I've Been to the Desert on a Horse with No Name~40 Years ago

[mickeyd]

While viewing an old episode of Breaking Bad a few months ago on AMC, this classic song was playing in the background while the Bryan Cranston character was singing along with it as he drove through the NM desert. Hard to believe that was 40 years ago.

I could not recall all of the words, so I looked it up and hit this website. Good memories of long ago...

"A Horse With No Name" broke more than the rules of English--it broke America as a major recording act in Britain, the U.S., and Europe. After reaching #3 in the U.K., it was released in the States, where it topped the Pop chart for three weeks in March/April 1972. It stirred some controversy--stations in Kansas City and elsewhere banned the song for supposed drug references ("horse" being a street name for heroin at the time).

The song's resemblance to Neil Young's work stirred some grumbling as well. Coincidentally or not, it was "A Horse With No Name" that bumped Young's "Heart Of Gold" out of the #1 slot on the U.S. Pop chart. "I know that virtually everyone, on first hearing, assumed it was Neil," Bunnell says. "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."

Lyrics: A Horse With No Name

 

[73ss454]

America - Horse With No Name [1973] Live - YouTube