(1113) There is a film for later, let’s see if there’s time. This post is going to be long I’m afraid.
Just when you think things are going be all right … dot dot dot
It started with a reaction vid to The Animals’ House of the Rising Sun (1964) and as one does, one explores … in this case the band, the reviewer girl, both eras, plus YT and ggl both suggested further research and in came the young Scot with “trad wives”, but not what you’d think … there’s a twist.
Whoa … this was getting too extended and then it came back to the inevitable generations … and as I explored them, poor sods around 1920, it became obvious, as you’ll see in Lord T’s Monday 9, that they’re simply not going to give anyone a break … so we need to take one and to hell with them.
Generations
I’ve pretty well got the post-1946 era sorted in my head and just a reminder that Eric Burdon was not a Boomer, he was War generation (May 1941), as were the band … this girl reactor you’ll see (lady at lunchtime) was more difficult to pin down … I’d say early 2000s, making her a Zoomer or Gen Z but … and this is a big but … these are NOT the younger generation anymore … nope, they have ended, mateys, passed as a generation. Alpha started 2012 and are now two thirds of the way through, themselves.
Bleedin’ tempus!


Now, the only way I could make any sense of it all was to pinpoint a particular baby in a particular year and follow his/her life.
Let’s start with a boy and girl born in 1894 … add 18 years and the boy’s about to be drawn into the mangler in a huge appeal to his patriotism, whilst he’ll actually be fighting in foreign lands, just as with the ones currently being sent by Starmer. At home? Dad’s Army plus landgirls (less so in WW1).
The girl is ready to “come out” in 1912 but but but … war clouds … Them prepare nations ahead of time … oh dear, she must delay marriage and children. By the time the next boomer time arrives, around 2022-24, she’s approaching 30.
And what is she hit by? Bleedin’ feminazism of the worst suffragette kind … girls can do anything, bright young, half unclad slappers, their heroines now Louise Brooks, Clara Bow, Josephine Baker … anything BUT virtuous women … this is the jazz era, right? Boom or bust, F Scott Fitzgerald … did you ever read about their badly parented daughter? Great Gatsby … all show, all chic, life in the fast lane … we observe from now and admire the fashions, the music … whilst they were rushing headlong to the abyss of 1929-31.
Let’s now look at two of the post-WW1 boomers, maybe 1920, after the 1918 pandemic baby-bust has receded. They grow up during the flapper, jazz exciting, bathing beauty time but as toddlers, children. At 9, it all falls apart … Depression, hard times … in Germany, mothers go onto the street because hubby is out of work, even pregnant women do … nothing pretty about it at all.
And now a boy born in 1937/8. Those postponing marriage and babies come out of it around 1936, start thinking of family again. The boy is born in 1937, say, making him 88 years old today. Two years into his life, he is involved in wartime … in 1945, he’s what … 8 years old, on rationing. What prospects?
And now to the song itself
Eric Burdon was the oldest, yet smallest, Newcastle lad, Geordie, May 1941. Jump 23 years and some days to March 18th and they decide to do the song in one take:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Animals_(American_album)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Burdon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chas_Chandler






All right, how was I going to approach the reaction, given that I’ve already run it here and most readers are not huge on the genre or even band? Well I thought … if Eric B is 23 at the point of singing it, howabout a guy or gal also 23 today but not just a fan … howabout someone involved in the game?
I reviewed well over a dozen reaction vids … some were ego trips for the reactor, some were interesting experiments … dad with 13 year old daughter … knew nothing, immature … it simply didn’t work. Plenty of black males and females … very good too were their reviews but I wanted to tighten the demographic a bit, for example:

… she loved it by the way, don’t judge by the grimace. Then I found the right gal … around 23 perhaps (looks younger but voice is older) and quite a mixed bag. Part of a garage band, Venezuelan and Italian, living in England, knows of Newcastle, likes “vintage” as she put it but also so “today” … on Twitch, TikTok, all the other kid channels with her iphone … calls anything great “sick” … as in oh wow, that’s just … sick … meaning great to her. She’s apparently a “streamer”, there to monetise and make money.
And in her right ear … what on earth is that horrible mess of metal?
Drop this reaction vid?
Nope … for one reason … it’s quite intelligent, almost mature … it’s a great take on my early era whilst I was way too young. But it reminds me of our band of 1966 … we really were discussing uniforms we might wear. Our first cover was Little Red Riding Hood (Sam the Sham) and our second Gloria … and her name is G … yeah … L … yeah etc.
This girl is reviewing this well … plus she mentions passion, authenticity, not just being formulaic. She’s a singer and bass player by the way, as you’ll see. Oh, and her main comments are after the song … and remember … “sick” to her, for some reason, means “great”.
Another thing … what’s this new idea of having two small circles shining in the middle of glasses and sunnies … some modern affectation? The girl who does Rain also does that. Not sure I’d want to be 23 today, not sure it would be as fulfilling … as she says.
I’m thoroughly delighted that so many of the young of sufficient maturity can see how the great tracks really were great … but of course, we had so much dross about too, which she does not get to see.
One more thing … that’s coming up to 61 years ago. Let that sink in … 61 bleedin’ years ago … phew. Tempus, tempus. Where did it go? Why did I not see it rush by?
The trad woman
In a way, nothing to do with the above … it was just something YT added to the recommendeds. My first thought was yeah yeah … he’s Christian, he’d want women to be trad wives …
… nope, I was wrong. He mentions a trad wife movement today but they’re not trad at all. In the really early days, the women were out there playing their part with the living they were making … they were not stuck in drawing rooms having coffee mornings for the kept women. They were not kept, they were every bit part of it all.
And I like that … that affirms the gals like nothing else. Good.
END/.
Generations – looking at that graph two of my eight great-grandparents were born before 1883 so what were they? No matter, the male one; I’ve mentioned him before, was a soldier of Empire: India, North Africa. As an aside one of my great great-grandparents was wounded at the Siege of Sevastopol. Lot of military in my family. Uncle Bill, my Dad’s uncle, was for a time in the same artillery regiment as Harry Secombe (Goons). Bill was at the gun end and Harry a forward observer (North Africa Campaign 1940-43). Look at your own family I say, there’s a history lesson to be had 🙂
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JH: Certainly is.
Both my parents were from ‘the Lost Generation’. They certainly lost out in life. Dad was 18 in 1914 and so WWI, 1930s depression, WWII. They had a hard life.
Hard life indeed DAD. My Dad’s mum b. 1900, Mum’s mum b. 1908. They saw the worst of the 20th century, one the wife of a fisherman, the other the wife of coal miner. Neither had running water or electricity in their homes.
Similar with my Grandparents – they still had gas mantels in their back parlour when I was born and no indoor plumbing, tin bath hanging on the wall in the backyard and the dolly tub nestled in the corner along with the wringer – and yet my Grandad felt that despite all they’d gone through they’d had the best years compared to what he was seeing in the 1970s.
My Nan used to sing THOTRS whilst she was doing her dusting. She had no idea what she was singing about. Comes from having the wireless on all day. She alternated that with “You Made Me Love You” and “It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie”. 🙂
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JH: Adorable.