this about "Harbor," which is an LP I've come to regard fondly, although it's inconsistent. "Harbor" sounds to me like an album marked by complete psychic exhaustion. "Monster" is a really enduring acoustic ballad, and "Sergeant Darkness" is hauntingly lovely, but both tunes suggest a mood of real ennui. I also thought "Are You There?" should've been a hit, but it's of a similar feel. It didn't surprise me that Dan Peek quit America soon afterward. To my ears, he'd been hinting at his singular dilemma with Christinaity and the "covenant" with the Lord for some time, on prior tunes like "Old Virginia" (lines like "singin sweet low lullabyes to forget about your hell ..." and "Poor boy's had a hotel so long, he don't know what to do ...") and "It's Life" ("I'd like to take you but I don't think there's room for two ...") His songs on "Harbor" sound dashed off, uninspired and even dejected. Even the band's stabs at "rockin" or "fun" -like "Hurricane" and Dewey's "Down to the Water" feel to me like the downside of a great party, when some folks are zonking out and the beer is getting stale and people are starting to look at their watches. Despite the appearance that America, particularly Peek, had grown tired of the music biz' poisoned pleasures, I think the "Harbor" LP is an important piece of their catalogue. Sometimes, I must admit, I wish it weren't so slickly produced. I mean, the organic-sounding acoustics and subtle harmonizing of the first few LPS has held up so well. But sometimes, "Harbor" grates on my nerves. It sounds like everyone decided the songs were too weak to stand on their own, so they needed to gob lots of orchestration and Ray-Coniff-style "oohs and ahhs" onto every track where possible. The great songs on this LP, however, withstand all the gussying up and make "Harbor" to my mind a flawed but fascinating work, much the way Beatle fanatics (myself included) came to view "Let It Be."

I can only say this about Harbour. Dont Cry Baby. Steller tune that saves the album & harkens back to the glory days. Yes this was the end of greatness until Hourglass but if you take the best tunes: God of the Sun, Dont Cry Baby, Sergeant Darkness, Monster & Shes Gone. You have a killer album side that holds up to the past. If that was side one we might look back at the record differently. It was sad to see Dan leave but To each his own.

The last America album with Dan Peek. "Slow Down"experiments with a disco sound. "Monster" is reminiscentof their earlier material.

harbor made the turnpoint in America cause of the departure Of Dan Peek... Dan put 2 magnifiques pieces here:Theses Brown eyes and Hurricanes...He felt like the bad boys of the band but he was the most free in his mind... the bad mood in the band is result by the fact that no song of Dan will be realeased as a single and Hurricane could be an hit...

harbor made the turnpoint in America cause of the departure Of Dan Peek... Dan put 2 magnifiques pieces here:Theses Brown eyes and Hurricanes...He felt like the bad boys of the band but he was the most free in his mind... the bad mood in the band is result by the fact that no song of Dan will be realeased as a single and Hurricane could be an hit...

I think that the Band was giong through some severe drainage of emotions at this time,the Rock & Roll lifestyle was started to take hold on Hearts , thats why Harbor and Hideaway are nearly identical sounding in the production,I love Dan Peeks tunes on this album he was really coming into his own niche . I often listen to the first live LP and Silent Letter and wonder what they would have sounded like had Dan stayed. I really think Dewey & Gerry should let the past be the past and Re-unite with Dan and get back and record an album like they're first 3 albums