It's Alan Price's birthday today. Happy Birthday Alan. Did you get a card from Eric? Thought not.
You see, Alan Price shafted Eric Burdon. And Hilton Valentine. And Chas Chandler. In fact he shafted all his muckers in The Animals: in 1964 when they decided to record the trad blues number House Of The Rising Sun (a live favourite in their set) the band nailed it in one take. They were told at the time there wouldn't be room on the label to list all the band as arrangers so they decided to put Price's name on it and they'd sort the details out later. Oh dear. You don't need me to tell you what happened next. Oh, go on then. The record reached number one on both sides of the Atlantic and is still played on radio stations the world over some 40 odd years later. And who are the royalty cheques made out to? That's right, you guessed it. As Eric himself said in his autobiography Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: "We realized we were all in for a fucking when the first check came in and Alan got every cent." Predictably, Price left the band shortly afterwards.
Anyway, here's a version that Price can't get his thieving hands on.
Woody Guthrie: House Of The Rising Sun