Behind the Song: "Ventura Highway" by America (2024)

In his own words, Dewey Bunnell breaks it down from a recent interview during lockdown time

“Now, we’re really getting deep into this,” he said with a slight laugh, in regard to the endless barrage of questions about this and other enigmatic facets of this song. But he’s the guy, after all, who wrote “Horse With No Name,” after all (discussed here), and also “Tin Man.” So he’s one of the kings of enigmatic songs, the kind which people have been obsessing over forever – especially those who might have listened back in the day while enjoying some of “God’s herb,” (to quote our friend Henry Diltz).

But first, from our recent talk this May of 2020, here’s the great Dewey Bunnell with the story behind “Ventura Highway.”

DEWEY BUNNELL: I wrote “Ventura Highway” in England during that first rush of songwriting. The song was sketched out pretty much. I had the chord structure and some of the lyrics. We were in the studio at Trident Studios recording the first album. We’d already decided on the songs we wanted to record for the first album, so it was just shelved.

It wasn’t until we got the firstalbum took off, we had done a six-week club tour, and then we came back toEngland. But we had a taste of the U.S. again, and we had been pitched by GeffenRoberts as management. So we decided to move to L.A. Gerry and Dan, I know, they didn’t even hardly unpack, and they flewback to California.

We regrouped in California andstarted looking at making our second album. “Ventura Highway” was part ofwhat I had to bring to the table. We were all writing songs; in those days, itwas practically second nature. Wake up in the morning and start on a song orfinish a song, or talk about songs, because that was what we did.

Same as with “Horse with No Name,”all my imagery was based on my history, my life, my past experiences in the U.S.We lived about a year and a half in California, when my dad was stationed atVandenburg Air Force Base, which is in Lompoc, in the middle of the statethere.

We drove down the coast quite a bit,south to L.A. My family had a friend down there that we’d visit, and we’d go toDisneyland or do things.

We took that coast road. Call it whatyou want, Highway One, Highway 101, Pacific Coast Highway.

I dubbed it Ventura Highway. Because I’ve seen that name in my mind’s eye. Ventura. It was on the freeway signs.

There was some confusion about if Iwas writing about the Ventura Freeway. That was my own misinformed self. Icalled it a highway, I never really differentiated much between highways andfreeways and interstates, I just called it a highway.

Now, when we talk about the Ventura Freeway,it’s the 101. It was just trying to paint that picture of that place, thatenvironment, that vibe on the West Coast.

We stopped there. We got a flat tireand my dad had pulled the car off right there at the coast. We were looking atthe ocean and the waves and stuff while he changed that tire.

I spent a lot of time staring at theocean and up at that freeway sign that said Ventura. That image just somehowstuck with me, and that’s what I pulled out as a lyric option for that song.

I did want to capture that wholeCalifornia vibe which we’re all so familiar with and what the Beach Boysbrought to the world. The whole sun and surf and the free wind blowing throughyour hair and that whole idealistic California vibe. It was 1963, 1964 when my family was living there, soI had experienced it. It was the real heyday of the surf scene. I was about 12,in seventh grade or whatever, but I did try my hand at surfing. That’s where Igot my nickname, Dewey. My real name’s Lee.

Needless to say, in England, where wewere living, it was pretty gray and dismal. So I wanted to reimagine thatCalifornia thing.

We lived in Omaha, and my dad got stationed out in California. When we started packing up to move there, it was a big thing. The Bunnell family is going all the way to California! To Disneyland! It was a magical place in those days to the uninitiated, and certainly to younger kids.

This lyric is about going out thereto the West Coast. The stage was set for me and another guy named Joe, chewingon a piece of grass walking down the road somewhere, which would have beenOmaha. Wanting to say “Hey, we’re going out to the coast now!”

In Omaha, most all of my friends hadnever seen an ocean, never been very much farther. All of America, back then, didn’t havethis access to instant travel, really hardly flew that much, or haddestinations to go to beyond the boundaries of their own communities.

“Chewing on a piece of grass” came fromthe Omaha cornfields. My brother and I used to spend a lot of time in thecornfields. That imagery of a guy walking down a dusty road with a piece of hayin his mouth, it’s a solitary experience. Like “Horse with No Name.” It’s somethingI did myself, alone.

