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SSG Donald H "Don" Bates
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Good one, I had a horse and her name was Bonnie.
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
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Haven't heard this in a long time, thanks.
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LTC Stephen F.
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Edited >1 y ago
Thank you, my friend Sgt (Join to see) for posting the music video of America performing "A horse with no name"

A Horse with No Name written by Dewey Bunnell
Lyrics
"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"

Background
"The Story Behind The Song: A Horse With No Name by America
By Dave Ling (Classic Rock) October 01, 2016 Classic Rock
America were a band of US Air Force brats who first formed in the UK to celebrate their American musical roots... and ended up writing an international hit
What price would any sane bookmaker offer on three American youths meeting one another in the UK, scoring a hit with a single that wasn’t even on their debut album’s first pressing, then becoming one of the biggest-selling acts of the 70s? Probably very long odds. But in fact it’s exactly what happened when guitarist/singer Dewey Bunnell, pianist/singer Gerry Beckley and guitarist/singer Dan Peek – all sons of US servicemen – crossed paths during the late 60s.

What price would any sane bookmaker offer on three American youths meeting one another in the UK, scoring a hit with a single that wasn’t even on their debut album’s first pressing, then becoming one of the biggest-selling acts of the 70s? Probably very long odds. But in fact it’s exactly what happened when guitarist/singer Dewey Bunnell, pianist/singer Gerry Beckley and guitarist/singerDan Peek – all sons of US servicemen –crossed paths during the late 60s.
“Our fathers were stationed at an Air Force base in West Ruislip, just outside of London,” says Bunnell, composer of the song that would change their lives. Bunnell was actually born in the Yorkshire town of Harrogate.
“We were fortunate to be in England at such a pivotal time in music,” he observes, “but our first album was also influenced by the best of the American bands – that whole magical, multi-layered vocal harmony thing.”
The trio decided to call themselves America, and got a deal with Warner Brothers after a gig at London’s Roundhouse and some radio exposure from Bob Harris. Enlisting hot session men Joe Osbourne and Hal Blaine on bass and drums, they recorded their debut album at London’s Trident Studios. Released in January 1972, it did moderately well.
Much of the material that appeared on America had been written on borrowed acoustic guitars, as the trio tapped into the slumbering West Coast zeitgeist of The Eagles, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and Linda Ronstadt. However, the group’s manager believed even bigger things were possible and sent them to Morgan Studios to add some extra songs.
Among them was a Bunnell tune called Desert Song that they had thought lacked hit potential. Later re-titled A Horse With No Name, it went on to top the American singles chart for three weeks in early 1972 and reached No.3 in the UK.

“Everybody had a song called I Need You in mind as the single,” Bunnell chuckles. “It was initially felt that A Horse With No Name was good but perhaps a little too quirky. At first it felt like a bit of a novelty song. It was a shock that it became so popular.”
Neil Young grumbled a little at the tune’s familiarity when A Horse With No Name displaced his own Heart Of Gold from the top of the US chart. Bunnell shrugs: “I never shied away from the fact that I was inspired by Neil, who was and remains a great hero.”
With its lyrics of feeling ‘good to be out of the rain’, the song was a metaphor for escaping the drudgery of everyday life in the city – not promoting drug use, as a Kansas City radio station that banned it wrongly assumed [‘horse’ being a slang term for heroin].
“I’d spent time in the desert and always loved nature,” Bunnell says, “and being in rainy old England, maybe I mentally gravitated back towards all of that.”
America notched up several more hits after relocating back to the US, and in 1975 achieved the considerable feat of outselling every other Warner Bros artist in their homeland. And yet a full decade separates the group’s other two British chart entries, Ventura Highway [from the trio’s second album, Homecoming, in 1972], and 1982’s You Can Do Magic.

“We let things slide in Britain,” Bunnell rues. “We left it so darned long that we couldn’t get a gig in London.”

In what Bunnell describes as “the first stumble of our career”, Baptist-raised Dan Peek quit in 1977 for religious reasons. But the remaining two ploughed on through both good times [which include being produced by George Martin; Janet Jackson borrowing the riff to Ventura Highway for her 2001 single Someone To Call My Lover] and bad [winding up on an independent label; playing in South Africa during the no-go days of apartheid].

Although they did once try to drop A Horse With No Name from their live set, after promoters intervened it was reinstated and remains there today."
https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-the-song-a-horse-with-no-name-by-america

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