A Horse With No Name - question ?

[Ldg]

Concerning the song, "A Horse With No Name", you know the America one "I've been through the desert on a horse with no name". Deeply important question : What has no name, the horse or the narrator ?

Punctuation and grammar suggests it's the horse.......

[LeeS]

I think you'll find the title sort of gives it away...

[Ldg]

I would agree but......then the lyrics go on to say 'in the desert you can't remember your name', which could hardly apply to the horse? Well it might I suppose, I can just about imagine a horse roaming across the desert thinking 'oh no, I've forgotten my name'

I admit that I'd always assumed it referred to the horse, but then I heard it yesterday and suddenly was unsure......! I'm currently siding against it being the horse.

It also has the great line 'the heat was hot', in case that provides any clue

[kelvinMunson]

Not quite correct LD, the lyrics go on..........


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.

[Ldg]

Intriguing....some lyric sites quote 'can' and some 'can't'.... I always hear it as 'can't' and it seems to make at least some sense that way.........?

Otherwise the horse, or the jockey, can only remember its name in the desert.....?

[Ldg]

BTW, I never believed alleged 'alternate' explanations for horse metaphors in this song. As clearly denied by the songwriter Dewey Bunnell, even in relatively recent interviews. He says the song's essentially a travelogue (not the Hotel chain ). And the 'horse' definitely was not a substance reference.

Maybe Mr Bunnell is here on the forum, you never know who's reading I suppose ?! In which case we could clear this name business from the horse's mouth In an interview in 2008, he said something along the lines that 37 years later people are still discussing what this song means.

And if it wasn't the horse which had no name, that would surely finish off speculation about many alternate meanings.........

[Bran Kulez]

maybe it's the desert that has no name...

[JaS]

maybe it's the desert that has no name...

As far as I can tell neither the man, the horse nor the desert had a name? In fact the song writer didn't appear to know the names of half of the stuff he was looking at

'There were plants and birds and rocks and things'

Regards,
JaS

[Ldg]

Maybe there was a typo and it was meant to be "A horse with no mane" ?

[normdoty]

i always thought the "horse" was a reference to heroin. but according to ld its not a substance reference.

[Ldg]

Explicitly denied by the songwriter several times over the years, including a transcript of an interview in 2007 I read. Personally, I've never thought it, but the song is fairly hippie in context and loose enough to read many things into it, and I can see the argument. But the man says no.

Plus, if it's the rider who has no name, the weight of argument shifts further away from that line, I think.

[goatbreath]

Woke up this mornin and my Mama was gone..OOH E Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep..This song was obviously about zoophillia with a canary,,but the canary was not a willing partner..So the canary escaped..Now the man who ravished the unwilling canary is mourning it's departure.

Is the song actually about anything..??? Is it just a bunch of cobbled together lyrics with a catchy melody..Were they indulging in hemp based products when writing it..

[paul401]

Mmmmm, interesting, but would that be a canary with no name?

Paul

PS; The singers name we do know, Sally Carr

[Ldg]

For years I thought 'Canary In a Coma' made no sense, you know The Police song............I sort of imagined a canary flat on its back, legs in the air........'You live your life like a canary in a coma'.......made little sense to me really. Then one fine day it dawned, he's singing 'coalmine'

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep was premptive of the Father Ted episode 'Burpy Burpy Cheap Sheep' in which Chris the sheep has a bad case of nerves.......