Most people would agree that if there were a Mount Rushmore for “British Invasion” bands, the four groups represented would be the Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones, and Who.
The Animals just miss out. For one thing, they didn’t stay together as long as those groups – so their musical oeuvre isn’t quite as broad and deep. They never released an album that purported to be anything more than a collection of singles: there’s no Animals album that’s the equivalent of Sgt. Pepper or Arthur or Let It Bleed or The Who Sell Out.
The Animals performing live in 1965
Second, the Animals didn’t write any of their best singles. Right or wrong, groups that did mostly covers aren’t given the same regard as groups that wrote their own songs.
But in a span of fourteen months, the Animals released “House of the Rising Sun” (a tour de force version of a traditional folk song) and three great singles written by Brill Building songwriters: “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” and “It’s My Life.”
I don’t think you can point to four songs by any of the Mount Rushmore groups that match up to those four. Despite that, most people underrate the Animals.
* * * * *
Most of the tracks on the Animals’ early albums were blues or R&B covers – including songs previously recorded by Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and John Lee Hooker.
Hooker originally recorded today’s featured song in 1961. The Animals covered “Boom Boom” in 1965.
Click here to listen to the Animals’ cover of “Boom Boom.”
In the late fifties and early sixties, the center of the pop music world was The Brill Building in New York City.
Many of the best songs that came out of the Brill Building were written by songwriting teams consisting of a composer and a lyricist. For example, Burt Bacharach wrote the music for “The Look of Love,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” while Hal David wrote the lyrics for those songs.
The entrance to the Brill Building
Other well-known Brill Building songwriting teams included Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (“Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog,” “Stand By Me”), Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (“On Broadway,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”), and Gerry Goffin and Carole King (“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “One Fine Day”).
One of the lesser-known Brill Building songwriting teams was composer Carl D’Errico (who also worked with Neil Diamond and Gerry Goffin) and lyricist Roger Atkins (whose other collaborators included Neil Sedaka and Michael Nesmith). D’Errico and Atkins wrote a number of songs together, but one of them stands head and shoulders above the others: “It’s My Life,” which was recorded by the Animals in 1965.
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After the Animals struck gold with “House of the Rising Sun” in 1964, producer Mickie Most sent word to Don Kirshner – the most successful of the Brill Building music publishers – that the Animals needed new material.
Kirshner spread the word among his large stable of songwriters, who got busy writing songs that Kirshner could pitch to Most.
Carl D’Errico with Eric Burdon of the Animals
Three of the songs that Kirshner’s songwriters wrote in response to Most’s request – “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and “It’s My Life” – became big hits for the Animals.
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Every element of “It’s My Life” is perfect, but it’s Roger Atkins’ lyrics that makes the song worthy of induction into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.
“It’s My Life” is sung by a poor young man who is brutally honest – and completely unapologetic – about his ambitions and the means he intends to use to achieve them.
“It’s a hard world to get a break in,” he says, but no matter. “[T]here are ways to make certain things pay,” and he tells the girl who is in love with him that he won’t hesitate to exploit other women if that’s what it takes for him to get ahead:
Are you gonna cry
When I'm squeezin’ them dry?
Takin’ all I can get
No regrets
When I
Openly lie
And live on their money
If the girl is willing to accept him on his terms, that’s fine. But if she has any doubts about how he plans to live his life, she’d better hit the road. It’s his way or the highway:
It’s my life
And I'll do what I want
It’s my mind
And I'll think what I want
* * * * *
Many of the hits that came out of the Brill Building back in the day went down as easy as a vanilla milkshake – simple songs for what we think of as simple times.
But “It’s My Life” is more like a shot of 100-proof whiskey. It’s slap-in-the-face honest.
I know, I know . . . it’s been less than a year since 2 or 3 lines previously featured “House of the Rising Sun.”
I rarely feature the same song twice on 2 or 3 lines. (I’ll never get to all the good songs that are out there, but I want to get to as many as I can.)
But I have two good reasons for doubling down on “House of the Rising Sun.”
Hilton Valentine
First, today is the 76th birthday of Hilton Stewart Paterson Valentine, the original Animals guitarist. His inimitable arpeggios – played on the Gretsch Tennessean guitar he had bought in Newcastle in 1962 – are as responsible as Eric Burdon’s vocals and Alan Price’s Vox Continental organ for making “House of the Rising Sun” the absolutely brilliant record that it is.
