to uncular1: The Amazing Grace version is by the Blind Boys of Alabama. (It's on Spirit of the Century.) Not just surreal, but sublime.
Eric Burdon still tours around, and puts on an amazing show. He just gets up there and belts out all those old songs, with such feeling and passion. Very highly recommended... The first time I saw him, I went almost out of duty - "Well, he's going to be old and washed up...but he is Eric Burdon." I left the bar with my jaw on the floor and tears in my eyes. He was that good.
Ray Davies wrote "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" for the Animals, who turned down the song. So the Kinks went ahead and recorded it, with Dave Davies doing (most of) the singing. With the song getting some media exposure 40 years later, I wonder if Burdon ever sings it live.
That song is filthy (like Randy Johnson-slider filthy). I was at a wedding at Epcot a few years back and Eric Burdon was performing this song at a stage right next to where one of the receptions was held. A little surreal, but you could tell he still had it.
Actually I heard it in a Mass (clearly the surreal part), but I think the Blind Boys of Alabama's version would be infinitely better. :) Thanks for the tip.
The immediate etymology of this was the Animals lifted it from Bob Dylan who lifted it from Dave Von Ronk, whose initial version was pretty darn blistering.
I had always thought it was a blues, but Wikipedia claims its origins, strangely, from Appalachia. Alan Lomax apparently rescued it as he did so many others for posterity, and Ray Acuff and Woody Guthrie each once recorded it as well.
If anyone knows of a New Orleans version or a blues, I'd like to know about it.
As far as the appalachian thing is concerned, there is an incredible version of it that Roscoe Holcomb recorded which I think he said he learned from a blues record. It is pretty far removed from the more well known chord progression these guys do.
I like the "reading the news" style performance this guy gives.
There's a funny story about this song in Scorcese's "No Direction Home" - Dylan asked Van Ronk if it was alright for him to record a what amounted to a cover of Van Ronk's version of the song. Van Ronk said no, to which Dylan basically said "uhhhh, I already did it." So Van Ronk was understandably annoyed. Then the Animals stole it from Dylan and made a shit-ton of money, so it's sort of poetic justice.
Doesn't Leadbelly's version figure pretty heavily into the ancestry of this song? I don't know if his was the original, but I think it's the one that the Animals were working off of.
toomany:
Apparently Leadbelly recorded this late in his game, well after the appalaichan recordings, and it might have been what Van Ronk lifted, not likely the Animals.
You gotta love the contrast between the lounge-singer suits and that bad boy voice of Burdon's. For people really interested in the song, the NPR show On Point with Tom Ashbrook did an hour with a guy who wrote a book about the song, its history and its influence, all of which are pretty interesting. (The Andy Griffith version will always hold a special place in my heart.)
I just made a quick check and the show is available from the archives on the On Point Web site. The air date was December 30, 2008, and it seems that the the show is now only available as a streaming file.
Sure, Burdon could sing very well. But the problem with the Animals is that they just couldn't write their own music, so that's why they fell off the map and aren't as well known as their few awesome songs might suggest.
That is an intersting point. For the most part rock bands are expected to perfrom original material, just doing distinctive covers isn't enough. Yet Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and on on, the list of great performers who pretty much never wrote anyting themselves is pretty long.
An interesting side note is that all of the Animals best known songs seem to have also been done by Nina Simone:-) A pretty good exmaple of great source material deserving multiple interretations.
In all things Nina is better but in this in particular.
Seriously, the only songs for which I think I prefer another version over Nina's are Billie Holidays's Strange Fruit and Jeff Buckley's Lilac Wine. But Suzanne, I Put a Spell On You, Here Comes the Sun, I Loves You Porgy, and ---shout-out to the host --- Baltimore, Nina cannot be exceeded.
Funny, I came across this same video at work last Friday.
Eric- Back when the Animals were first performing, I don't think too many rock acts were writing their own material either. That was one of the things that was notable about the Beatles. Even their earlier albums, where they wrote only half the material, people remarked on how much of what they recorded were originals. For better or for worse, it changed the rules for the bands that followed.
