| Mickie Most
and the Animals chose another Bob Dylan recording (from the same
LP as "Baby Let Me Take You Down") as their second release in an
arrangement worked out by the band (but credited to Alan Price).
The recording entered the British charts at #15 and went almost
immediately to #1 (Joynson 1995:21). Dylan's version of "House of the Rising Sun" is acoustic, thus the Animals version adds electric organ and drums, not to mention the arpeggiated guitar. Dave Van Ronk's version may have come from Josh White's recording. |
| The British
version of this single was 4:28 (the longest single to that time),
while the American version broke it into two sides (with side A
at 2:58). |
| Perhaps the most
notable aspect of this recording is how the band builds the performance
by altering which instruments are playing and how they are playing. |
| Steel: We played
Liverpool on 17 May 1964 and then drove to a studio in London, which Mickie
had booked for a piece on Ready, Steady, Go! Because of the reaction
we were getting to "Rising Sun," we asked to record it and he
said, "Okay, we’ll do it at the same session."’ We
set up for balance, played a few bars for the engineer — it was mono
with no overdubs — and we only did one take. We listened to it and
Mickie said, "That’s it, it’s a single." The engineer
said it was too long, but instead of chopping out a bit, Mickie had the
courage to say, "We’re in a microgroove world now, we will release
it." We got a few hours sleep and went off to the Southampton Gaumont.
A few weeks later, it was Number l all over the world. When we knocked
the Beatles off the top in America, they sent us a telegram which read,
"Congratulations from the Beatles (a group).” [ref. Spencer
Leigh] |
| Most: Everything
was in the right place, the planets were in the right place, the stars
were in the right place and the wind was blowing in the right direction.
It only took 15 minutes to make so I can’t take much credit for the
production. It was just a case of capturing the atmosphere in the studio.
[Spencer Leigh] |
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| Schedule |
|
3 March, 2014
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