Two, it’s time to name the second group of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME. “House of the Rising Sun” was a ne plus ultra member of the inaugural group of inductees, and it’s fitting that we once again pay tribute to it before announcing the eleven all-time great records that will be immortalized by 2 or 3 lines this year.
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Without further ado, how about a standing ovation for this year’s choices for the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME:
1. Four Seasons – “Rag Doll” (1964)
2. Beatles – “Eight Days a Week” (1965)
3. Rolling Stones – “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965)
4. Animals – “It’s My Life” (1965)
5. ? and the Mysterians – “96 Tears” (1966)
6. Supremes – “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1966)
7. Turtles – “Happy Together” (1967)
8. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (1967)
9. Door – “Light My Fire” (1967)
10. Deep Purple – “Hush” (1968)
11. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – “Fire” (1968)
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Click here to listen to a real musical stick of dynamite – the one, the only “House of the Rising Sun.” (I will NEVER get tired of this record.)
[NOTE: I chose to feature this 2 OR 3 LINES "GOLDEN DECADE" HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME song way back in 2011, on the first anniversary of my wildly successful little blog. "The House of the Rising Sun" was a stick of dynamite when it was released in 1964, and it’s still a stick of dynamite today. Ralph McLean of the BBC called it "a revolutionary single," after which "the face of modern music was changed forever." (No sh*t, Sherlock!) Bob Dylan once told John Steel (who was the Animals’ drummer) that when he first heard the Animals’ recording of the song on his car radio, he "jumped out of his car" and "banged on the bonnet" . . . and decided to go electric. Here's a slightly revised version of my original two-part post about "House of the Rising Sun." ]
INTRODUCTION
A full year has passed since I brought 2 or 3 lines into life, kicking and screaming and generally making a nuisance of himself by constantly demanding attention. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, after all.
I thought long and hard before deciding which song I would write about to kick off year 2 A.B. ("anno bloggus"). The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" fully deserves the honor I have decided to bestow upon it. It's a song that I dare say is quite familiar to almost everyone who is reading this post – so familiar that perhaps we only half-listen to it when it pops up on the local "oldies" station.
"House of the Rising Sun" is an absolutely relentless song that has not lost a bit of its power in the 45-plus years since its release. Is there a single thing that could be done to improve it? I don't think so.
Eric Burdon first heard "House of the Rising Sun" sung in a club in Newcastle, England, by an English folk singer. The song was probably between 50 and 100 years old at that time, and had been recorded by a number of prominent American folk singers (unbeknownst to Eric and his mates).
The Animals started playing the song during a tour with Chuck Berry, often closing their act with it. Audiences seemed to love it, which convinced producer Mickie Most that it might have some potential as a single.
Well, Mickie was right. The song was a #1 hit in both the UK and the US – where it was the first #1 hit by a "British invasion" group other than the Beatles. It sold a million copies in 5 weeks in the US alone. Critics and rock historians have been virtually unanimous in praising it.
Believe it or not, the Animals recorded "House of the Rising Sun" in one take. One take! (The producer later said that the whole recording process took at most 15 minutes, start to finish.)
This is a "not all about me" post, but I have to tell one personal story. "House of the Rising Sun" was part of the Rogues' repertoire. I think we performed it in public at least once -- at a Twin Hills' pool party one summer evening, which was attended by about a dozen kids, I think.
As the keyboard player, I naturally loved any song that gave me such a prominent role – and I think this was the one song I was allowed to sing. (I had a relatively low voice – so did Jim Morrison – and for some reason we thought this song would work with a baritone/bass lead vocal.) It's hard for me to imagine I was capable of singing and playing the organ part simultaneously. Maybe someone else ended up singing it.
THE STORY OF "HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN"
Let's start with the words of the song, and its history. Then we're going to analyze the music. The lyrics tell an interesting tale but the music is what makes the Animals' version of "House of the Rising Sun" so compelling.