The Animals ruined a number of good folk-type songs back in the day, of which this, oh Lord, is one.
Interesting to read the about other people who sang it in the comments--I have always thought it was a song that made more sense from a female perspective, which is one reason I didn't like the Animals version.
The Animals covered the songs after Nina, not the other way round, just to be clear. Nina's first version of House of the Rising Sun is from 1962, the Animal's from 1964. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood was written for her and recorded in 1964, the Animals did it 1965.
And yes, I am a wee bit fanatical on this subject.
I heard that Nina Simone took exception to the Animal's version of this tune because Alan Price (the organist) co-credited himself for a taste of the publishing money... his reason being that he wrote a pretty mean lick on the vox or whatever it is that he played.
Anyway, the Animals and bad Eric Burdon wrote some good tunes too, and nailed some classic versions of old standards. A healthy mix just like Nina Simone. Didn't she write Mississippi Goddamn?
I wasn't saying she did them later, I just said she also did them, no chronology implied:-)
I like her version too and if forced to choose just one would probably take hers, but why should I have to? My iPod has lots of room:-) I am perfectly capable of liking her version of Here Comes the Sun and George Harrison's version. I can listen to Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix both doing All Along the Watchtower, and for good measure Neil Young's grungy version as well!
I know it was The Beatles that really change dhtings, but what is interesting is it only seems to have applied to Rock Bands, pretty much all other styles of music still have lots of successfull acts who don't write their own material.
"I know it was The Beatles that really change dhtings, but what is interesting is it only seems to have applied to Rock Bands,"
I think it applies, or at least should apply, to anybody who doesn't want to be considered 'pop.' If you are just performing songs that others wrote, then you are probably a pop performer. Unless, of course, you are able to make it your own. Because otherwise, you are not really an artist, but a performer. I certainly don't say that to be snobby, because I enjoy a whole lot of pop music. But I guess that's just making this more confusing.
But Stacy it applies to other music besides Pop, take Jazz for example, everyone, even someone who wrote tons of his own stuff like Miles Davis did entire albums reinterpreting standards.
And really would you call Aretha Franklin or Nina Simone a "pop singer"?
Yeah, like I said, I fully admit it's not perfect. But it seems to be a pretty good rule of thumb. Some artists are able to make cover songs their own, but if a song is written for you to sing and perform, there is a pretty good chance you are doing pop. Obviously reinterpreting songs that have already been done is a bit different. Even artists like Otis Redding, who is probably my favorite singer of all time, had a lot of songs written for him.
The reason the Labels started looking for people who would write their own music instead of doing covers is that if you had the writer of the music, you could write a contract for the performance and the music at the same time, and make more money as a label.
This is the time you start to see (Trad. Arr by [Artist]) on the liner notes- no attribution, but royalties collectible by the artist and the owner of the arrangement copyright.
I hope TNC doesn't mind me posting this, but here is the video of Burdon and War doing "Spill the Wine." Checking it out if you love white people and black people rocking out together. And oh, definitely check it out if you flute in your rock/funk.
@King Vidor Yeah, she wrote a number of songs. To Be Young Gifted and Black, Be My Husband, Sugar In My Bowl...there's a bunch.
@eric k Oh, there's room for tons of covers in this 'ol world. I'm just a huge Nina fan, and most people only know the Animals version, which I find irksome because I think she was both better and first. And so I fly to the barricades at the slightest instigation.
Re: Pop performers v. singer songwriter artists...I think it depends whether you think singing is an art in and of itself. If singing is merely a craft, an instrument, and it's writing the music, conceiving of it that's the true talent, then I can see making the distinction. But I think it's a pretty blurry line. This takes the discussion rather far afield, but sometimes I wish somebody would sit every year's cast of American Idol down and make them listen to Dr. Simone. The kids on that show vary widely in their levels of technical ability, but even with the good ones it's very rare to find one that can bring across the emotion of a song. To me that's what makes a great singer, whatever genre. That's why I tend to prefer Nina's covers --- I'm continually amazed by her ability to take glib little pop songs and give them depth and heart.
For most of us over 50, this is the definitive version. Rolling Stone magazine, long ago, had an amusing observation about the very young, very British Eric Burdon, viz. that he desperately wanted to be a American negro, only to find that negro-americans had become black americans.
I remember hearing some throw-away Beatles tape (like in between takes) where Paul is messing around on the piano and he goes into House of the Rising Sun for a bar or two with a really great soaring falsetto. I bet he could have done a decent version of this back in the 60s.
Back a few weeks ago at Eric Alterman's blog at the Nation, he posted a link to a series of musical history podcasts put together by an American History professor at Cornell. A recent one discusses the history of House of the Rising Sun, playing portions of many versions. If you want to hear a bit of the Alan Lomax recording of the song, among others mentioned in the thread, here's the link:
Singing and writing songs are two wonderful and largely unrelated crafts. We would probably be much better off if there were not such a strong belief that in order to be a "serious artist" you must be able to do both.
Good to see some love for one of my favorite old groups. Was going to mention them, and in particular their excellent cover of "Bring It on Home to Me," in the Sam Cooke thread a while back but thought it would be scoffed at. Very churchy organ feel from Alan Price, and Burdon always brings it with the thunder on the vocals. Their hits album Retrospective has everything you need.
I'm glad you posted this, because Eric Burdon is awesome. However, he's lip synching in the vid, and I don't think it's his best performance. For maximum cognitive dissonance, I would recommend the live version of HRS. This one is a scorcher:
Man, I do love early videos of the Animals. There's Burdon, whose hair, face, and outfit make him look like some semi-demonic grammar-school student, and out of him comes that ancient, battle-scarred voice. It's surreal and beautiful.
Eric Burdon's accent is Northumbrian. It's an accent that's so penetrating that you can hear it from hundreds of yards away.
I am a New Orleans native who left the city almost twenty years ago. The song reminded me of an old friend and teacher from Northumbria who settled in New Orleans and who had the misfortune of staying through Katrina. His life is now ruined with poverty and his friends are being murdered and committing suicide. In a city rife with murder, there hasn't been a successful murder prosecution in years. Hearing this song made me weep uncontrollably for my friend and for the city.
I'm guessing, from what I know of the influences on Van Ronk, that he might have gotten the idea of performing it from Josh White, whose first recording of it Jim Bush-Resko links, above.
"This takes the discussion rather far afield, but sometimes I wish somebody would sit every year's cast of American Idol down and make them listen to Dr. Simone. The kids on that show vary widely in their levels of technical ability, but even with the good ones it's very rare to find one that can bring across the emotion of a song. To me that's what makes a great singer, whatever genre."
I remember Tony Bennett on American Idol trying to explain to the little Mormon kid who was second last time how to sing "Mack the Knife." Bennett tried something along the lines of 'this was the rap of its day and you've got to sing it with some grit.'
Needless to say, the advice fell on deaf ears and the kid pixied his way through it, like he did everything. I'm glad my wife isn't watching this years' crop.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I love this song. And I can't hear it without thinking of Joe Pesce getting stripped naked, beaten with bats and buried alive by Frank Vincent.
a truly classic cover
It's a good version, but give me Nina Simone's; mmmm.... fiery.
On a related note, I've heard Amazing Grace performed to that tune: surreal.
A great song by a forgotten band. "Don't Let Me be Misunderstood", and "We've Got To Get Outta This Place" are all Awesome-Sauce as well.
to uncular1: The Amazing Grace version is by the Blind Boys of Alabama. (It's on Spirit of the Century.) Not just surreal, but sublime.
Eric Burdon still tours around, and puts on an amazing show. He just gets up there and belts out all those old songs, with such feeling and passion. Very highly recommended... The first time I saw him, I went almost out of duty - "Well, he's going to be old and washed up...but he is Eric Burdon." I left the bar with my jaw on the floor and tears in my eyes. He was that good.
An excellent dollop of awesome sauce to top of the day.
keith,
Ray Davies wrote "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" for the Animals, who turned down the song. So the Kinks went ahead and recorded it, with Dave Davies doing (most of) the singing. With the song getting some media exposure 40 years later, I wonder if Burdon ever sings it live.
That song is filthy (like Randy Johnson-slider filthy). I was at a wedding at Epcot a few years back and Eric Burdon was performing this song at a stage right next to where one of the receptions was held. A little surreal, but you could tell he still had it.
they also had a great cover of Sam Cookes "Bring It On Home To Me"...
Sophist,
Actually I heard it in a Mass (clearly the surreal part), but I think the Blind Boys of Alabama's version would be infinitely better. :) Thanks for the tip.
The immediate etymology of this was the Animals lifted it from Bob Dylan who lifted it from Dave Von Ronk, whose initial version was pretty darn blistering.
I had always thought it was a blues, but Wikipedia claims its origins, strangely, from Appalachia. Alan Lomax apparently rescued it as he did so many others for posterity, and Ray Acuff and Woody Guthrie each once recorded it as well.
If anyone knows of a New Orleans version or a blues, I'd like to know about it.
For the Animals and Eric Burdon, it was the apex.
As far as the appalachian thing is concerned, there is an incredible version of it that Roscoe Holcomb recorded which I think he said he learned from a blues record. It is pretty far removed from the more well known chord progression these guys do.
I like the "reading the news" style performance this guy gives.
There's a funny story about this song in Scorcese's "No Direction Home" - Dylan asked Van Ronk if it was alright for him to record a what amounted to a cover of Van Ronk's version of the song. Van Ronk said no, to which Dylan basically said "uhhhh, I already did it." So Van Ronk was understandably annoyed. Then the Animals stole it from Dylan and made a shit-ton of money, so it's sort of poetic justice.
Anyway, that video kicks 9 kinds of ass.
Doesn't Leadbelly's version figure pretty heavily into the ancestry of this song? I don't know if his was the original, but I think it's the one that the Animals were working off of.
Eric Burdon and War doing "Spill the Wine." How's that for post racial, TNC? That song is awesome.
toomany:
Apparently Leadbelly recorded this late in his game, well after the appalaichan recordings, and it might have been what Van Ronk lifted, not likely the Animals.
Look how young.
You gotta love the contrast between the lounge-singer suits and that bad boy voice of Burdon's. For people really interested in the song, the NPR show On Point with Tom Ashbrook did an hour with a guy who wrote a book about the song, its history and its influence, all of which are pretty interesting. (The Andy Griffith version will always hold a special place in my heart.)
I just made a quick check and the show is available from the archives on the On Point Web site. The air date was December 30, 2008, and it seems that the the show is now only available as a streaming file.
Sure, Burdon could sing very well. But the problem with the Animals is that they just couldn't write their own music, so that's why they fell off the map and aren't as well known as their few awesome songs might suggest.
Bryan,
That is an intersting point. For the most part rock bands are expected to perfrom original material, just doing distinctive covers isn't enough. Yet Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and on on, the list of great performers who pretty much never wrote anyting themselves is pretty long.
An interesting side note is that all of the Animals best known songs seem to have also been done by Nina Simone:-) A pretty good exmaple of great source material deserving multiple interretations.
The Atlnatic needs an edit button, I meant interpretations
TNC: Fail.
Correct: http://www.last.fm/music/Nina+Simone/_/House+of+the+Rising+Sun
In all things Nina is better but in this in particular.
Seriously, the only songs for which I think I prefer another version over Nina's are Billie Holidays's Strange Fruit and Jeff Buckley's Lilac Wine. But Suzanne, I Put a Spell On You, Here Comes the Sun, I Loves You Porgy, and ---shout-out to the host --- Baltimore, Nina cannot be exceeded.
Full track for Baltimore:
http://www.last.fm/music/Nina+Simone/Baltimore/Baltimore
Funny, I came across this same video at work last Friday.
Eric- Back when the Animals were first performing, I don't think too many rock acts were writing their own material either. That was one of the things that was notable about the Beatles. Even their earlier albums, where they wrote only half the material, people remarked on how much of what they recorded were originals. For better or for worse, it changed the rules for the bands that followed.
The Animals ruined a number of good folk-type songs back in the day, of which this, oh Lord, is one.
Interesting to read the about other people who sang it in the comments--I have always thought it was a song that made more sense from a female perspective, which is one reason I didn't like the Animals version.
@erik k
The Animals covered the songs after Nina, not the other way round, just to be clear. Nina's first version of House of the Rising Sun is from 1962, the Animal's from 1964. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood was written for her and recorded in 1964, the Animals did it 1965.
And yes, I am a wee bit fanatical on this subject.
I heard that Nina Simone took exception to the Animal's version of this tune because Alan Price (the organist) co-credited himself for a taste of the publishing money... his reason being that he wrote a pretty mean lick on the vox or whatever it is that he played.
Anyway, the Animals and bad Eric Burdon wrote some good tunes too, and nailed some classic versions of old standards. A healthy mix just like Nina Simone. Didn't she write Mississippi Goddamn?
C,
I wasn't saying she did them later, I just said she also did them, no chronology implied:-)
I like her version too and if forced to choose just one would probably take hers, but why should I have to? My iPod has lots of room:-) I am perfectly capable of liking her version of Here Comes the Sun and George Harrison's version. I can listen to Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix both doing All Along the Watchtower, and for good measure Neil Young's grungy version as well!
Joe,
I know it was The Beatles that really change dhtings, but what is interesting is it only seems to have applied to Rock Bands, pretty much all other styles of music still have lots of successfull acts who don't write their own material.
"I know it was The Beatles that really change dhtings, but what is interesting is it only seems to have applied to Rock Bands,"
I think it applies, or at least should apply, to anybody who doesn't want to be considered 'pop.' If you are just performing songs that others wrote, then you are probably a pop performer. Unless, of course, you are able to make it your own. Because otherwise, you are not really an artist, but a performer. I certainly don't say that to be snobby, because I enjoy a whole lot of pop music. But I guess that's just making this more confusing.
I realize that my last post probably really oversimplifies things, but it's a start.
But Stacy it applies to other music besides Pop, take Jazz for example, everyone, even someone who wrote tons of his own stuff like Miles Davis did entire albums reinterpreting standards.
And really would you call Aretha Franklin or Nina Simone a "pop singer"?
Yeah, like I said, I fully admit it's not perfect. But it seems to be a pretty good rule of thumb. Some artists are able to make cover songs their own, but if a song is written for you to sing and perform, there is a pretty good chance you are doing pop. Obviously reinterpreting songs that have already been done is a bit different. Even artists like Otis Redding, who is probably my favorite singer of all time, had a lot of songs written for him.
Stacy,
That is probably a pretty good distinction.
There is a big difference between The Byrds or Jimi Hendrix doing their versions of a Dylan song and some random folk singer doing a folk version.
The reason the Labels started looking for people who would write their own music instead of doing covers is that if you had the writer of the music, you could write a contract for the performance and the music at the same time, and make more money as a label.
This is the time you start to see (Trad. Arr by [Artist]) on the liner notes- no attribution, but royalties collectible by the artist and the owner of the arrangement copyright.
I hope TNC doesn't mind me posting this, but here is the video of Burdon and War doing "Spill the Wine." Checking it out if you love white people and black people rocking out together. And oh, definitely check it out if you flute in your rock/funk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7_U-zj2gfE
I would attempt to fix my errors in the last post, but that would require an equally long post.
@King Vidor Yeah, she wrote a number of songs. To Be Young Gifted and Black, Be My Husband, Sugar In My Bowl...there's a bunch.
@eric k Oh, there's room for tons of covers in this 'ol world. I'm just a huge Nina fan, and most people only know the Animals version, which I find irksome because I think she was both better and first. And so I fly to the barricades at the slightest instigation.
Re: Pop performers v. singer songwriter artists...I think it depends whether you think singing is an art in and of itself. If singing is merely a craft, an instrument, and it's writing the music, conceiving of it that's the true talent, then I can see making the distinction. But I think it's a pretty blurry line. This takes the discussion rather far afield, but sometimes I wish somebody would sit every year's cast of American Idol down and make them listen to Dr. Simone. The kids on that show vary widely in their levels of technical ability, but even with the good ones it's very rare to find one that can bring across the emotion of a song. To me that's what makes a great singer, whatever genre. That's why I tend to prefer Nina's covers --- I'm continually amazed by her ability to take glib little pop songs and give them depth and heart.
Great video, undermined slightly by the guitarist grinning like a loon at 3:37.
First time I watched, I thought wow. Second time, I saw that cheesy grin, and now I can never NOT see it again.
C,
Yeah her Bee Gees covers for example
In a related vein, on his box set there is a live version of Al Green doing a Carpenters song that is amazing
For most of us over 50, this is the definitive version. Rolling Stone magazine, long ago, had an amusing observation about the very young, very British Eric Burdon, viz. that he desperately wanted to be a American negro, only to find that negro-americans had become black americans.
C: Bessie Smith would be surprised to find out that Nina Simone wrote "Sugar in my Bowl."
I remember hearing some throw-away Beatles tape (like in between takes) where Paul is messing around on the piano and he goes into House of the Rising Sun for a bar or two with a really great soaring falsetto. I bet he could have done a decent version of this back in the 60s.
Back a few weeks ago at Eric Alterman's blog at the Nation, he posted a link to a series of musical history podcasts put together by an American History professor at Cornell. A recent one discusses the history of House of the Rising Sun, playing portions of many versions. If you want to hear a bit of the Alan Lomax recording of the song, among others mentioned in the thread, here's the link:
http://slopemedia.org/media/podcasts/key-to-the-highway-ep25/
Singing and writing songs are two wonderful and largely unrelated crafts. We would probably be much better off if there were not such a strong belief that in order to be a "serious artist" you must be able to do both.
Good to see some love for one of my favorite old groups. Was going to mention them, and in particular their excellent cover of "Bring It on Home to Me," in the Sam Cooke thread a while back but thought it would be scoffed at. Very churchy organ feel from Alan Price, and Burdon always brings it with the thunder on the vocals. Their hits album Retrospective has everything you need.
I'm glad you posted this, because Eric Burdon is awesome. However, he's lip synching in the vid, and I don't think it's his best performance. For maximum cognitive dissonance, I would recommend the live version of HRS. This one is a scorcher:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1wf5ROdYwU
Thanks gem s, that was an incredible video.
Man, I do love early videos of the Animals. There's Burdon, whose hair, face, and outfit make him look like some semi-demonic grammar-school student, and out of him comes that ancient, battle-scarred voice. It's surreal and beautiful.
He's a powerfully moving singer.
Eric Burdon's accent is Northumbrian. It's an accent that's so penetrating that you can hear it from hundreds of yards away.
I am a New Orleans native who left the city almost twenty years ago. The song reminded me of an old friend and teacher from Northumbria who settled in New Orleans and who had the misfortune of staying through Katrina. His life is now ruined with poverty and his friends are being murdered and committing suicide. In a city rife with murder, there hasn't been a successful murder prosecution in years. Hearing this song made me weep uncontrollably for my friend and for the city.
@Ezra I stand corrected.
I'm guessing, from what I know of the influences on Van Ronk, that he might have gotten the idea of performing it from Josh White, whose first recording of it Jim Bush-Resko links, above.
"This takes the discussion rather far afield, but sometimes I wish somebody would sit every year's cast of American Idol down and make them listen to Dr. Simone. The kids on that show vary widely in their levels of technical ability, but even with the good ones it's very rare to find one that can bring across the emotion of a song. To me that's what makes a great singer, whatever genre."
I remember Tony Bennett on American Idol trying to explain to the little Mormon kid who was second last time how to sing "Mack the Knife." Bennett tried something along the lines of 'this was the rap of its day and you've got to sing it with some grit.'
Needless to say, the advice fell on deaf ears and the kid pixied his way through it, like he did everything. I'm glad my wife isn't watching this years' crop.