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| Decided to roll with what might have been... |
The Hit
I’d never heard Frijid Pink’s “House of the Rising Sun” until last week and…it’s fine, a sound spin on what I learned was their particular mash-up of influences. I’ll cover that story below, but think hard rock meets the sounds of Detroit.
I also learned that Frijid Pink recorded that cover as filler for their debut album - i.e., they had some empty space to fill on the LP, so they producer asked them if they had anything else. They’d been working up their take on “House of the Rising Sun” for their live shows, and for exactly the same reason. They knew it, though, and recorded the album version on the first take. Even if it doesn’t top the most popular version* (I assume), it’s a nice serving of fuzzed-up acid-rock typical of the burned-out come-down from the 1960s. And the theme is timeless, obviously…I just struggle to accept someone getting famous on the back of a cover, but accept that’s more personal bias than a judgment of artistry.
(* I’m confident this list isn’t even half-thorough, but it looks like Georgia Bell Turner recorded the first version in 1937 (on bad tech, from the sounds of it), Bob Dylan revived it for his debut, and then The Animals played the version that I think most people know.)
It hit big, rising as high as No. 7 on the Billboard, where it stayed for 13 weeks; it made loud noises in Europe (11 weeks at No. 1 in Germany) and Canada. It gave a gold record to a rock band from Detroit for the first time, thereby (arguably) putting Detroit rock on the map, you’re welcome, KISS. The accidents continued from there, not all of them happy…
The Rest of the Story
It starts with two kids who picked up music early and on their own, drummer Rick Stevers and bassist Tom Harris. By the time they reached high school, circa 1967, they had an actual touring band made up of kids they own and managed by Stevers’ parents, Clyde and Clara. They played as the Detroit Vibrations and mainly as a cover act, if one with ambition: they kept tabs on every song that came out and prided themselves on being the first band to perform it on the Detroit party/lounge/whatever circuit. They rode that into something like a residency at The Chatterbox, their hometown hot-spot in Allen Park, Michigan, by winning one battle of the bands after another.
I’d never heard Frijid Pink’s “House of the Rising Sun” until last week and…it’s fine, a sound spin on what I learned was their particular mash-up of influences. I’ll cover that story below, but think hard rock meets the sounds of Detroit.
I also learned that Frijid Pink recorded that cover as filler for their debut album - i.e., they had some empty space to fill on the LP, so they producer asked them if they had anything else. They’d been working up their take on “House of the Rising Sun” for their live shows, and for exactly the same reason. They knew it, though, and recorded the album version on the first take. Even if it doesn’t top the most popular version* (I assume), it’s a nice serving of fuzzed-up acid-rock typical of the burned-out come-down from the 1960s. And the theme is timeless, obviously…I just struggle to accept someone getting famous on the back of a cover, but accept that’s more personal bias than a judgment of artistry.
(* I’m confident this list isn’t even half-thorough, but it looks like Georgia Bell Turner recorded the first version in 1937 (on bad tech, from the sounds of it), Bob Dylan revived it for his debut, and then The Animals played the version that I think most people know.)
It hit big, rising as high as No. 7 on the Billboard, where it stayed for 13 weeks; it made loud noises in Europe (11 weeks at No. 1 in Germany) and Canada. It gave a gold record to a rock band from Detroit for the first time, thereby (arguably) putting Detroit rock on the map, you’re welcome, KISS. The accidents continued from there, not all of them happy…
The Rest of the Story
It starts with two kids who picked up music early and on their own, drummer Rick Stevers and bassist Tom Harris. By the time they reached high school, circa 1967, they had an actual touring band made up of kids they own and managed by Stevers’ parents, Clyde and Clara. They played as the Detroit Vibrations and mainly as a cover act, if one with ambition: they kept tabs on every song that came out and prided themselves on being the first band to perform it on the Detroit party/lounge/whatever circuit. They rode that into something like a residency at The Chatterbox, their hometown hot-spot in Allen Park, Michigan, by winning one battle of the bands after another.
