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America - A Horse With No Name

America - A Horse With No Name Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: America
Released: 1972

A Horse With No Name Lyrics

The moon begins to rise upon my fallen eyes
I'm taken back to firelight
A drunken dreamer's plan to stay just as I am
Amidst the dancing paradise
A case of beer, a smile, a motorcycle child
I feel the glow surround me
And you, and you, and you, and you, and you

Orange funnels and snowy tunnels
Summer troubles and books in bundles
Orange funnels and snowy tunnels
And you, and you, and you, and you, and you

Writer/s: BUNNELL, DEWEY
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

A Horse With No Name Song Chart

America was formed in England by sons of US servicemen who were stationed there. Lead singer Dewey Bunnell wrote this when he was 19. Although the song is commonly misinterpreted about being on drugs, it is not: Bunnell based the images in the lyrics on things he saw while visiting the US.

This was originally titled "Desert Song," since Bunnell wrote it based on the desert scenery he encountered when his dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Santa Barbara County, California.

The song tells a rather abstruse tale about a trip though the desert. While the landscape is unforgiving, the singer also finds comfort in that scenario.

According to Dewey Bunnell, the "horse" represents a means of entering a place of tranquility, and this tranquil place was best represented by the desert, which sounded pretty good to him while he was stuck in rainy England.

As for why the horse had no name and why it went free after nine days, Bunnell doesn't have any answers - it seems the various listener interpretations are far more colorful than any meaning he assigned to it.

The group's self-titled debut album was released in the UK in late 1971, but didn't contain this song. When they were contemplating a single, they considered "I Need You," but decided to come up with a new song instead. The group went back to the studio and recorded "A Horse With No Name," which Bunnell had written.

Released as a single in the UK, it shot to #3 in January 1972, prompting the group's label, Warner Bros., to issue the single in the US and also release the album with the song included. On March 25, both the single and album hit #1 in the US; the song stayed at the top spot for three weeks, the album for five.

The album was recorded in London where the band was located. In February, when the song started climbing the charts in the US, the group embarked on a tour of the States, playing club shows before supporting the Everly Brothers as the opening act on their North American tour.

"I Need You" was released as the follow-up single, reaching #9 US. The group would become one of the most successful acts of the '70s and score another US #1 hit with "Sister Golden Hair."

Many people thought this was a Neil Young song when they heard it, and many rock critics pointed out the similarities. In a strange twist, "A Horse With No Name" replaced Young's "Heart of Gold" at #1 in the US.

Dewey Bunnell explained that he was well aware that he sounded like Neil Young on this song, but claimed he wasn't trying to imitate the singer. He told Rolling Stone in 1973: "I try to use a different voice so that I won't be branded as a rip-off. It's such a drag, though, to have to not sound like someone when you can't help it in the first place."

"Horse" is slang for heroin, leading to myriad rumors (denied by the band) that the song was about drugs.

Dewey Bunnell played 6-string acoustic guitar on this track; his bandmate Gerry Beckley played 12-string acoustic, and the third member of the group, Dan Peek, played bass. Session musicians rounded out the instrumentation: Kim Haworth on drums and Ray Cooper on percussion.

This appears on a fifth-season episode of Friends called "The One With Joey's Big Break." In it, Joey and Chandler go on a road trip to Las Vegas (hence, "through the desert").

Other TV series to use the song are:
Parks and Recreation
The Simpsons
Six Feet Under

Movies include:
Air America (1990)
Hideous Kinky (1998)
The Trip (2002)
American Hustle (2013)

(thanks, Brett - Edmonton, Canada)

A 2010 episode of the TV series Breaking Bad is titled "Caballo sin Nombre," Spanish for "Horse With No Name." At the beginning of this episode, the main character Walter White sings along to the song on his car radio, and then at the end he sings it again.

The San Francisco band The Loud Family named their first album Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things after a line in this song.