woody guthrie | Blackfire Research

Throwback Thursday: The Animals, “House of The Rising Sun.”

On this day in 1964, English blues rock band, The Animals, reached number one on the singles charts in the UK with their rendition of “House of The Rising Sun.” With it’s howling vocals and haunting organ riffs, the song is viewed by many music historians as the first mainstream, folk rock hit. Although The Animals popularized this particular ballad, musicologists have traced its theme and wordage back to a 16th century. The song was eventually brought to the US, where the location changed from England to New Orleans by Southern performers. The oldest published version of the song dates back to 1925, and the oldest known recording is by Appalachian musicians from 1933. Woody Guthrie recorded a version in 1941, and Bob Dylan followed suite 20 years later. But it wasn’t until The Animals’ 1964 version of the song that it became a mainstream hit, and eventually, a rock classic.

Throwback Thursday: Woody Guthrie Writes “This Land is Your Land”

Brought to you by Blackfire Research….On this day in 1940, legendary American folk singer and songwriter, Woody Guthrie, penned the lyrics to “This Land Is Your Land” in his room at the Hanover House Hotel in New York City. Since then, the song has been seen as America’s “Unofficial National Anthem” and was a major staple of the revival of folk music in the 1960s, covered by artists such as Bob Dylan, who, inspired by its political message, used it as a powerful protest song. The original lyrics to the song included a forgotten verse that was never released: “There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’ But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing. This land was made for you and me.”