C&L's Late Nite Music with America
By John Amato Friday Jul 25, 2008 10:00pm
Growing up a rocker in the 70's, I forgot how much we all listened to America.
"A Horse with No Name"
©2010 Crooks And Liars
Growing up a rocker in the 70's, I forgot how much we all listened to America.
"A Horse with No Name"
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Thanks for the flashback. It was good to hear America again, but I still wonder... what the hell does that song mean?
One of my all-time favourite songs. Maybe I'll saddle up Old Paint tomorrow morning and go for a spin. Thanks !
The Music Business as we knew it is History
Jay Johnson @ 1:
It's about being addicted to heroin.
As a young girl, I always listened to America. Things seemed so uncomplicated to a girl of 9 years of age. Now? Well lets just hope things get better. I mean, can it get any worse? (Snark)
....this is a good one but i did like ventura highway
Hey John, I was wondering what you thought of this guys article about the music movement in the 60's and 70's, being that you have some experience and California history. Maybe you could refute or confirm some of what he is saying due to your roots and/or connections? Anyway thought you'd find it interesting and love the LNMC aspect of the site. Peace. Take care.
P.S. Article includes references to America as well as CSNY.
well, I like Tin Man - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-VGxYAVx-0&feature=related
wow...fun i went back for seconds crisp and clean..thanks
I realize it's just opinion but this song always made me want to smash the radio with a baseball bat. It's just irritating.
Barbara Lewis Hello Stranger
You mean how much YOU listened to it. Deadly, dull, lifeless, Wonderbread rock. Had me pulling my longer hair THEN. Don't do this again -- prefer to keep my dinner down while looking through C&L.
gee, csn&y last night, america tonite...let's do the hippie time warp again.
no america at skippy's but we've got journey and mott the hoople and boston..does that count?
My favorite Tom Waits quote was back when he was being asked about groups like America.
His response was "I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup & shit out better lyrics than America."
I had a friend who saw Neil Young & Crazy Horse perform from the balcony right above the stage at Winterland, circa 1973. An idiot in that section, having mistaken Crazy Horse (the band) with Horse With No Name (the song) kept shouting down at ol' Neil to "Play Horse With No Name"! It started getting on Young's nerves, and he began to glare at the guy. Bill Graham finally dispatched one of his black shirted security people to tell the clown to STFU. The message didn't take, and the fool kept it up. About 15 minutes later, an infuriated Graham stormed into the section, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck (cursing him all the while), and threw him out of the building himself. According to my buddy, Graham looked and sounded like a madman doing it.
For calgarylady at 2-
I Ride An Old Paint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze-XU3y58Zg&feature=related
I went to high school with the guys in America at Central High School - an American dependents' school in Watford, England - in the late 60's. They called their band The Daze then and had a different drummer. They were the default band at our Friday night teen club on the air base. I kissed a girl for the first time after we danced to their cover of "My Girl". The lead singer, Gerry Beckley, was the son of an Air Force general. Nice guys.
Members of "The Sons of the Pioneers"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uRJHV4A_Q8
This song features some REALLY awkward (bad) lyrics.
"In the desert, they can't remember your name, 'cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain."
Oh! The insights into the human condition!
Alright, enough snarkiness for one day.
I thought that this song was one of the most boring songs ever written. Unless I'm mistaken, there's only 2 chords used in the whole song. The least they could have done was to throw in a key change somewhere. Sheesh.
Horse with no Name reminds me a man with no name.....nobody.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6aCMgy0ES4 - Dead Man Soundtrack by Neil Young
Jim Jarmusch, Neil Young, William Blake, and Johnny Depp=good movie
america had some cool hit songs but i remember hearing a radio interview with one of their members on the 10th anniversary of woodstock (1979) where he was whining that the music of that latter date was all "four-on-the-floor." that was his way of describing punk or disco. like his band was so much more genius than the clash, police, costello or the other acts that were starting to gloriously tear up the airwaves at the time.
it was a reactionary attitude they had back then.
oh well, i heard david crosby and costello became friends so all was groovy from then on. so, never mind.
Long Tooth @ 15
Haha! good story. Actually, for the longest time I thought Young sung it.
A little off track from a great band (America) but here is another great band, Dire Straits, and 8 great minutes of music.
Tunnel of Love
Long Tooth @ 15:
I think the real source of confusion is not the word "horse" but the fact that the vocals sound straight off of Harvest. I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking Neil Young sang this song.
"You're in the desert. You got nothing else to do. Name the freakin' horse."
-- the late Richard Jeni
That's what got me hooked on this song ... it sounded like Neil Young ... and that is good enough for me.
'A Horse with No Name' is one of the memories of my younger days that will always be very special to me.
Mark N. @ 20:
You're right...but have you listened to much of what passes for R & B these days? Quite a bit of that ugly stuff is only ONE chord! Yuck.
Just gimme some Sam & Dave:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_juH0AHvwk&feature=related
"I think the real source of confusion is not the word “horse” but the fact that the vocals sound straight off of Harvest. I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking Neil Young sang this song".
Yeah, you're absolutely right, a lot of people thought just that. Hell, the first time I heard it, I may have thought the same thing. Still, Graham's security people were always studiously cool, and they did ask the guy politely to knock it off. Knowing that is surely why Graham lost it.
still a cool song..funny the lyrics did seem to make sense then....Now...ahhh not so much....
You forgor about "America" BECAUSE you were a rocker in the 70's? Maybe that explains my memory loss, too.
Yes the lyrics were shitty, but it was actually a decent song. Nice bass and percussion and a pretty melody.
I've noticed that people will pick a certain song like this to ridicule and the criticism goes viral. Another song that comes to mind is Africa by Toto.
