"Horse With No Name" came up on my iTunes shuffle yesterday and I could not agree more... "and things"?!? Is that really the best that they could do. Were our folks all so stoned out of their gourds that they thought this crap was prolific?!?
And I'm not entirely sure why, but this statement "I’ve never really paid much attention to Jackson Browne" surprised me. Though it could be my proclivity to lump Jackson Browne in with Timothy B. Schmit and Nils Lofgren.
jasonhare
· 7 months ago
Yeah, it kind of surprises me too, especially because I've played two Browne songs in one of my bands. Although I've never listened to Nils either, and, well, you know how I feel about Schmit.
DwDunphy
· 7 months ago
There are worse things about "Horse With No Name" than "...and things" or the non-existent chord progression... How about the utter anemia in the singing? That counts as a vocal melody? "After THREE DAYS i LET the HORSE RUN FREE cause the DESERT had TURNED to SEA?"
I listened to a song with a voice with no soul...
dslifton
· 7 months ago
Randy Newman once said of A Horse With No Name that it's about a kid who thinks he's taken acid.
spider
· 5 months ago
Nobody really cares about the technical shit - about how easy "Horse With No Name" is to play, etc. Better songs have gotten by with a lot less.
That said..."Horse With No Name" IS a hokey song, isn't it?
Keilani Goggins
· 7 months ago
Good Chart Attack! I love that Joe Tex song, even though it's dangerously close to date rape. :)
Kind of embarrassed to admit this, but Def Jef sampled "I Gotcha" for his song "Give It Here."
AND he produced the theme song for "That's So Raven."
Jeff
· 7 months ago
Agreed on Neil Young's voice (and Dylan's, for that matter). You also are dead on about this typically great/crappy chart from the early '70s. That's just the way it was. At least you got exposed to a wide variety of stuff.
JonCummings
· 7 months ago
Thanks for introducing me to that Sonny & Cher song, Jason -- you bastard. How did that thing make the Top 10? It looks the whole time like Sonny (who has NO rhythm) is lip-syncing, while Cher is hair-syncing (worst wig ever). But the look on Cher's face at the end is priceless! It says, "I just had my first solo #1 single -- and now I'm back singing with THIS doofus?"
RE: America -- I had a severe disappointment last weekend in Palm Springs, when we went to this park where a tram climbs 5000 feet up a mountain. One of the parking lots, which were all named after desert animals, was called the "Alligator Lizazrd Lot." This was my first clue, after 36 years, that America weren't just babbling nonsense when they sang "alligator lizards in the air" during "Ventura Highway." Actually, I haven't seen any evidence that the alligator lizard can fly, but here's an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: they "are notable for their fearless self-defense; they will often bite and defecate if handled." So, watch yourself.
That Liza Minnelli clip is really quite amazing -- it's forcing me to re-assess her (at least the '70s version of her). Though I must admit, I was REALLY excited when I misread and thought she was singing "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," which is one of my most treasured 45s.
Finally, that Joel Dorn clip is fantastic. The story he tells about the secretary at the 6:00 mark? Now THAT's the kind of detail I wish Tom Werman would get into in his posts for us.
jim
· 7 months ago
those were the days.
jabartlett
· 7 months ago
If the Stylistics sang "I like chocolate milk," I'd be down with it. If they sang the damn Philadephia Yellow Pages, I'd be down with it.
Beau
· 7 months ago
Technically, isn't that chord Dadd6add9/F#?
DwDunphy
· 7 months ago
Showoff.
breadalbane
· 7 months ago
From the late great Richard Jeni: "You're in the desert. You got nothing else to do. NAME THE FREAKIN' HORSE!"
Old_Davy
· 6 months ago
Ummmm, isn't it "Horse With No Head"? The great thing about America is that despite inane lyrics, simple melodies and an overload of sap, this third-rate CS&N are really very easy to enjoy. And from that Stern clip, you can see they don't take themselves too seriously. To me they sound like a bunch of hippies that just got lucky.
The Roberta Flack song has got to be one of the most gorgeously haunting songs to ever hit #1.
seattlesaint
· 6 months ago
Music critic Robert "The Dean" Christgau said Day Dreaming was one of the ten best song of 1972
All Comments
And I'm not entirely sure why, but this statement "I’ve never really paid much attention to Jackson Browne" surprised me. Though it could be my proclivity to lump Jackson Browne in with Timothy B. Schmit and Nils Lofgren.
I listened to a song with a voice with no soul...
That said..."Horse With No Name" IS a hokey song, isn't it?
Kind of embarrassed to admit this, but Def Jef sampled "I Gotcha" for his song "Give It Here."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl4b_8ZmPX0
AND he produced the theme song for "That's So Raven."
RE: America -- I had a severe disappointment last weekend in Palm Springs, when we went to this park where a tram climbs 5000 feet up a mountain. One of the parking lots, which were all named after desert animals, was called the "Alligator Lizazrd Lot." This was my first clue, after 36 years, that America weren't just babbling nonsense when they sang "alligator lizards in the air" during "Ventura Highway." Actually, I haven't seen any evidence that the alligator lizard can fly, but here's an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: they "are notable for their fearless self-defense; they will often bite and defecate if handled." So, watch yourself.
That Liza Minnelli clip is really quite amazing -- it's forcing me to re-assess her (at least the '70s version of her). Though I must admit, I was REALLY excited when I misread and thought she was singing "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," which is one of my most treasured 45s.
Finally, that Joel Dorn clip is fantastic. The story he tells about the secretary at the 6:00 mark? Now THAT's the kind of detail I wish Tom Werman would get into in his posts for us.
The Roberta Flack song has got to be one of the most gorgeously haunting songs to ever hit #1.