Of course, Joe decides not to go inthe lyric. He says no. He doesn’t have that drive to get out of this place, maybea small town in Nebraska, like where we lived.

“Come on, Joe, you can always changeyour name.” You could change your whole life. You can be someone else;you can go out to the coast.

I thought of Joe as an older guy. It’sa stylized relationship between this younger guy, who had all this energy, burstingat the seams to get out of there and go to the coast, and this older, moreestablished guy who is debating whether he should go or not, and decides at theend of the day that now a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. He’snot going to go chance it.

I wrote it quickly. But all my songs camerelatively quickly in those days because I always finished them. In those daysI was always determined to finish the thing. I’d have it complete in my mindand I just couldn’t leave it alone until I’d finished it. Nowadays, and insubsequent years, I’d start a song, and never followed it through, so I had alot of half-finished songs.

The guitar lick came from Gerry. Wewere in Los Angeles, staying at the Sunset Marquis, working on songs for thenext album. We were working on the arrangement of it sitting around with ourthree acoustic guitars, and Gerry came up with the famous lick. He came up withthe opening single note line, and then Dan played the harmony part.

We would arrange everything that way.The three of us sitting around a table, three voices and three guitars. We weremirror images of each other. Of course we had our different styles, our differentvoices, our different ideas of what lyrical imagery we wanted to project. Itwas a great chemistry.

I’ve always thought of Gerry as ourmusical director. I’m not good at heading up rehearsals, talking to the otherplayers, “Hey, this is the part you should do.” Gerry’s greatat that. He always was, in the high school band and everything else.

The harmony parts we sang were often instinctual,but being that Gerry was a piano player, he could quickly pick out the thirdsand the fifths and the parts that would sound best. We came to know that Dan’swas always the high part, I was usually the third, and sometimes we’dinterchange those parts.

There’s that line “getting hit by purplerain.” People always ask me if Prince took that from me. I have no knowledge ofhim taking it from me, but it’s possible. I had written it before Prince broke.So who knows? I never met Prince unfortunately. But I’d like to think Iinspired him.

In the song, getting hit by a purplerain is the excuse that the old man gives for not going on the adventure. To meit meant something happened to this guy that wasn’t good; possibly this guy hada psychedelic experience and didn’t want to go. It was some revelation thattold him to stay there.

It could be depression, the purplerain. Instead of having a blue feeling, it’s a purple feeling.

The “free wind blowing through yourhair” is referencing the freedom we felt here. I always thought of that asmotorcyclist, like Easy Riser. The free winds blowing through your hair,before the helmet laws. Get a chopper.

The lines “Ventura Highway in thesunshine/ the days are longer, the nights are stronger than moonshine,” weresome of my favorite lines, because it fit together like a great puzzle, rhymingwise.

“And the nights are stronger thanmoonshine.” Moonshine is a brew. Stronger than that, the great Californianights. Strong stuff was happening. It was action, it was life, it was alife-style.

The “alligator lizards in the air” camefrom another actual memory of living in California. My brother and I used tocatch lizards and snakes all the time. There is an actual animal here called analligator lizard. But this was also referring to a cloud formation, a shape. Along cloud that reminded me of an alligator lizard.

It was always titled “Ventura Highway.” That was one thing that I yanked out of nowhere: Ventura. I like that word. It evokes a great adventure. This exodus from the old land to the new.

For Dewey on the story behind “Horse With No Name.”

Ventura Highway in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger
Than moonshine
You’re gonna go I know

‘Cause the free wind is blowin’ through
Your hair
And the days surround your daylight
There
Seasons crying no despair
Alligator lizards in the air

Wishin’ on a falling star
Watchin’ for the early train
Sorry boy, but I’ve been hit by
Purple rain
Aw, come on Joe, you can always
Change your name
Thanks a lot son, just the same

Ventura Highway
In the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger
Than moonshine
You’re gonna go I know

‘Cause the free wind is blowin’ through
Your hair
And the days surround you daylight
There
Seasons crying no despair
Alligator lizards in the air