What was horse with no name written about

The debut album America was re-released to include the song and quickly went platinum. The song was actually banned on some U. Dewey Bunnell and the other members of America completely denied any drug reference connected with the lyrics. The popular song was also ridiculed by several critics for its banal, oddly-phrased lyrics, i.

The song was also knocked for being a Neil Young ripoff. Many actually thought it was a Neil Young song. Bunnell understood this criticism and never tried to hide the fact that he greatly admired Neil Young. Randy Newman once said the song was "about a kid who thinks he's taken acid.

Name the freakin' horse! Tune in to any "'70s weekend" on an oldies radio station and you will most certainly hear its strange, haunting lyrics. YouTube link. Everybody is doing it. We know that. The sad news of the death of producer-songwriter Adam Schlesinger from the Coronavirus hit Dewey hard, as America had worked closely with him. We are big fans of the music made by Fountains of Wayne, and we did some shows with them back then.

One of the strangest things about this quarantine is that this is really an abrupt stop. Even for its songwriter. From its inception, it seemed to take on a life of its own. Released in late overseas and early in America, it went to the top of the charts.

But never was it a fly-away hit, beloved during the season of its creation but ultimately forgotten and abandoned. Never has it been absent from radio, the culture, or our memories, for long. Mara van Nes and her boyfriend Sem Jonkers used their isolation creatively, and acted out the song in their own way. Rather than oppose such comic usage, Dewey and the band fully embrace it, and posted the video on the official America fan site, which propelled it on its viral flight.

The origins of this iconically mysterious tale of the American Southwest by a band named America began, as did the group itself, in England.

Bunnell, Beckley and Peek were all bonded by heritage and location, the sons of airmen in the U. Air Force stationed in London. I had just graduated high school in London, and my family moved up to Yorkshire, where my mother was from. I wanted to stay in London, so I moved into the home of a friend and his family. America had signed with Warner Brothers and had a record out.

We had been recording and were in full gear, playing shows and recording. I wrote it all in one fell swoop. I wrote it in a couple hours.

I felt like it suddenly appeared, like waking up in a dream. And there was serious heat. I remember getting sunburned severely as a kid and it was on a beach. Do not underestimate the concept of trying to find rhyme. I remember that I did have visuals for that riverbed.

I have a picture in my mind of my brother and I, when we used to hike around the desert in the sagebrush. This was when my dad was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force in California, a base that was out in the middle of nowhere, up by Santa Maria, California. We would hike around that a lot. I also love this song, easy to sing! THis brings up a lot of memories. I actually disliked America, at first, because of this song for some reason.

Then I saw the band on Midnight Special and was hooked. Then I saw them live in concert they were the second band I saw live, the first being the Beatles in They are the reason I picked up the guitar in college and my first guitar was a Ovation 12 string because they played those. Still love playing their music. It was my favorite song when I was 5. I recently went riding in the desert on a horse and this song got stuck in my head.

Going thru the lyrics i wondered what he really meant but my interpretation was he go lost in the desert, go sunburned, thirsty, let his horse go then hallucinated mirages. He went to a sunny place where nobody knew him. There are many different possible meanings for this song, the way I see it, but I believe it's about individuality: The narrator discovers his individuality while he's alone the desert. Soon, however, he realizes the toll society the rain has taken on him, and its impact.

Eventually, he has to return to society, and mask his true identity, although on the inside, he is still the same person The ocean is a desert with its life underground. As for the last line, I believe it's a statement about how people only look skin-deep, and don't treasure what makes a person individual. Werewolvesofthunder on January 16, Link. No Replies Log in to reply. General Comment I love how people assume that a song is about a drug based on the time period and possibly the musicians.

Oh, ok. So one of America's most well-known songs is about heroin? Lobotomize yourself. There's been some awesome interpretations here, though. I always thought of it as writing about an escape from civilization and mankind. The verses, especially the last, suggest that a desert contains just as much diversity and wonder as mankind has created.

Whether or not the writers were on substances is besides the point. I dont think the drug heroine itself is a desert and oceans and flies and stuff that anyone would automatically pluck out and say "oh yeah that reminds me of heroin! This song IS about Heroin to me.

I am not just assuming. And like a few others have said before, it may be about something comletely different to you. Also, the fact that I think it is about Heroin has nothing to do with the time period or musicians. As a recovering Heroin addict, this song just feels like Heroin to me. Perhaps you disagree, but don't patronize me or imply that I am an idiot because of the way this song hits me. General Comment I've been in the desert for all my life, funny how ppl don't get this. The song has nothing to do with drugs.

I think it's mostly about a person who died in the desert: After nine days I let the horse run free Cause the desert had turned to sea That'll happen after 9 daze, probably much sooner.