A Horse with No Name

Infobox Single
Name = A Horse with No Name


Artist = America
from Album = America
B-side = US "Sandman" (Bunnell); UK "Everyone I Meet Is From California" (Dan Peek)
Released = Start date|1972
Format = vinyl record
Recorded = 1971
Genre = Folk rock
Length = 4:08
Label = Warner Brothers
Writer = Dewey Bunnell
Producer = Ian Samwell
[ Reviews = ] *
Last single =
—
This single = "A Horse with No Name"
(1972)
Next single = "I Need You"
(1972)"A Horse with No Name" is a song by the band America and their first single. It became their biggest hit single, topping the charts in the US and several other countries. It was certified GOLD by the RIAA [cite web |author=RIAA|title=RIAA Gold & Platinum Database|url=http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&title=A%20horse%20with%20no%20name&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2008&sort=Artist&perPage=25|accessdate=September 25|accessyear=2008] .

Development

America's self-titled debut album was initially released in Europe with only moderate success and without the song "A Horse with No Name." Looking for a song that would be popular in both the United States and Europe, producer Ian Samwell helped the group to record the song and persuaded the Warner Brothers label to re-release the album with "Horse ..." included.

Originally entitled "Desert Song," the song was renamed at Samwell's suggestion. It was written on a rainy day in England, in 1971, and was intended to capture the feel of the hot, dry desert Bunnell remembered from his childhood travels through the Arizona and New Mexico desert when his family lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base. [cite web | author=Anonymous| title=Highway Highlight (from the box set booklet) | url= http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/song/song005.htm| accessdate=June 20 | accessyear=2008]

Composition

"A Horse with No Name" was recorded in the key of E minor with acoustic guitars, bass guitar, and bongo drums. The only other chord is a Dadd6add9, fretted on the low E and G strings, second fret. [cite web | author=David Hodge| title=Horse With No Name - Easy Songs for Beginners # 1 - (The Simplest Song) | year=2000 | url= http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/horse-with-no-name/| accessdate=July 9 | accessyear=2008] A 12 string plays an added F# (second fret, high E string) on the back beat of the Em. A noted feature of the song is the driving bass line with a hammer-hook in each chorus. A "waterfall" type solo completes the arrangement and may have been borrowed from the Dan Peek song "Rainy Day", also on the album. {Peek, Dan: An American Band; Xulon Press; 2004}

Reception

Despite — or perhaps because of — the song being banned by some U.S. radio stations (including one in Kansas City) because of supposed drug references [cite web | title=Liner notes, "Highway Highlight"| url= http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/song/song005.htm| accessdate=June 11 | accessyear=2006] the song rose to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the album quickly went platinum. The interpretation of the song as a drug reference comes from the fact that "horse" is a common slang term for heroin.

The song's resemblance to some of Neil Young's work stirred some grumbling as well. Incidentally, 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 that virtually 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 think it's in the structure of the song as much as in the tone of his voice. It did hurt a little, because we got some pretty bad backlash. I've always attributed it more to people protecting their own heroes more than attacking me."

This song has also been ridiculed for its banal and/or oddly phrased lyrics, including "The heat was hot"; "There were plants, and birds, and rocks, and things"; and "'Cause there ain't no-one for to give you no pain." [cite web | author=John Mendelsohn| title=Rolling Stone Review| year=1972 | url= http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/america/albums/album/304443/rid/5942232/| accessdate=March 12 | accessyear=2006] Randy Newman once described it as a song "about a kid who thinks he's taken acid". Comedian Richard Jeni mocked the song's title. "You're in the desert," he said. "You got nothing else to do. "Name the freakin' horse!"

The song was one of many pop songs quoted and parodied on the The Third Reich 'n Roll album by The Residents. In 1987 the Danish rock band D-A-D made a cover version released on the album "D.A.D. Draws a Circle". Furthermore, the song has been covered by Larrikin Love with somewhat Celtic-sounding instrumentation and style for "Q" Magazine in 2006.

The song is featured in the game "," playing on K-DST radio. The song is also featured in the movie "The Trip." In 2008, it was used in a Kohls [ [http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/1987-Kohls-Simply-Vera-Spring-2008 splendAd - Kohl's - Simply Vera Spring 2008 commercial ] ] TV commercial for Vera Wang. It can also be heard in season 2 of "Millennium", in the episode "Owls".

References

External Links

* [http://www.venturahighway.com/ Official America Homepage]
* [http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/ Official America fan page]