10 peculiar folk themes from the 60s

When he delivers a song that later becomes popular, the singer-songwriter is just its creator and first performer. He has no control over how others will fix it and the song's later life is quite another story. The secondary fate experienced by each of the ten folk themes below is instructive in this regard:

1957 ∙ La foule (Edith Piaf Fr)
1960 ∙ Where have all the flowers gone (Pete Seeger)
1961 ∙ She moves through the fair (Carolyn Hester)
1961 ∙ The lion sleeps tonight (the Tokens)
1964 ∙ HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN (the Animals UK)
1966 ∙ Hey Joe (Jimi Hendrix)
1967 ∙ Without her (Harry Nilsson)
1967 ∙ Suzanne (Leonard Cohen, Can)
1968 ∙ Those were the days (Mary Hopkin UK)
1969 ∙ Streets of London (Ralph McTell, UK)

HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

A delta blues classic turned into a rock hit

In 1964, the British band ‘The Animals’ delivered the first rock version of the old American delta blues folk song ‘House Of The Rising Sun’. It took only a few months for their version to hit the top of the Charts both in UK and in the USA.

∙ 1933 ∙ Clarence "Tom" Ashley & Gwen Foster ∙ 1937 ∙ Georgia Turner ∙ 1938 ∙ Roy Acuff ∙ 1941 ∙ Woody Guthrie ∙ 1942 ∙ Josh White ∙ Libby Holman and White (re-rec. 1950) ∙ 1948 ∙ Lead Belly ∙ 1949 ∙ Jean Ritchie ∙ 1953 ∙ Hally Wood ∙ 1957 ∙ Glenn Yarbrough (ex-Limeliters) ∙ 1958 ∙ Pete Seeger ∙ 1959 ∙ The Weavers ∙ Andy Griffith ∙ 1960 ∙ Miriam Makeba ∙ Joan Baez ∙ 1961 ∙ Carolyn Hester ∙ 1962 ∙ Nina Simone ∙ Bob Dylan ∙ Dave Van Ronk ∙ 1964 ∙ The Animals ∙ Tim Hardin ∙ 1970 ∙ Frijid Pink ∙ The Chambers Brothers ∙ 1973 ∙ Jody Miller ∙ 1992 ∙ Gregory Isaacs ∙ 2017 ∙ Alt-J ∙

In other languages:

∙ 1964 ∙ Lone Star (La Casa del Sol Nasciente) ∙ Johnny Hallyday (Le Pénitencier) ∙ 1966 ∙ Los Speakers (Colombia) ∙ 2014 ∙ Wolfenstein (German, Videogame) ∙

Lyrics

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's all drunk

Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun

Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain

Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one