America emerged on the musical landscape with this engagingly enigmatic environmental exposition. Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek formed the band in England where they all grew up together as children of British mothers and American fathers stationed at a US Air Force base near London. Their eponymous debut album had been released in Europe with minor success; so Warner Brothers pressured the band for something radio friendly. Producers Ian Samwell and Jeff Dexter brought the band back to Morgan Studios to record more songs. One of them was called 'Desert Song'. Bunnell recalls the composition of the song while staying at the home of Arthur Brown, in Puddletown, Dorset: "I was messing around with some open tunings--I tuned the A string way down to an E, and I 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 the imagery of the desert, because I was sitting in this room in England, and it was rainy. The rain was starting to get to us, and I wanted to capture the desert and the heat and the dryness...I had spent a good deal of time poking around in the high desert with my brother when we lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base. And we'd drive through Arizona and New Mexico. I loved the cactus and the heat. I was trying to capture the sights and 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 was a vehicle to get me away from all the confusion and chaos of life to a peaceful, quiet place."
Though he has taken a lot of flack for the improper grammer in the lyrics, he says: "I have taken a lot of poetic license in my use of grammar, and I always cringe a little bit at my use of 'aint's,' like 'ain'tno one for to give you no pain' in "Horse." I've never actually spoken that way, but I think it conveys a certain honesty when you're not picking and choosing your words, and you use that kind of colloquialism." 'A Horse With No Name' went to number three on the British charts and number one in the US, driving a re-released version of the debut album to number one as well. The style and sound of the song bears a strong resemblance to Neil Young. It even knocked Young's 'Heart of Gold' out of the number one position. Bunnell confesses: "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 town of my 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."
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 it's 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
Art is long life is short. A Dios Amigo.
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