A Horse With No Name

The song is NOT about Heroin!! I mean, seriously!! Does the band Godsmack's name refer to a deity on heroin?!?!?!

The America album was released in Britain to moderate response. Though "I Need You" was discussed as an initial single, Warner Bros. asked the band to come up with another song that would break them on the radio. So, five months after the album came out, they went into a small London studio and demoed four new tunes. Among them was an enigmatic Bunnell number with a catchy rhythm that was initially called "Desert Song." Much to the band's surprise, that was the song that Warners chose to release.

The band went into Morgan Sound Studios (where Beckley had played bass on demo sessions a few years before) to record the song, with Samwell producing and Kim Haworth brought in on drums. At Samwell's suggestion, "Desert Song" was retitled "A Horse With No Name."

A tune as famous as this one deserves a detailed explanation, though Bunnell suggests that its meaning has evolved over time: "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."

The imagery came from Dewey's childhood: "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 [in California]. 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."

Bunnell adds an aside about his choice of language in the song: "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't no 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."

I saw this song as a tune about someone who tries to escape their life, but through his journies realizes everywhere he goes, his problems follow him, everywhere is the same.

-On the first part of the journey I was looking at all the life There were plants and birds and rocks and things-

Our hero starts out on a journey, and notices how much life there is. It's odd, to find such life in the desert.

-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-

The rain is where he started from- the rain is all his problems, so he goes to the desert, where you wouldn't expect all this rain (problems) to follow. I interpret this as his time of solitude, of finding himself. He sort of shuts off from life and looks introspectively, because out in the desert, there's only him and the horse with no name. The horse could be many things, I haven't decided what it means to me. However, one thought is it's his own desire to flee- the 'horse' is carrying him off to the desert.

-After two days in the desert sun My skin began to turn red -

As he's looking inwardly, he's finding a lot of crap he doesn't want to deal with. The solitude is getting to him. He can't live alone with his thoughts.

-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-

I think this refers to some sort of a relationship- when he left, he broke this relationship, and now it's dead. It could also be some character trait of himself (good sense of humour, positive outlook, ect) that was taken away when he was in the rain.

-After nine days I let the horse run free 'Cause the desert had turned to sea-

Finally, he can't take the solitude, so he goes back into the world again. But he doesn't go back to whereever he came from, he moves to somewhere else.

-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-

So, he settles down into this new life, expecting it to be perfect. But he finds it isn't. Like where he came from, the water (problems) are still there. Also, there are the parts of the desert- he's still being introspective.

-Under the cities lies a heart made of ground But the humans will give no love-

People are shallow and messed up, no matter where he goes.

However, I really like Tack's understanding of the song- very well put.

I actually hung out with Dewey, the lead singer of America, last year and we asked him what the song meant. He said he wrote the song in while he was in Europe, on tour I believe. He said it was so rainy and dark all the time and he was just sick of being there. The song is basically his fantisy of being out of rainy Europe where everyone knew who he was. He went to a sunny place where nobody knew him.

I'll refrain from my feelings about people discarding all the imagery in this song just to try and sound like experts when they say "DOOD ITS HEROIN HORSE MEANS HEROIN! YAY! IM SO SMART AND COOL LOLZ!"

Basically, if the only word you can come up with for this song is heroin, how do you explain the last lyrics "Under the cities lies a heart made of ground, but the humans will give no love"?

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.

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!"

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. The desert can be a near mystical/impersonal place, especially if you are close to heat-stroke, lol. 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.

The whole "Horse = Heroin" thing really springs from a whole different equation...the one that says "the 1960's and 70's = drugs; musicians do drugs; people on drugs write things that sound strange; therefore, all 1960's and 70's songs with strange lyrics = songs about drugs! Q.E.D." (Q.E.D., in this case, meaning "Quoting Endless Dumbsh!t.")

However...there's another metaphorical horse that fits the lyrics of this song even better than the creaky old drug interpretation: the shaman's horse, which is another name for the sound of the drumbeat that carries the shaman into a trance state, into the otherworld on a visionary experience. Such a horse has no name because it isn't flesh and blood, it's a spirit horse made of sound.

To me the song is about a kind of vision quest in the desert...or else a mundane trip that (due to a little too much sunlight or too little water) became a visionary experience to the traveler, and caused a spiritual awakening.

I really disagree with the song referring to drugs...the singer finds himself in a desert, and slowly descends into madnesss that was probably caused by dehydration, and then he most likely died 9 days later. A prime example of how isolating yourself can be deadly.

There are people who think about a song for 60 seconds, and the first thing that comes to their mind, they are forever after sure the song is about. And then it's always drugs, death, or some wildly implausible scenario.

The guy's in the desert to think. He's spending quite some time out there. He's thinking. He does not die. The horse is not a metaphor. End of story. Even if the songwriter wasn't on record saying this, it's obvious from the lyrics themselves.

I love how these posters are bent on this song being about Heroin.