Tin Man by America

Tin Man

1974

America

America took about a two year break from the Top-10 before they embarked on another hat trick of Top-10 hits, and they did themselves one better this time around because this time all three hits cracked the Top-5. Tin Man kicked off America's second trio of back-to-back hits with another one of those kick-ass guitar intros that the team of Bunnell, Beckley, and Peek had down to an art form, leading in to yet another Dewey Bunnell penned classic featuring America's signature guitar-awesomeness and lyrics whose cryptic meaning has been analyzed almost as often as 'A Horse With No Name.

While Dewey Bunnell says that the lyrics were inspired by a metal-clad character in a certain iconic movie that was a childhood favorite of his, he's mum on the meaning of the song, and in fact admits that certain elements of the song, such as 'the Tropic of Sir Galahan' just may not mean anything... they just sounded right at the time, and I think that just may be the way all of us saw it. I don't remember trying to analyze it, but I do remember really liking it, and I obviously wasn't the only one. Tin Man popped up on The Hot 100 on August 21^st, 1974, and took 11 weeks to crack the Top-10 by snagging the Ten-Spot on November 2, '74. Then a week later it jumped 6 spots to peak at #4 where it'd hang around for three of it's eighteen weeks on the chart.

It was a staple on Richmond's WLEE as well as two year old upstart FM rival WRVQ during that fall of the Class of 75's senior year in high school, and I well remember hearing it on Hampton Roads AM powerhouse WGH just two days before it dropped out of the top 10, while I was heading down Va Route 35 to partake of several platefuls of Thanksgiving day goodness.

All of America's hits have pretty good staying power, whether it's in the hearts of us Seventies Kids or on the airwaves, and Tin Man's no exception...you still hear it pretty regularly on Oldies and Classic Rock stations, and that's how it should be!

So Enjoy! Dewey Bunnell & Co's cryptic and awesome tribute to to The Wizard OF Oz's shiniest character...Tin Man!

And as a bonus...a uber-informal live performance of 'Tin Man' from about the time it was released. (Sure wish people'd note the time and place for these live performances...but I still appreciate them preserving and posting the vids!)