Talk:A Horse with No Name

Rewrite
this is one badly written article. by the way, i thought Neil Young made it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.113.26.19 (talk 01:15, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I just did a total rewrite, so I hope it's at least a little more informative and encyclopedic. Kafziel 16:57, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Intro
I just changed 'with' in the first sentence to 'With'. This is how it should be following standard capitalization conventions, as well as the way in the title of the page. If there is some particular caveat, please change it and also use [sic] to show so. &mdash;auk 06:50, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Cover versions
I first heard it performed by Disneyland After Dark (now D.A.D.), however there must have been quite a few cover versions of this tune. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.12.132.160 (talk) 00:38, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Banned
From what I've read, it was banned by certain stations, not by municipalities. Pretty big difference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.162.59.13 (talk) 07:44, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Nonsense song
Has anyone else remarked upon the fact which I've always noticed, which is that the song really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, despite Bunnell's explanation that it was inspired by some childhood memory? I think the reason so many people make fun of the lyrics is that they're sort of bizarre. marbeh raglaim 23:55, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Okay, seriously?
"It is featured in an episode of the Simpsons where Marge and Homer are getting it on in bed" Um... there has to be a better way of wording that. -Charlie —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.231.162.9 (talk) 19:55, 16 February 2007 (UTC).

Fair use rationale for Image:America album.jpg
Image:America album.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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Fairly Unfair
The entire "Reception" section seems overly critical, often times just plain mean. The whole thing seems extemely negative, despite the fact this song was a major hit, there's about two sentences about it's spot near the top. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.211.212.177 (talk) 08:36, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Instrumentation
Can anyone help me in determining exactly what instruments are being played? I've never really been sure. It's obvious that there's at least an acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and bongos; but it sounds like there may be a second acoustic guitar part during the chorus, a possible hi-hat part (though it may just be the sound of the guitar's actual acoustic sounds as it is being strummed), and a wood block or claves on the even beats. Thanks for anyone who can help. Metsfanmax 18:51, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

There is clearly a drum kit. I hear a hi-hat, kick drum, and snare (side-stick) enter on the second verse (0:25). They drop out one bar before the guitar solo. There is a tambourine with an emphasized back-beat during the first three bars of the solo, then a snare/tom fill in bar four. After that, the kit comes back with full snare for the remainder of the solo. You can hear all of this pretty well on the remix that is on Highway: 30 Years Of America. Jawilli1 (talk) 17:37, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

Plagiarism??
The second paramgraph of Reception is word for word the same as the cited source. Unless the author is the same I don't see anything in the source that allows for a copy/paste of that info here. --66.60.137.134 (talk) 21:31, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Featured in:
Friends: Episode no. 119. Season 5, Ep 22: The One with Joey's Big Break —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.114.211.44 (talk) 21:53, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Song for new guitarists
Due to its simplistic composition (i.e. two chords) I've always known and been told about this song as one for brand new guitarists to learn - is this reputation justified, or does no-one consider the song like this? --128.243.253.114 (talk) 15:20, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Seems to be right - a friend of mine just starts to learn playing, and the first song she came home with yesterday, was this one :) 11:07, 11 October 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.20.234.105 (talk)

Removed links to fansite
I could find no evidence that the fansite linked in the external links section of this article was hosting any of America's materials with a license (including lyrics, album covers, audio files of covers of songs, etc). WP:ELNEVER is clear that we cannot link to pages containing unlicensed third-party material. Dcoetzee 05:30, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

"name" or "mane"?
I have wondered for years if the song as originally written said "a horse with no mane", since this would have rhymed better with "rain" in the next line, but someone changed it to "a horse with no name" subsequently, and "name" stuck? (It would be strange to remark that the horse has no name, but being maneless might make more sense as something to remark on.) Is a copy of the original handwritten lyric page available somewhere so I can put this idea to rest one way or the other? (Maybe I'll never find out.) 5.150.92.82 (talk) 17:03, 14 December 2015 (UTC)


 * After the horse made them so much money, it could be time to give it a name after all this years. --80.89.73.1 (talk) 13:13, 29 December 2018 (UTC)


 * But they let the horse run free, so they'd have to find it again before they could do that.Algr (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 01:42, 4 May 2021 (UTC)


 * How about Dobbin? Martinevans123 (talk) 19:36, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on A Horse with No Name. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20071002034300/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/america/albums/album/304443/rid/5942232/ to http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/america/albums/album/304443/rid/5942232

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Composition is covered, story is not
Hello, I see that in this article the composition of the song is covered, but its story is not. I often see this bias of totally neglecting a son'gs story and focusing entirely on its composition and technical aspects of it in forums for a long time now.

Given that "songs" as such were originally meant to be rather tales than music I'm speaking of what was happening several hundreds of years ago - this shift kind of disturbs me. It redminds me of the fact that there are Wikipedia articles oainfully listing every minor version number of software, but at the same time articles on social themes are often totally lacking. All in all it's a bias towards technical aspects. Alrik Fassbauer (talk) 15:36, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

Removing songs from commercials
Removing songs from commercials is due to the retail apocalypse phenomenon, and since the YouTube video is not available on that website. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.225.3.54 (talk) 11:34, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Breaking Bad
There's an episode of Breaking Bad where the song plays on the radio (right before Walter White gets pulled over for driving with a shattered windshield), and the name of the episode is literally Cabello sin Nombre, which is just "A Horse with No Name" in Spanish. That should be in the pop culture section.
 * User:Binksternet removed it here, although he did forget to also remove Category:Breaking Bad songs. So he might have a view. It was a memorable episode, but I'm mot sure its use in that series is, or was, a defining characteristic of the song. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:18, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
 * It isn't enough to prove that the the song appeared in the TV series, or that the song provided the basis for the episode name. Wikipedia is based on WP:SECONDARY sources. Those kinds of independent sources establish that something was discussed by the media, showing that it is important to the topic. Binksternet (talk) 01:52, 1 October 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree. I'm unable to find any. But at least we know the song isn't about heroin, except it might be, in Breaking Bad? Should the Category remain with no article content to support it? Martinevans123 (talk) 09:25, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

Friends
I added the reference to Friends that is now in the article under 'In Popular Culture'. (See the entry by 2600:6c4a:103f:ce2a:f1ab:4157:f11c:236c) Because of the sheer popularity of the series, I believe that my edit is relevant. Sgir.v (talk) 18:59, 30 April 2023 (UTC)