I doubt that there is a single guitar player out there who has not at some stage either learnt to play using these chords or have done their interpretation. This idea took root this morning when my wife walked into my man cave with her cell phone and said "Ok, let's see how good you are" and pressed play on an old tune. Needless to say two chords into the song I said 'House of the Rising Sun...Eric Burdon and the Animals..circa 64 -65' ..She was amazed and asked me how did I know it so fast? I then told her the whole story ... and showed her... and then decided to share it her
House of the Rising Sun is a traditional folk song about the misfortunes of a young man in New Orleans. We start the journey with the first version that I know of ... and that was by Woody Guthrie in 1941.
A pleasant acoustic version
We jump forward to 1960 where a very talented young woman did a cover on her debut album. She is one of my all time favourites, but damn she did not do a great version ....listen anyway to Joan Baez's cover.
Hmmmm, if I had got my hands on her debut album I may never have listened to her again
Now this self same woman took this next artist under her wing and if not for her influence in his early years as a musician he may never have developed the cult following he did. Unfortunately for my ears, and I am sure everyone who listens to this, his rendition of House of the Rising Sun is absolutely diabolical.
I fully understand why Jimi Hendrix said he only decided to sing himself after listening to Bob Dylan
That was recorded in 1962 and hopefully all copies were destroyed!! Things however got better when two years later The Animals recorded what was to be the biggest UK charting version of the song...and it is the song which made Eric Burdon and the Animals famous.
A huge improvement on the previous two and the first introduction of electric guitar
The version which I first heard (and thought it was an original) was released in 1970 by the band Frijid Pink, a psychedelic rock version which sold over a million copies (1970 remember) and made the Top 10 in 36 countries.
Still my favorite version by quite a long way
I would be super impressed..... and amazed if anyone listened through the entire Joan Baez and Bob Dylan versions. I think I made it through about one minute maximum.
Thanks for reading !! As always.