Those posters back in 2003 who were creeped out by the song - “Ghost Riders In The Sky” must have scared the piss out of 'em.
But “Ghost Riders in the Sky” is a classic. “Wildfire” & “Horse with No Name” are in heavy rotation on the elevator to Hell.
Back before he realized there was a more famous “Michael Murphy”, MMM was a fixture of the Austin scene. Played in Houston a bunch, fronting the Lost Gonzo Band–who went on to glory behind Jerry Jeff Walker.
Murphy was a prick even then, but did actually write some good songs…
Don’t post full articles, please. I’ve taken out your copy and paste job.
Well, I like Wildfire, A Horse With No Name, Ride 'Em Cowboy, and Honey.
But even so, Wildfire still makes no sense!
Thank you for reviving the zombie thread with real information! That’s cool! I never would have seen the Christian symbolism – to be honest, I don’t think it’s really there, just the writer’s projection – but, hey, it’s his song.
I took only the ostensible meaning: horse runs away, gal chases after, they both die, come back as ghosts. Nothing Christian in that at all; maybe even the opposite, as ghosts can be “lost souls” lingering on their course to damnation. Maybe chasing a horse out into a storm is akin to suicide? Shrug. At this point, it becomes an ink-blot, and everyone will see something personal and unique in it.
(One of the fun things about the arts is that the audience really does participate, significantly, in the “meaning” of a piece. The listener does half the work!)
On a somewhat related note, I’ve learned that Henry Gross’ song “Shannon” is actually about Brian Wilson.
Gross is a Beach Boys fan and he heard the story about how Brian Wilson was having one of his mental breakdowns and refused to get out of bed. Wilson was finally persuaded to get out of bed by his dog Shannon who wanted to go play outside. So Wilson began taking Shannon outside on the beach every day to play and began to recover.
Unfortunately, Shannon liked to go swimming and one day she swam out too far and drowned. Shannon’s death sent Wilson back into his mental breakdown.
Gross heard the story and wrote a song about it, but changed the person in it from Brian Wilson to an unnamed mother.
It’s been 25 months since the last post, and I stumbled onto this thread.
It’s great how certain songs bring you back to a certain time and place, and this one certainly does. It peaked on the US charts in June, 1975. The wiki page gives some explanation, about the song and where it came from for songwriter Michael Murphey. Murphey “believes the song came to him from a story his grandfather told him when he was a little boy — a prominent Native American legend about a ghost horse”.
And then in Wildfirefan46541’s link, Murphey says, “I can’t tell you that I understand what the song means, but I think it’s about getting above the hard times. I’ve had people tell me they wish they could ride that mystical horse and get away from their hard times, whatever they are. I also think a lot of it is wrapped up in my Christian upbringing: In the Biblical book of Revelations, it talks about Jesus coming back on a white horse.”
It is a haunting song, and I really love its piano intro and outro — in the first 30 seconds and then from 4:08 to the end, on the LP version that’s 4:47 long. When it’s played on the radio, those are sometimes cut out.
(with lyrics) - YouTube
The horse up and died, and after 20 years [del]she[/del] the thread still grieves.
It’s about two minutes too long.
I use the outro to ad-lib some of my own lyrics, along the lines of: "You went out in the cold and now you’re dead, should have looked after that horse… You said you would but he ran off, you might have tried a hamster first… If you had he’d be alive and so would you and so would I but now we’re screwed and that’s the end…It was so cold…Dead horse.
I went and read the lyrics, which I’d never done before. Some things I noted: it is not about a child, but a woman. It is not about a child’s pony, but about a horse (the word pony can be a colloquial way to refer to a full sized horse; in the western us it is especially refers to mustangs). The song has various Native American, mystical and folk allusions – riding down from Yellow Mountain with a whirlwind by her side, the hoot owl calling his name (sign of impending death). The narrator is a pioneer Nebraska farmer (reference to sodbusting).
I still loathe the refrain, but that’s from overuse. It’s not as bad as Horse With No Name, much less Take a Letter Maria.
At least the horse had a name and the heat wasn’t hot.
I love the song. For what it is worth. And while the sequence in the first stanza isn’t completely clear without parsing, it’s pretty clear she chases after the horse when it busts down its stall and gets lost in the blizzard.
And I love the piano parts. Of course, they are entirely divorced from the rest of the song’s musical accompaniment. 
It’s a gorgeously wistful and lushly-produced little song, redolent of late night listening to AM radio in bed, the sound turned down too low for my parents to hear. I think it’s mainly about being sad.
Would any horse in the history of horses have been frightened by the weather and then choose to run into it? I know they’re dumb, but are they ever that dumb?
So, since the tv shows you hated as a child thread made me think of childhood cartoons - anyone else remember the cartoon by this name? It is on YouTube now, I checked. Not saying it’s watchable, but it’s watchable. Yeah, I had the lunchbox.
The horse’s name was NOT Uppan, it was Wildfire.
It was Mr. Bojangle’s dog that was named Uppan. It’s right there in the lyrics:
“The dog, Uppan, died.”
And I still like the song. it’s very wistful, and mysterious, and somewhat supernatural. But in good ways. 
This is like a “Thread of The Banned”.
A charming story, but basically a myth. Gross has talked about this in several interviews. For one thing, Wilson’s setter was killed by a car, not drowned.
Sorry to be 2+ years late.
The horse (or pony) may have died, but this twice revived zombie lives on.