{"id":482107,"date":"2026-02-15T18:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482107\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T18:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:53:11","slug":"how-classic-rocks-most-american-song-was-born-in-yorkshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482107\/","title":{"rendered":"How classic rock’s most American song was born in Yorkshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"America<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ MUBI)<\/p>\n

Sun 15 February 2026 4:00, UK <\/p>\n

Yorkshire<\/a> \u2013 God\u2019s own country and once the industrial heart of an entire empire \u2013 this green and pleasant paradise has given the world so much over the centuries, from the invention of film, to the world\u2019s oldest football club, and, of course, Marks and Spencer. Even arguably, the star-spangled song in the history of classic rock has its roots in Yorkshire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upon initial listening, it is utterly impossible to escape the overwhelming Americanism of the 1971 folk-rock classic \u2018A Horse with No Name\u2019. Its country twang and plodding rhythm immediately conjure up images of great plains and technicolour westerns starring recognisable yet problematic actors. Aside from anything else, the band that made the song into a transatlantic hit were made up the children of US Air Force members and were called\u2026 America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, like many things attributed to the United States, the true origins of \u2018A Horse With No Name\u2019<\/a> began thousands of miles away from the land of cowboys and horses. The line-up of America might have been, well, American, but it was in London that they first came together, while their fathers were stationed in the English capital. <\/p>\n

In fact, premier songwriter Dewey Bunnell was actually born in the leafy surroundings of Harrogate in North Yorkshire \u2013 making him perhaps the only Yorkshireman to be called Dewey. <\/p>\n

So, despite being an American citizen, Bunnell\u2019s upbringing was largely influenced by those Yorkshire surroundings, and it was there that he struck upon his magnum opus, \u2018A Horse With No Name\u2019. As he recalled during a 2020 interview with American Songwriter, \u201cThe song was born out of pure boredom. I had just graduated high school in London, and my family moved up to Yorkshire, where my mother was from.\u201d <\/p>\n

That combination of boredom and a certain degree of resentment over having to swap the fast-moving surroundings of London for the Roman baths of Harrogate eventually led to that legendary song. \u201cI wanted to stay in London, so I moved into the home of a friend and his family,\u201d Bunnell recalled of his relocation to Dorset. <\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica had signed with Warner Brothers and had a record out. We had been recording and were in full gear, playing shows and recording,\u201d he continued. \u201cI wrote the song alone in this guy\u2019s bedroom that I shared. I wrote it all in one fell swoop. I wrote it in a couple hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

That one fell swoop ended up being America\u2019s defining moment as a band, with \u2018A Horse With No Name\u2019 topping the US singles charts and peaking at number three in the UK, becoming one of the defining songs of a particularly productive year<\/a> in rock history during the process.<\/p>\n

So, while America\u2019s greatest hit is unavoidably indebted to the band\u2019s cultural roots in the United States, it is worth remembering that it was written in Dorset and influenced more than a little by Dewey Bunnell\u2019s relationship with Harrogate \u2013 a town whose musical impact often goes underrated, even by the standards of Yorkshire, which has produced some of Britain\u2019s all-time greatest artists, spanning the spectrum from fellow Harrogatonian Barry Dransfield to Hull\u2019s Spiders from Mars. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ MUBI) Sun 15 February 2026 4:00, UK Yorkshire \u2013 God\u2019s own country and once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2095,64,63,134,136,141837],"class_list":{"0":"post-482107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-yorkshire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}