Monday I was at an establishment that plays alternative/techno/rock/dance, and generally some pretty hip slick and cool stuff. I’m usually listening to classic rock, and top 40 pop from the mid 60s to the mid 80s, and like it. I really don’t want to branch out that much, but I realize there is a lot of good new or almost new music I’ve missed out on.
Well, a song came over the speakers that just blew me away, and I’m hoping a Doper will be able to help me ID the song and artist. I’m not sure of the name of the song or artist, but by the way that it sounded, the name of the song could have easily been “Ride The White Pony.” And I can’t get it out of my head.
This morning I Googled White Pony, and there were several pages of White Pony. Great, I thought. It looked to be from ’99 or ’01, by The Deftones. There was a CD called White Pony, but I didn’t see a song called White Pony. Then I think maybe it’s like “Baba O’Riely” by The Who. Many people think it’s called Teenage Wasteland. So I look at the lyrics of all the songs on the White Pony CD. There was nothing that resembled the song.
I continued to search and heard a woman sing a song called “Ride The White Pony.” But it was a completely different song. The White Pony I heard has a real edge to it.
Does anyone know the song I’m talking about? Who is the artist, the album name, etc?
Perhaps because it alternates with the line, “If you wanna ride, ride the white pony” occasioanlly? It also sneaks a few “If you wanna ride, don’t ride the white horse/pony” in there. Better advice, really, since the white pony/horse is heroin.
Huh. My last response didn’t seem the least bit snarky and assholish in my head. It kinda does now that I read it . Sorry about that. No snark was intended.
OK, here are the lyrics, just so people don’t get confused:
*If you wanna ride,
Don’t ride the white horse.
If you wanna ride,
Don’t ride the white horse.
White horse,
Don’t ride the white horse.
White horse,
Don’t ride the white horse.
If you wanna be rich,
You got to be a bitch.
If you wanna be rich,
You got to be a bitch.
I said rich,
Rich you bitch.
If you wanna ride,
Ride the white pony.
Ride,
Ride the white pony.
White pony,
White pony*
I remember when this came out in the 1984. The word on the street was that “white horse” was heroin and “white pony” was cocaine.
Now I’m a little confused as to why the intarwebs seem confused as to whether it was done by a group called “laid back” or “the gap band.” It seems clear that “laid back” were the creators, but I wonder if “the gap band” did the American release… sort of like Falco did “Der Kommissar” originally in German but in the US the release we know best is by an unknown called “After The Fire.”
Man, I love pop music history. Thanks for reminding me of this one.
Here is an album on Amazon.com that has the song, with a decent sound sample available. Is this the song you mean? That one is one of my favorites too.