One of the reasons why I use the year 1964 as the starting point for the modern rock era is that this is the year that The Rolling Stones and The Who formed. It is the year that The Beatles first appeared on Billboard and Ed Sullivan. The Kinks released “You Really Got Me.” Bob Dylan released Another Side Of Bob Dylan. No offense to other years but 1964 was pretty loaded. There is also another reason, probably the main reason why I point to 1964 as the starting point.
“House Of The Rising Sun” was released in August of ’64 by The Animals.
“House Of The Rising Sun” is not only a certified masterpiece (recorded in one take, no less) but it dramatically altered the trajectory of rock music. Look at that opening paragraph again and read the main bullet points of 1964. The Beatles essentially began their Zeitgeist run; The Stones’ first album instantly made them kings of white-boy blues with their covers of “Not Fade Away,” “Route 66,” and “I’m A King Bee”; The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” introduced a new kind of raw power–both vocally and musically; Bob Dylan’s ascent to a generational and cultural voice climbs one more step. Ultimately, though, what you have is still a lot of musicians slowly building upon pop, rock, and folk (and any hybrids of any two or all of them) but it is still being built upon at a pretty deliberate pace. Yes, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were still seen as scandalous and Bob Dylan was still seen as a revolutionary voice but the music itself did not overwhelm you, did not make you re-think how boundaries could be easily destroyed.
“House Of The Rising Sun” did this.
Even if you only look at this song from a surface level, Eric Burdon’s roaring vocals and Alan Price’s menacing organ punched you in the face and made you realize that absolutely anything was possible. Hell, even the ominous-sounding chords that open the song probably unlocked a catharsis that was tucked inside many an artist. Everything about this song, though, hinges on Burdon’s vocals and Price’s organ.
Eric Burdon’s voice on this song is raw and howling and yet somehow perfectly delivered. He owns every bit of this remake to the degree that it would be impossible to think that anyone else could ever duplicate the power of this version. Price’s organ, on the other hand, is otherworldly. Being that I am not a musician, I cannot speak for how technically difficult the sound that Price produces here is or is not. All I do know is that it is practically unmatched in the rock Pantheon. Never has an organ been so mesmerizing, and mesmerizing because of its unalloyed power rather than because of its alien sound.
While Burdon and Price are the forefront presence here, let us not forget the rest of the band. At about the 3:35 mark you get a crescendo that includes Hilton Valentine’s ever-growing guitar, Chas Chandler’s oscillating bass, and John Steel’s escalating drums–perfectly in commnuion with Price’s manic wizadry and Burdon’s thunderous delivery.
“House Of The Rising Sun” was one of the first fully reconstructed folk songs to be a smash in both the U.S. and in Britain. It showed the nascent psychedelic artists how to combine energy with chaos. It paved the way for how to fully re-make a traditional folk song. It is, in many ways, the progenitor to the Summer Of Love and the music of the counterculture.
It is still, after all of these years, an unbelievably powerful song–an everlasting example that sometimes a group of working-class kids can cut a song in one take, and it rival most songs that need fifty (or more) takes to complete.
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