Jo, one of the percussionists and backing singers in our Cottenham Coffeeshop Collective, suggested we do a cover of the America song A horse with no name, so I borrowed a MIDI drumtrack for the song complete with congas and such and did a quick arrangement singing with my guitar, added some harmony parts, did a bassline and then got my daughter to clack a couple of plastic cups together (in the absence of coconut shells) to get a sound like a horse walking off in to the distance for the fade.
I heard this song as a child growing up and in my teens, without double checking, always assumed (for some reason) that it was Neil Young. I’m not alone, apparently lots of people over the years have assumed it’s Young when in fact it’s a band from Ruislip (near London) formed by three kids who just happened to be the sons of American servicemen stationed in the UK (original members Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek were born in the US, Dewey Bunnell was born in England). Anyway, that aside, there is confusion surrounding Ryan Adams where hecklers in his audiences often shout out the titles of songs by Bryan Adams, such as Run to you and Summer of ’69. Apparently, he performer the former song with his band live recently to shut down the endless heckling.
I took the photo of the cart horse standing in a snowy field near where we live a couple of winters ago…with the right post-processing it almost looks like a near-desert scene than snow, I think…
