Hilton Valentine

Neill

boogieman said:

Neill said:

Hands up those who think he should have got the royalties for House of the Rising Sun.

The arrangement is of course credited to Alan Price who, it is said, didn't like the opening riff and wanted to change it. 

Just been reading about that in Philip Norman’s new Hendrix bio, Chas Chandler bring the link of course. The song was already in the public domain long before but Price got all the royalties as arranger. The rest of the band thought he’d split them equally but he refused. Nice. 

Didn't the great Tony Iommi say something like, the first thing you do when you join a rock band is get a good lawyer..?

I don't know if it's true, but there's a story that the arrangement was supposed to have been credited to the five members of the band, but there wasn't enough space on the record label!   


Edit - I've just remembered, the actual quote I was thinking of was the first thing you do after you write your first riff is get a good lawyer - which makes it even more appropriate.

freakboy1610

Sad news indeed. I re watched the video for House of the Rising Sun yesterday and realised that I've been playing it wrong for the past 35 years! The version in my Burt Weedon book started in Em and went to B7 (very tricky chord).

In the video Hilton Valentine smiles broadly and, at one point, looks as if he's about to burst out laughing. I'm glad he enjoyed it. Classic track.

guitars4you

One of my favourite bands from this era - I love many of the covers and not just HOTRS - Many great R'n'B covers - He wasn't flash but he had many nice licks and would support the song with some good simple but effective rhythm - Eric had a great voice (2 of my favourite singers, him and Paul Rodgers both come from the NE) but I think it is obvious that Alan had a strong influence within the band/arrangements - Yet Steel on drums and Chaz on bass had a neat way of driving the band and deliver a great groove so no one needed to be flash on top of that groove for R'n'B - Undoubtedly he will be defined and remembered for his part in HOTRS, but he was more than that - RIP Hilton