His fingers stroked the strings of the guitar to compose one of the most memorable arpeggios in the history of rock in
The House of the rising sun
.
Provided that passport for eternity, guitarist of
The Animals
,
Hilton Valentine
, he has died at 77 years old.
The Animals
label
ABKCO Music broke the news in a statement describing
Valentine
as a "pioneering guitarist who influenced the sound of rock and roll for decades to come."
The band headed by
Eric Burdon
was one of the main references in the mid-60s thanks to its rock passed through the sieve of folk and blues.
Much of that fame came from his version of
The House of the Rising Sun
, in which Valentine played a key role.
Burdon
himself
recalled it when saying goodbye to his partner on social networks: "The opening notes of Rising Sun will never sound the same! ...
You didn't just play them, you lived them!
Heartbroken by the sudden news of Hilton's death. We had great moments together, "he wrote.
The guitar with which
Valentine
played that arpeggio, a Gretsch from Tennessee that he bought in 1962, has also gone down in history thanks to the music video that accompanied the song, which topped the charts around the world.
ROCK ATTITUDE
Valentine
, who died on Friday, according to his wife, was born in
North Shields
(northern England) in 1943 and soon discovered his guitar vocation in a skiffle group, a genre that mixes elements of blues, jazz and folk.
Orphan since the age of 16, he channeled his overflowing energy first into the "skiffle" group The Heppers, and later into the rockers Wildcats, where he became known for rolling on the ground while playing guitar.
It was precisely this savage attitude that allowed him to join the
Animals
at age 20
, the group that
Burdon
concocted
with bassist
Chas Chandler
and organist
Alan Price
, and later joined by
John Steel
, on drums.
"What really made
Animals
a rock group was
Hilton
, because I don't think that rock element was in the band until we found it. Not only did he play rock 'n' roll, he had the look. He was a guy with a slicked-back greasy mane, cheap leather jackets, pointy shoes, black jeans and a smile on his face, "
Burdon
said
in a recent interview.
Together they reaped other great successes -although never at the level of the House of the Rising Sun- such as
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
,
We Gotta Get Out of This Place
or
Baby let me take you home
.
Only three years later, in 1966, the band disintegrated as a result of internal tensions, and, although
Burdon
re-founded the group with other colleagues,
Valentine
did not return to be part of it, although he did participate in subsequent meetings and played with the singer. on tours.
After leaving
The Animals
, the guitarist launched into a solo career in California (USA) with which he was not very successful, before returning to his native United Kingdom.
Valentine was
inducted, along with the rest of the band, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
In recent years, the guitarist, who moved to live in Connecticut (USA), returned to "skiffle" music with his project Skiffledog and joined Burdon, with whom he maintained a close friendship, on tours in 2007 and 2008.
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