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The House of the Rising Sun

 



“Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast.” The often-misquoted line by the poet William Congreve, nonetheless rings true. Who among us hasn’t had a piece of music that gave them pause? One such moment for me was when I first heard the song “The House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals.  I don’t know how old I was, but I couldn’t have been more than seven. Music was not as prevalent back in the mid-1960’s, this was pre YouTube, pre Internet, pre phone apps, pre many things. About the only music you heard was on the radio. And if you heard a song you liked, you had to either go out and buy the record (not likely for a seven-year-old) or wait endlessly through many lesser songs on the one or two radio stations that might play it.

Prior to this I had been listening mostly to children’s music, because, well, I was a kid. I had heard other music too. I was not immune from the radio. But when I heard “The House of the Rising Sun,” something clicked in me. Suddenly I “got” Rock and Roll. Eric Burdon’s voice was deep and dripping with life experience, which, considering he was only 23 years old, makes you wonder where it came from. But what really did it for me was the keyboard player.  Alan Price played the Vox Continental organ, and the sound it made reached inside me and shook me awake. Seriously, that organ part did something to me. It was maybe the first time in my life that a song gave me the shivers.

The origins of the House of the Rising Sun are murky. The song probably started as a folk ballad at least two centuries ago. The lyrics have changed and the song has been reworked and redone so many times that it is hard to pin down an origin, let alone an author. In the 1920’s and 30’s it was embraced by both the folk and the blues communities and there are several recorded versions of variations of Rising Sun done as a blues song. Indeed, you can hear the blues pedigree coming through in the Animals version.

Among the artists who recorded a version of the song before the Animals:

Roy Acuff

Leadbelly

Woody Guthrie

Glenn Yarbrough

Andy Griffith

Pete Seeger

Joan Baez

Bob Dylan

Nina Simone

The Animals started singing their version while on a tour with Chuck Berry. It seemed to strike a chord with the audiences. They thought it had potential. So, while they were in the middle of the tour, they stopped off at a little London studio for a quick recording session. They rehearsed the song once and then recorded it. They did it in one take. Total studio cost: $5.00. When something is right, it’s just right.

Over the years there have been other songs that hit my soul like the striking of a bell, but “The House of the Rising Sun” was the first. You never forget your first.

 

(My science fiction novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources).

Star Liner

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