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House of the Risin Sun In order to understand the song House of the Risin Sun we need first to have a short look at Bob Dylan and his music. Bob Dylan was born in 1941 in Minnesota. He was a regular child and he became interested in music only while being in high school, when he learned to play piano and guitar. From these basic musical skills, Dylan constantly acquiring new knowledge and experience in music has grown to be the master of folk music in the period of rock expansion. It is a big achievement to successfully promote old country in such a period of time, when rock dominated.
Many people loved his music. Therefore, there should be something special in his songs, which firmly stand out from many other different folk songs. It was suggested that folk was constantly dying and became less popular with each year. However, Dylan managed to prove opposite.
Bob Dylan's song House of the Risin Sun is from his second album The Freewheelin. Critics suggest that this one was much better than his first album, and is still considered to be one of Dylan's best albums. This album is basically the collection of different folk songs that were changed by Dylan. What then made him so popular, well, people still do not know. When I have listened through his album, I just wanted to turn it off.
His songs are very simple and dull. They are also very boring. The songs of this album are mainly folk of a very poor quality, which is basically one of the most primitive forms of music I have ever heard. Well, song House of the Risin Sun is considered to be the best one out this second album. The author of this song is unknown and Bob Dylan just has changed some words in it. People who like folk say that this song is simply good (cannot argue about that, since I do not like folk and I know cases when really primitive songs can be touching and may sound very well).
This song is considered to be rock classic. Dylan simply picked up a good song and eventually somehow managed to make it popular. I have already stated that this song really is a bad quality and I simply hate it, but still I need to write my essay describing the lyrics and rhythm. I should not write a lot about the lyrics, because it is so dull, that there is not much to discuss. It is absolute junk and contains a number of phrases that have been already used many times before. The content is just typical for a country music.
The song itself describes house down in New Orleans they call the risin sun. Well, all the rest is in such a manner. Once again nothing new and special. It includes a short story of life, which turned to be unfair, drinking, gambling, train (well, in every country song there should be something about the road train perfectly matches this requirement). I am wondering, how Dylan forgot to add some words about adored dog and old-good pick-it-up truck this would definitely made the song to be in top of the charts. As you see, there is no much to discuss about the lyrics.
Besides words, the whole musical composition does not impress me. It is very simple and sounds very annoying. The music has a simple folk sound, even though guitar changes it to some kind of rock and a little bit succeeds. Once again, the folk origin is very noticeable and I think that there is no need do something about it. Dylan by making this song to sound modern made it popular.
The music is acoustic since it was recorder with band. The melody is simple and it flows through all the song, and should bring nostalgic feelings to the listener. The background accompaniment is minimal and the rhythm stands out clearly, but is not very primitive too, it seems to me, like I have heard this rhythm in at least 100 songs. Only one thing that probably could make such a song to become popular was Dylan's voice, which was just lowed by people. His sound was raspy, nasal became famous, and it gave some excitement to the song. Therefore, the popularity of this song primarily relies on Dylan's abilities.
His voice is a some kind of trademark that has helped to sell a bad product, which I consider this song to be. Bob Dylan made it sound too sad and touching. In conclusion, I do not thing that a song is creative. I have mentioned before that this is just a similar piece of country music. Bob Dylan as a performer was much more successful in means of creativity.
I may suppose that a long time before this song was sang in absolutely different manner, but it is good that I did not heard its original version. However, I assume that is was just a one of thousands of folk songs that were created in the past century. Dylan, eventually succeeded in making the song to sound in a new and different way, but it is still easy to trace the origins of the song. Overall, I thing that Dylan made a good effort on this song. It is proved by that people like it, which is the main determinant in judging was the song successful or not.
Therefore, I think that the song was successful. The new thing that Dylan implemented is the changing of folk into some kind of modern music, giving folk songs a new boost and new development. I may even say, that some of the country songs have not a bad melodies, which tend to be plain and relaxing. For this reason Dylan was the author of some kind of new approach giving new popularity and recognition to old and forgotten songs.
Personally, I did not like the song. I can say that I just hate the lyrics, but evidently, Bob Dylan made a good job on a song in changing the way it should have been performed. I think that Dylan achieved what he wanted to and therefore; it is possible to say that his effort was successful. Sources: House of the Risin Sun (Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan) The Freewheelin, 1978 web web web
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