There are approximately 83 billion songs worse than those two songs, but whatever.
You kids know nothin bout crazy lyrics!
Mairzy Doats
http://youtube.com/watch?v=d4QImbUVHmk
True story.
I went to Intermediate School IS 61 in Staten Island, NY and right when this song was peaking in the charts we had an assembly in our school one day and they trotted America out to play this hit of theirs
Looking back on it, even though I was blown away, it was totally wasted on us kids, but I'm sure that our hipper teachers prolly wet their pants.
~Nyc
Schubertiad @ 19:
I knew many people, like me, fighting heroine addiction in Vietnam (trying to get cleaned-up before coming home). I was one of the lucky ones; I found it there, and left it there. Some of my friends were not so fortunate (as I later learned). "Horse with No Name" was an inspiring song for many of us, and the lyrics made much more sense than many realize.
Having gone through the whole garage band phase in high school, you come to realize that people and their opinions about music, it's like Dirty Harry says about assholes; everyone has one. But like a lot of art, you get out of it what you bring to it. I couldn't stand America back in the 70s, considered them bubble gum. But, listening to it as an old fart, I can see the talent in it. Go figure.
As bland as they'll ever be....
A little Led Zeppelin never gets old.
Over The Hills And Far Away
Published in 1970 this one should count and was my anthem at the time.
Still true (if not more so) today. http://www.steppenwolf.com/lyr/mnnster.html
Would have cut and paste the lyrics but wasn't sure if that was kosher on this site.
If you know the lyrics you know they fit, if you don't know them, be sure to look them up, you will not be disappointed. Kicks the s*&t out of Horse with no name, that's for sure.
enjoy
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't America loose favor when they played in South Africa when most entertainers were boycotting to oppose white minority rule. I remember being surprised and disappointed in them.
Angel of Mercy@28 Agree 100%. R&B today is an embarrassment! However that Sam and Dave footage was spectacular!
I was once at a Los Lobos show at First Avenue in Minneapolis. They were having some mic problems, and while a tech guy worked on it, David Hidalgo started strumming the opening to "Horse With No Name", and Cesar Rosas looked at him over his pushed down shades and said "Man, that's the worst song anyone ever wrote."
To my mind America has always been a prime example of the truism that all bands named after a geographic location suck.
P.D. @ 5:
So am I understanding this correctly? You are holding up America as an example of how music was better in the 70's than now? I think most music out today is pretty awful too but for me America is a great example that its always been like that. You have to do a bit of work to find interesting music and most of what you hear on the radio is commercial garbage. Its true now and was true then. As an example Frank Zappa was making amazing music in the 70's but he rarely got played on any radio station and when he did it was usually the most simplistic songs, not the sophisticated mixtures of rock, jazz, and classical music.
That was a lame song then and it's a lame song now. Really hack lyrics. Wikipedia says: "Originally entitled "Desert Song," the song was renamed at Samwell's suggestion. It was written on a rainy day in England, in 1971, and was intended to capture the feel of the hot, dry desert Bunnell remembered from his childhood travels through the Arizona and New Mexico desert when his family lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base."
It's funny that someone felt the need to make this video look like historic archival footage. I'm sure the original is in color and in good condition, but was so boring on its own that they felt a need to tart it up somehow. More lame.
Reality check: John Cale and Lou Reed performing 'Heroin'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8VIXnTL6O0
Well John,
you have certainly brought back a range of "memories" with that one. Some of the commenters were ready to barf (#12) or felt the need to attack the 9-year-old incarnation of PD (#5).
On my browser, you need to actually hit the PLAY button to see/hear this video. Unless y'alls is set to auto-play, I think maybe you are into self-abuse.
I agree with Graham at #32:
There are approximately 83 billion songs worse than those two songs, but whatever.
This is one of my favorite C&L sections.
I love reading all of the comments and opinions on the music presented, and even more I like
to listen to the links that you all put up because they are either songs that I've never heard, or haven't heard or thought of in a long time.
Many thanks to all of you who make Sunday Mornings nice...cue Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" :)
I wrote the Bill Graham recollection last night before I sacked out, and woke up this morning humming that goddamn song. That was a couple of hours ago, and I'm still doing it.
cue Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuM3SteeAgY
It was so nice not to click on that link. Song's as exciting as reading a description of a golf game.
It was this abomonation and the Steve Miller Band that made me turn off my radio and not turn it on again for about seven years. Hell has this music on 24/7 into eternity.
Two chords, lame lyrics, a sound stolen whole from Neil Young (who can actually write songs), and the worst job of lipsyncing on youtube. What's not to like?
This song alWAYs reminded me of a girl named Wendy, don't ask me Y. :-)
popomo @ 42:
That's generally true! But how about Boston? Or Warsaw, which was renamed "Joy Division"? Perhaps you could say they weren't as good when they were called Warsaw, but they'd barely begun to learn how to play. Great band, though, Joy Division.
Probably a few more exceptions out there. Anyone care to offer any others?
Ugh.
I grew up in the 70s preferring the heavier stuff of bands like Led Zep, Sabbath, Purple, The Who, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Angel (their first four albums only), Aerosmith, and Rush, but I always liked America and The Eagles and a few other bands known for that Southern Cal mellow sound of the late 60s and 70s. Great song, but Sister Golden Hair was even better.
'Things like "Take Me To The Pilot," I haven't the froggiest idea what the song is about.'
- Bernie Taupin, on his own lyrics
Most groups have one or two songs where the lyrics are pure nonsense and have no meaning. America holds the record for having every single song they wrote themselves be total nonsense.
And there is also something wrong with a group that thinks it's "cute" to have every album start with the same letter or word. (Greg Kihn is excepted from this rule.)
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