“I didn’t expect some of the backlash. But then you get the Neil fans, who were rabidly protective”: the story of America, the 70s soft rockers behind the greatest Neil Young song Neil Young never wrote

A group photograph of the soft rock band America.

They won’t leave him alone. It’s the summer of 1971 and Martin Wyatt, head of A&R at the new London arm of Warner Bros, is being plagued by phone calls.

Both record producer Ian Samwell and DJ/talent-spotter Jeff Dexter have been ringing on a regular basis for some time now. They’ve been nurturing this hot new American trio, they explain, and Wyatt needs to hear them before anyone else does.