A Horse With No Name
Written by Dewey Bunnell, ©1971
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On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound
I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la ...
After two days in the desert sun
My skin began to turn red
After three days in the desert fun
I was looking at a river bed
And the story it told of a river that flowed
Made me sad to think it was dead
You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la ...
After nine days I let the horse run free
'Cause the desert had turned to sea
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with its life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
But the humans will give no love
You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la ...
The America album was released in Britain to moderate response. Though"I Need You" was discussed as an initial single, Warner Bros. asked the bandto come up with another song that would break them on the radio. So, fivemonths after the album came out, they went into a small London studio anddemoed four new tunes. Among them was an enigmatic Bunnell number with acatchy rhythm that was initially called "Desert Song." Much to the band'ssurprise, that was the song that Warners chose to release.
The band went into Morgan Sound Studios (where Beckley had played bass ondemo sessions a few years before) to record the song, with Samwellproducing and Kim Haworth brought in on drums. At Samwell's suggestion,"Desert Song" was retitled "A Horse With No Name."
A tune as famous as this one deserves a detailed explanation, thoughBunnell suggests that its meaning has evolved over time: "I was messingaround with some open tunings--I tuned the A string way down to an E, andI found this little chord, and I just moved my two fingers back and forth,and the entire song came from basically three chords. I wanted to capture theimagery of the desert, because I was sitting in this room in England, and itwas rainy. The rain was starting to get to us, and I wanted to capture thedesert and the heat and the dryness."
The imagery came from Dewey's childhood: "I had spent a good deal of timepoking around in the high desert with my brother when we lived at VandenbergAir Force Base [in California]. And we'd drive through Arizona and NewMexico. I loved the cactus and the heat. I was trying to capture the sightsand sounds of the desert, and there was an environmental message at the end.But it's grown to mean more for me. I see now that this anonymous horse wasa vehicle to get me away from all the confusion and chaos of life to apeaceful, quiet place."
Bunnell adds an aside about his choice of language in the song: "I have takena lot of poetic license in my use of grammar, and I always cringe a little bitat my use of 'aint's,' like 'ain't no one for to give you no pain' in "Horse."I've never actually spoken that way, but I think it conveys a certain honestywhen you're not picking and choosing your words, and you use that kind ofcolloquialism."
"A Horse With No Name" broke more than the rules of English--it broke Americaas a major recording act in Britain, the U.S., and Europe. After reaching#3 in the U.K., it was released in the States, where it topped the Pop chartfor three weeks in March/April 1972. It stirred some controversy--stationsin Kansas City and elsewhere banned the song for supposed drug references("horse" being a street name for heroin at the time).
The song's resemblance to Neil Young's work stirred some grumbling as well.Coincidentally or not, it was "A Horse With No Name" that bumped Young's"Heart Of Gold" out of the #1 slot on the U.S. Pop chart. "I know thatvirtually everyone, on first hearing, assumed it was Neil," Bunnell says."I never fully shied away from the fact that I was inspired by him. I thinkit's in the structure of the song as much as in the town of my voice. It didhurt a little, because we got some pretty bad backlash. I've alwaysattributed it more to people protecting their own heroes more thanattacking me."
