The Horses

Album: Flying Cowboys (1989)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Rickie Lee Jones wrote this about her daughter, Charlotte, who was born in 1988, the year before the song was released. Jones is telling her that she will always be there for her. It's a song of love and commitment where she anticipates the challenges her daughter will face, as Jones was indeed a "wild one."

    Rickie Lee raised Charlotte as a single mom (she split from her husband, Pascal Nabet-Meyer, in 1990). Charlotte inherited her mom's vocal prowess, and often joined her on stage to sing backup.
  • Horses are an important image for Jones. She had a recurring dream as a child that she described to the Daily Telegraph: "It was a dream of a cowboy coming down the road, driving a trailer, and a horse got out and ran down the road, and I caught it. It wouldn't let anyone touch it but me, because it loved me. And I'd say, you have to go back with the man now and the horse would turn sadly to go back; and the cowboy would say, you can have it – it loves you. I dreamt that a lot. And now I'm scared of horses."
  • Jones wrote this song with Walter Becker of Steely Dan, who produced the album.
  • This song was featured in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. When Jones' daughter Charlotte saw the film for the first time, she didn't know her mom's music was a part of it and was shocked to hear her voice.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets

Curt Kirkwood of Meat PuppetsSongwriter Interviews

The (Meat)puppetmaster takes us through songs like "Lake Of Fire" and "Backwater," and talks about performing with Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged.

Song Cities

Song CitiesMusic Quiz

Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Tom Waits Lyrics Quiz

Tom Waits Lyrics QuizMusic Quiz

Pool balls, magpies and thorns without roses - how well do you know your Tom Waits lyrics?

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.