‘"Are You There" is an unusually pained but melodic rap by Dewey. He explained something about how that song came about:
"Are You There" on the Harbor album was one of my real strong songs. That's kind of a good example because the song came straight out of the gut. We were on tour, and it was half way through the tour, and through physical abuse, basically, and some natural illnesses, we had to cancel. Daniel was one of the "illees," Gerry was sick too, and I felt this sort of "coitus interruptus" of the tour. You know, you just start rolling and WHAM! the tour is cancelled! So I came home and wrote the song -- it was like: "The day we lost our voice with little Joyce [choice], I can't explain, an act of agony." And that just came out at one sitting.’
‘"Are You There" is an unusually pained but melodic rap by Dewey. He explained something about how that song came about: "Are You There" on the Harbor album was one of my real strong songs. That's kind of a good example because the song came straight out of the gut. We were on tour, and it was half way through the tour, and through physical abuse, basically, and some natural illnesses, we had to cancel. Daniel was one of the "illees," Gerry was sick too, and I felt this sort of "coitus interruptus" of the tour. You know, you just start rolling and WHAM! the tour is cancelled! So I came home and wrote the song -- it was like: "The day we lost our voice with little Joyce [choice], I can't explain, an act of agony." And that just came out at one sitting.’
Source: Comprehensive History: America Revisited http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/hist03.htm