A Horse With No Name | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
Verse 1
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
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.
Verse 2
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
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.
Chorus 1
||: Em | D69/F# :||
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.
Chorus tag 1
||: Em | D6add9/F# :|| x4
La la la la la la…
Verse 3
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
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 riverbed.
And the story it told of a river that flowed,
made me sad to think it was dead.
Chorus 2
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
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.
Chorus tag 2
||: Em | D6add9/F# :|| x4
La la la la la la…
Solo
||: Em | D6add9/F# :|| x4
Verse 4
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
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.
Verse 5
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
The ocean is a desert with its life underground.
And a perfect disguise above.
Under the cities, lies a heart made of ground.
But the humans will give no love.
Chorus 3
||: Em | D6add9/F# :||
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.
Outro (chorus tag 3)
||: Em | D6add9/F# :|| x16
||: La la la la la la… :|| to fade
A Horse With No Name’s chords and progressions
You could argue that since there are only two chords, A Horse With No Name makes a great beginner song.
Those two chords may sound complicated (Em and especially D6add9/F#) but they are easy to fret.
What the exact strumming is could be simplified or even dumbed down to be expressed as simple up-and-down strokes. An endless number of beginner guitar teachers have, after all, done just this.
However, as you listen closely to the original recording, you’ll find several guitars layered and way beyond your average beginner’s capability so should you want to play A Horse With No Name’s chords well, it’s not simple at all anymore.
What you have to do to get it right, is find a way to combine these parts into one acoustic guitar part, and to do that, you need TAB, to show you how to break up the strumming.
In general, the process of learning how to do this is essential as almost all recordings have more than one guitar so when playing live, you always encounter some kind of arrangement challenge.
Members get the TAB for how I would arrange this classic on one guitar. See this as a step in the direction of you playing this tune on your own, and learning how to combine parts like this in general.
Here’s a link to the complete lesson (members only): A Horse With No Name chord analysis and TAB.
Become a member today and get unlimited access to all step-by-step guitar courses, TAB for the songbook, the Self-Eliminating Practice Routine, and the eBook Spytunes Method.
A Horse With No Name was America’s most successful song
Released as the first single before the self-titled debut album America (1971), A Horse With No Name would become the band’s greatest success.
Charting in the top 5 in 8 countries, it eventually sold an impressive 1 million copies in the U.S. alone.
Since its release and initial success, it has stayed relevant for two main reasons; firstly as it “only has two chords” it is seen as a great beginner song for budding guitar players.
Secondly, the joke about the lyrics that you should know the horse’s name by now if you’ve been through the desert seems to never want to go away.
Apparently, there’s a theory that horse is slang for heroin and the lyrics are essentially referring to a bad trip. This is what Nile Rodgers calls the DHM (deeper hidden meaning) and claims to be the secret behind his success.
Perhaps the secret to A Horse With No Name’s success is all these elements put together.
A Horse With No Name chords | Related pages
Beginner Acoustic
This collection of beginner acoustic tunes will teach you how to arrange for one acoustic guitar, as well as how to create a supporting part.
Playing songs will help you with switching between open-position chords and give you the context you need to understand how music works theoretically.
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
America
Named America so people wouldn’t think they put on a fake accent, the band formed in London during the late 60s.
Their best tunes include A Horse With No Name, Ventura Highway, and Sister Golden Hair.
America on the web
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In the primarily acoustic genres of Country & Folk, you must acquire what matters the most: A repertoire. Nothing else will give you the gig.
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