America

One-hit wonders from the 70's are really marvelous things. These bands worked hard their whole lives, and they're only remembered for one shining achievement. But then you look at the rest of their catalog, and realize that these bands had more talent and pure artistry in their worst songs than artists today have in their entire, multi-platinum oeuvre (Lady Gaga! *cough*...).

If I was really trying to be cool, I'd be here telling you about how much I love these band's unknown songs, and how their one hit was actually their lesser offerings. But I'm not that cool, and here, I'm just going to share with you a one hit that never fails to blow my mind.

"Horse With No Name" is a song of a time, it has to be listened to alongside a copy of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire and the knowledge that the deserts of America were a spiritual home for the fringes of society, and that those refuges of counter-culture were continually under attack from developers and a Republican government that saw progress as littering the American wastelands with irrigation ditches and superhighways.

But the desert is bigger and stronger than us all. Nixon was disgraced and the deserts are still there, still menacing us with their violent beauty.