A Horse with No Name

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 and was intended to capture the feel of the hot, dry desert Bunnell remembered from his childhood at Vandenberg Air Force Base. (Although- this is a bit odd, as VAFB is on the California coast, many, many miles from any actual desert). ^[1]

[edit] 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 variation of the Em, fretted on the low E and G strings, second fret.^[2] 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}

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[edit] Reception

Despite — or perhaps because of — its being banned by some U.S. radio stations (including one in Kansas City) because of supposed drug references^[3] 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 most common criticism of the song, even addressed in the liner notes of America's box set, was its similarity to Neil Young in sound and style. ^[4] In fact, "Horse" unseated Young's "Heart of Gold" from the number one spot. In the liner notes, Bunnell says, "I know that virtually everyone, on first hearing, assumed it was Neil. 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 my voice. It did hurt a little, because we got some pretty bad backlash." To this day it remains a common misconception that "Horse" is a Neil Young song, but its success opened the door for other hits from the album, including "I Need You," "Sandman," and "Riverside."

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." Randy Newman once described it as a song "about a kid who thinks he's taken acid". The late 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!"

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 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on K-DST radio. The song is also featured in the movie The Trip. In 2008, it was used in a Kohls^[5] TV commercial for Vera Wang.

Preceded by "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young	Billboard Hot 100 number-one single March 25, 1972 (for three weeks)	Succeeded by "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack