Thursday, January 29, 2009

FOREIGNERS in the whore HOUSE of the RISING SUN


Why do so many people identify with whores? They love to sing "House of the Rising Sun!"
Literally hundreds of females have wailed about workin' in a New Orleans bordello, as if they ingested enough semen to get flood relief from Fema.
Even worse, hundreds of MEN have likewise belted and brayed about being bothered, bewildered and buggered by anyone who wanted 'em to bend South while getting poked up North.
Folk song hunter Alan Lomax recorded Georgia Turner singing it in 1937, as "Risin' Sun Blues," and the bawl about balling kept on rolling, with some claiming credit for the lyrics, the music, or both. Dave Van Ronk perfected the right version...and as Suze Rotolo noted in her book about Bob, was mighty peeved when young Mr. Dylan decided to stick the song on his debut Columbia album. Dave couldn't sing the tune after that, 'cause he was accused of "stealing from Bob." Dave had the last laugh. When Eric Burdon copied Bob's, and had a hit with it, Dylan had to drop it, too!
Burdon and The Animals turned the song into a real rocker, with that famous opening guitar riff (or arpeggio, if you want to get technical) by Hilton Valentine, and the scorching organ of Alan Price...not to mention Burdon singing as if his organ was scorched, too. Many earlier versions credited whoever "adapted" it as the author, but when Alan Price ended up with the credit, rather than all the band members, there was much chagrin, especially when the tune became almost as big a perennial money maker as "Whiter Shade of Pale" or "Yesterday."
In placing "House of the Rising Sun" #91 on his list of the "1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made," ex-Rolling Stone scribe Dave Marsh, noted the gay problem with bleary-eyed Eric:
"Burdon...brattish spawn of Newcastle coal miners that he was...turned the lyric around, portraying the prostitute as a male and, thus, himself as a catamite."
Marsh, and most others, reject the musicologists who say that the song is only about a prison...and that the singer didn't lay for a living, just laid one person low.
But no, if you look it up, "catamite" doesn't refer to a prison inmate, or a little insect on a feline. "House of the Rising Sun" sounds more like a bordello than a prison and that's how most singers relate to it.
But that's not why you're here. You're not here to hear the White Man Burdon. No, this blog is too ill to offer famous English versions of the song. Instead, your download is...FOREIGN LANGUAGE versions.
Russian whores. Italian whores. German whores. Spanish whores. And more.
All of them bellow through herpes-riddled lips and have to stand up to sing because of nether-holes as prolapsed as a Slinky going down a stairway.
You get Johnny Hallyday singing in French and German, plus French singer Marie Laforet singing in Japanese, and...Boris Brown, Manfred Krug, Anatoly Savenkov, Bisonti, Alazan, Bruno Lomas, Sukachev, the appropriately named T. Hors, Vadim Kosogorov, Pataky Attila, Manfred Krug, Frida Boccara and much more..."La Casa Del Sol Naciente," "Es steht ein Haus in New orleans" "Dom Voskhodjashhego Solnca," "Le Penitencier" and more!
FOREIGN HOUSES OF THE RISING SUN

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Ill Folk person. On 9 Dec 06, you wrote in one of your blogs about Bobby Cole and the song Mr Bojangles. Quick question...Do you know who sang the version of Mr Bojangles that begins with a female voice saying, "Mister...Mister?" as if she came upon him in a park? Its the version I remember listing to on AM radio growing up in the 70s in Ft Smith Arkansas. Thank you. reply to engelg@hotmail.com of possible.

Ill Folks said...

So far...no good.

I haven't heard such an intro in 24 versions: George Burns, Bob Dylan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bobby Cole, The Byrds, John Denver, Glenn Yarbrough, Luba Mason, Nina Simone, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Robbie Williams, Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Nilsson, Tom T. Hall, Harry Belafonte, Neil Diamond, Frankie Laine, Chie Ayado, Chet Atkins, Visions of Sunshine, Hunt & Turner, John Holt, David Bromberg or Lulu.

So that narrows it down! There probably are another dozen who covered the tune in the early 70's, including Rod McKuen, Arlo Guthrie, Frank Sinatra and the Aussie singer Ronnie Burns.

So far the only "creative" opening belongs to Sammy (copied by Robbie) who started by whispering "bo ka-chink bo ka chink" in imitation of a tap-dancing noise, and then did a bit of whistling.

Sammy long resisted covering the song because he was afraid it was bad luck and he'd end up broke and down and out like Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. (No, Jerry Jeff Walker didn't write the song about Bill Robinson, but many singers covered it assuming that he did.)

Anonymous said...

great site mate a pal of mine has 10 volumes of house of rising sun covers