{"id":354,"date":"2015-07-23T20:17:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T00:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=354"},"modified":"2015-07-23T20:17:08","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T00:17:08","slug":"the-story-behind-a-horse-with-no-name-straight-from-the-horses-mouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/the-story-behind-a-horse-with-no-name-straight-from-the-horses-mouth\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind ‘A Horse With No Name,” straight from the horse’s mouth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dewey<\/a>

Dewey Bunnell of the band America wrote and sang lead on the song “A Horse With No Name.”
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s a sign that makes the rounds on Facebook that frequently gets posted to my timeline. It reads: \u201cAll I\u2019m saying is, at any point during that ride through the desert, he could have given that horse a name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reference is, of course, to the song \u201cA Horse With No Name\u201d by the band America. My friends know I am a longtime fan of the band, so that\u2019s why this sign is frequently posted on my Facebook page.<\/p>\n

It turns out, though, that I have a little insight on this, thanks to the guy who wrote it.<\/p>\n

The song was written by Dewey Bunnell, who along with Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek, founded the band America in 1970. Its self-titled debut album, released in 1971, didn’t initially contain the song. But after\u00a0\u201cA Horse With No Name,\u201d which featured Bunnell on lead vocals as well, became a hit and went all the way to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, the “America” album was re-released in 1972 with the track.<\/p>\n

But the controversy surrounding the song wasn\u2019t that the horse didn\u2019t have a name, it was that some radio stations refused to play it because of its supposed references to heroin use. \u201cHorse\u201d is a slang term for heroin.<\/p>\n

\"HorseNoNameSign\"<\/a>I first interviewed Bunnell in 2006, and subsequently two more times over the years: once about the 1974 album \u201cHoliday,\u201d which is featured in \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues,\u201d and again recently about the making of the 1975 album \u201cHearts,\u201d which will be detailed in \u201cThe Vinyl Dialogues Volume II: Dropping the Needle,\u201d due to be released in August 2015.<\/p>\n

And straight from the horse\u2019s mouth, you might say, Bunnell has told me that \u201cA Horse With No Name\u201d is not about drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot at all. It actually has changed a little bit in my mind as the decades have gone by,\u201d said Bunnell in the 2006 interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central theme [of the song] was \u2018solitary thinking in a peaceful place.\u2019 The horse was really just a vehicle to get out there. I always loved the desert as a kid. \u2018The heat was hot\u2019 was an important feeling that I was trying to re-create there. [The song] was just a travelogue with an environmental message in there about saving the planet,\u201d said Bunnell.<\/p>\n

Bunnell said that when the band shot the cover for its third album \u201cHat Trick,\u201d which was released in 1973, the photo shoot did include horses and band members did go out into the desert for a couple days to get some shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had fun, but I don\u2019t recall the name of the horse I rode while I was out there,\u201d said Bunnell. \u201cA lot of horse people think I have a real working knowledge of the animal, but I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

So there you have it. Even when Dewey Bunnell had the chance to actually ride a horse in the desert, he still didn’t give it a name.<\/p>\n

Next time I talk to Dewey, I\u2019ll have to ask him flat out if in subsequent years, he\u2019s ever thought if that horse he wrote about has a name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a sign that makes the rounds on Facebook that frequently gets posted to my timeline. It reads: \u201cAll I\u2019m saying is, at any point during that ride through the desert, he could have given that horse a name.\u201d The reference is, of course, to the song \u201cA Horse With No Name\u201d by the band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14,21,67,77,104],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-a-horse-with-no-same","tag-america","tag-dan-peek","tag-dewey-bunnell","tag-gerry-beckley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}