A Horse With No Name

“Horse With No Name” by America

 

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’t remember your name

'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

 

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’t remember your name

'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

 

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’t remember your name

'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

 

This song can be interpreted in a few ways, but I think it’s about someone who has taken heroin. It includes a “horse with no name.” The horse brings him to the desert to get out of the rain because no one would expect it to “rain” in the desert. The rain represents all his problems and the horse, which represents heroin (It’s a street name for it), brings him away from his problems.

In the first set of lyrics, “On the first part of the journey” is when he starts taking heroin. Throughout the first set, he’s talking about how being addicted made him feel good. “The heat was hot and the ground was dry but the air was full of sound,” says that it was bad, but he liked it.

            “It felt good to be out of the rain,” in the second set means that he felt good because all his pain went away ever since he started his addiction. The last two lines in the second set mean that he was so wasted that he can’t remember his name.

            “After two days in the desert sun, my skin began to turn red,” says that he’s been addicted for two days already and he’s getting rashes, which is an effect of taking heroin. “I was looking at a river bed,” is a harder to interpret. I think he might be talking about his vein and how it was dead from the heroin.

            “After nine days I let the horse run free ‘Cause the desert had turned to sea,” means that after being addicted for nine days, he had to give up heroin. If rain represents his previous problems, then the ocean represents all his new problems. Taking heroin lead to so many problems that he couldn’t continue it. “The ocean is a desert with its life underground, and the perfect disguise above,” from my view, means that although the heroin seems to get rid of all his problems, it’s actually making things worse.

            This song isn’t only a great song; it also has a meaning. It’s about someone starting heroin and getting through the addiction and how it feels being addicted.