Music: House of the Rising Sun

Justin Johnson does a formidable interpretation of this traditional classic. Now I need to go to Jelly school.

In the way back time, back when I rode my brontosaurus to guitar lessons, one of the songs they taught you was “House of the Rising Sun”, in specific the Eric Burden and the Animals version.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this chord progression, Am, C, D, F, Am, Em is a common progression, and learning these forms (really memorizing them so that one doesn’t have to think about it) is important as a LOT of music can be played with these open chords.

Of course, I wanted to learn 1980’s hair metal, so whilst I learnt the song, I never became “fluid” with it, moving on to the power chord songs.

That was a mistake.

A mistake I am rectifying. I spend literally hours on my couch strumming and picking through this song and these chords to the point where they just flow.

Thinking I was pretty good, when I saw this video by Justin Johnson, I clicked on it.

Bloody hell. He just interprets the hell out of it, remaining true to the progression, but embellishing it with flourishes and fills that really make it sparkle.

I assure you this is worth four and three quarters of a minute of your time.