ajva

I'm meeting up with that guitarist Spike tonight to play through a couple of things. One of the songs I thought it might be interesting to try out was that old American folk classic House of the Rising Sun. So I've been on YouTube looking at a mountain of different covers. There's a fabulous Nina Simone live version, for example, and an interesting attempt by Duran Duran.

But I saved the Animals version for last; I've not listened to it for years and it just sends shivers down the spine. That classic video where Eric Burdon lip synchs (fairly shittily, it has to be said - but hey, it was the 60s) to himself is so potent.

It's the believability of the character, I think. He carries it off so well. For all his sharp-suited crisply haircut Englishness, his eyes are like two black holes and you can just believe he's the type to go drinking, gambling and whoring himself into oblivion.

Watch on YouTube

I rather suspect, given my well-publicised liking for civilised chaps who can be convincing bad boys, that I would have been an Animals groupie had I been a teenager in the 1960s. Hey-ho. ;o)