THE ANIMALS – "House Of The Rising Sun"

I like “We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place” more than this one, but its intensity (complete with the ‘hog-calling’ voice of Burdon [Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone History of Rock ‘n’ Roll]) keeps it on the oldies show I listen to, and I always listen to it, as Burdon & Price & Co. lose themselves in the song.

It’s never quite made it for me, either, possibly because of Burdon’s voice which absolutely reflects Nik Cohn’s description. I haven’t tried but it sounds impossible to dance to.

We’ve Got To Get Out Of This Place builds like an avalanche (can’t think of a shipbuilding analogy there) only to fall flat on the chorus where it sounds like half the instruments, notably the guitar, drop out of the mix. This might be sacrilege, but maybe Mickie Most didn’t serve their too well.

The two singles they released on Decca in ’66 before they split fulfil the soot’n’dust-toughened promise for me: the one-chord Inside Looking Out (sung from a prisoner’s perspective) and Goffin/King’s fuzzed-up psychodrama Don’t Bring Me Down. Both decent sized hits but totally forgotten by radio.

Then again, my downer on the Alan Price Animals might be influenced by Alfie Darling, the 1975 film I watched last night with Price reprising Michael Caine’s role. He’s a truck driver criss crossing Europe. Dalliances? There are many (Rula Lenska as a French truckstop owner’s wife!). And that’s it. Beyond dismal.

there’s a great tale from Dave Van Ronk, in the ‘No Direction Home’ Dylan doc, about how Bob ‘appropriated’ VRs version of this song for his first LP. VR had to stop playing it because he was accused of ripping off Bob. When the Animals released this version (based on Bob’s LP performance) Bob had to stop playing it because he was accused of ripping off the Animals.

I’m working in Keighley at the moment and have seen the “Keighley Krawl” music festival advertised all over the place and think that the headliners must be one of the strangest such juxtapositions in popular musical history

viz. THE ANIMALS (and the typeface on the posters is appealingly the proper sixties one) and
*GOLDIE LOOKING CHAIN(I’m more surprised they’re still going than the Animals)

I would agree with Rosie’s comment from a few years ago, that this should have been the first “10”

Listening to this today, there’s something utterly compelling about it — whereas with most of the 60s No.1s so far, where I can listen to the first half, think ‘oh yes, I remember that,’ and move on, with this one I have to listen to it all the way through to the last chords, every time. It builds a momentum that captivates and addicts, which is exactly what the lyrical content is trying to express. In that sense, it’s a perfect fusion of content and form — commenting about addiction whilst also drawing the listener into that addiction, explaining it while also decrying it, sharing its attraction but at the same time warning you not to be attracted. And it never gives its secret away: is ‘the House’ a brothel, or a gambling den, or a prison cell, or just a bar? It’s up to each listener to identify their own addiction.

It also seems to me to be a watershed, a touchstone of the music of the 60s. There’s a big difference between the Merseybeat/Beatlemania 60s that came before it and the psychedelic 60s that came after, and this is the single that stands at the crossroads, with elements of both –it’s the first No.1 that crossed the bridge.

I can’t think of a more deserving 10 than this, almost to the extent of finding your score of 6 insulting. I’d be interested to know if you still hold with that rating.

Mike’s “Which Decade…” threw up (literally) Frijid Pink’s cover of this, so I thought it timely to revisit The Animals’ HofTRS. Eric Burdon’s vocal is maybe a little overblown for my liking, but there’s real feeling there. And there’s no denying the weight of that monkey on his back. He’s almost breaking down on that “Oh Mother tell your children” line.
Then there’s that simple guitar riff that somewhere along the line melds into Alan Price’s understated, but beautifully melancholic organ.
If Tom can accept it is a track worthy of “wary admiration”, then he knows deep down that many more will love it. I was born too late to regard this as anything more than a classic oldie. Those who were around to hear it played by the pirates or selected on jukeboxes must have felt that thrill, that sense of menace, that sense of flirting with a subtext that seems illicit and forbidden.

I have it in my head that this was the first number one to be more than three minutes long. Can anyone confirm or demolish this fancy?

At 4.29 it was the longest number one ever at this point, a record it held until 1968, when ‘Hey Jude’ went off the scale at 7.06 – You could play ‘What Do You Want?’ four times in that duration!

Re Burdon as both trendy and painfully sincere: I enjoy the snarky tone that slipped by the NPOV watchdogs in the Wikipedia article on “San Franciscan Nights”:

“Pulling in as many 1960s themes as possible, the song then concludes with a plea that the American dream include ‘Indians too.'”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Franciscan_Nights

DESERT ISLAND DISCS WATCH:

Alan Price, Singer, Musician, (1982)

Barry Cryer, Comedian, Writer (1987)

David Linley, Member of the Royal Family, Furniture designer(2002)

Jack Vettriano, Artist(2004).

Critic watch:

1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2010)
Dave Marsh & Kevin Stein (USA) – The 40 Best of the Top 40 Singles by Year (1981) 11
Dave Marsh (USA) – The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (1989) 91
Gary Pig Gold (Canada) – The 40 Most Influental Records of the 20th Century (1999)
Life (USA) – 40 Years of Rock & Roll, 5 Songs for Each Year 1952-91 (Updated 1995)
RIAA and NEA (USA) – 365 Songs of the Century (2001) 240
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (USA) – 500 Songs That Shaped Rock (1994?)
Rolling Stone (USA) – The 100 Best Singles of the Last 25 Years (1988) 75
Rolling Stone (USA) – The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004) 122
Rolling Stone (USA) – The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (Updated 2010) 123
The Recording Academy Grammy Hall of Fame Albums and Songs (USA)
2FM (Ireland) – Top 100 Singles of All Time (2003) 89
BBC (UK) – Pop on Trial, Top 50 Songs from the 1960s (2008)
Colin Larkin (UK) – The All-Time Top 100 Singles (2000) 59
Mojo (UK) – The 100 Greatest Singles of All Time (1997) 58
Mojo (UK) – The 100 Records That Changed the World (2007) 86
New Musical Express (UK) – The Top 100 Singles of All Time (1976) 76
Paul Roland (UK) – CD Guide to Pop & Rock, 100 Essential Singles (2001)
Q (UK) – The Ultimate Music Collection (2005)
Vox (UK) – 100 Records That Shook the World (1991)
Zig Zag (UK) – Gillett & Frith’s Hot 100 Singles (1975)
Nerikes Allehanda (Sweden) – The 50 Best Rock Songs of All Time (1992) 39
Pophandboek (Netherlands) – Errit Petersma’s Top 20 Singles from the 60s (1970)
Berlin Media (Germany) – The 100 Best Singles of All Time (1998) 67
Gilles Verlant and Thomas Caussé (France) – 3000 Rock Classics (2009)
Hervé Bourhis (France) – Le Petit Livre Rock: The Juke Box Singles 1950-2009
Rolling Stone (France) – The 100 Best Singles of the Last 25 Years (1988) 54
Toby Creswell (Australia) – 1001 Songs (2005)
Giannis Petridis (Greece) – 2004 of the Best Songs of the Century (2003)

I really like Tom’s review here. I feel the same regarding why I can’t quite get to grips with this record. 5/10 for me, although I am a fan of the Animals.