The story the song tells seems fairly straightforward. The singer (presumably a male given that Eric Burdon is the singer) laments how a place in New Orleans called the "House of the Rising Sun" has ruined his life. The first verse (quoted above) is a spoiler – we know the singer's life has been ruined as a result of that evil place, but we don't know why.
We learn about the narrator's upbringing in verse two. His mother – no doubt she tried to keep him on the straight and narrow – was a hardworking type, while his father relied on Lady Luck for his daily bread:
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new bluejeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans
I picture the father as a dandy – sort of a Yancy Derringer type.
Yancy Derringer
It's not clear whether the third verse is about the father or the son – or both – but what is clear is that we have added alcohol to the gambling:
Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk
Did the son follow the father into the "House of the Rising Sun," falling prey to the same vices his father did? Or did the son succumb to its evils all by himself? We can't say for sure. What we can say is that something very bad happened to our hero there:
Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun
The singer will have plenty of time to ponder his crimes and vices, because he's going to the poke for a nice long spell:
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain
To make sure we didn't miss the point, the singer then repeats the first verse – damning the "House of the Rising Sun" once more for all the lives it has ruined.
* * * * *
What do you think the "House of the Rising Sun" was? My assumption is that it was one of those all-purpose dens of iniquity that were such a prominent feature of frontier towns – a combination saloon-gambling house-whorehouse. (Maybe there was even an opium den in the back.)
Main Street, Joplin (circa 1900) --
the "House of Lords" is at the far left
My home town – Joplin, Missouri – had a famous gilded palace of sin called the "House of Lords" back in the Gay Nineties. But what comes to mind when I try to imagine what the "House of the Rising Sun" was like is the "Gem," a saloon that opened in Deadwood, South Dakota at the height of the famous Black Hills gold rush, and which is depicted in the HBO series Deadwood.
The fictional "Gem" is a very sordid place. So is the fictional Deadwood. You can find a cup of coffee in the mornings, but from about 9 a.m. on, the beverage of choice is whiskey. Once the miners have knocked back a few shots, they're ready to gamble and have a little female companionship. The prostitutes are a pretty nasty-looking bunch, although they aren't quite as repulsive as the miners.
The life expectancy in Deadwood is pretty short. There's plenty of disease to go around. If you strike it rich, there's a good chance you'll get killed in a drunken brawl (usually involving gambling or one of the whores) while enjoying your riches, or simply murdered during a robbery. Inconvenient dead bodies are taken to "Chinaman's Alley" and sold to the Chinese butcher, who feeds them to his pigs. Mmmm, mmmm, good!
"Deadwood" working girl
I remember only three female characters in the whole town who weren't whores. One was the sheriff's wife – she was his brother's widow, and you were obliged in those days to step in and marry your brother's wife if something happened to him.
The second was a transplanted New Yorker whose deceased husband had lucked into a major gold find. But she got pregnant out of wedlock (by the sheriff), and was an on-again, off-again opium addict, so she was no paragon of virtue.
The third was Calamity Jane, who dressed like a man, cursed like a man, and was such an out-of-control drunk that she usually woke up each morning soaked in her own urine.
The first two of these women were married, and those were the only two married women I remember. Every other female in Deadwood was single and ready to mingle. (If you had the money, honey, they had the time.) It wasn't exactly a place known for its strong family values.
Some believe that the song's title is a reference to the Orleans Parish women's prison, which they say had an entrance gate with a rising sun design.
The prison theory fits the "ball and chain" line in the song, but a women's prison?
You see, the earliest versions of "The House of the Rising Sun" featured a female narrator singing in the first person. Here are lyrics that folklorist Alan Lomax published in 1941, several years after he first heard the song sung by Georgia Turner, a 16-year-old Kentucky coal miner's daughter. (She died of emphysema at age 48, having received a grand total of $117.50 in royalties for her recording of "House of the Rising Sun.")
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun.
It's been the ruin of many a poor girl
And me, O God, for one.
If I had listened what Mama said
I'd be at home today.
Being so young and foolish,
Let a rambler lead me astray.
Go tell my baby sister
Never do like I have done
To shun that house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun.
My mother she's a tailor
She sewed these new blue jeans.
My sweetheart, he's a drunkard, Lord,
Drinks down in New Orleans.
The only thing a drunkard needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk.
The only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk.
Fills his glasses to the brim
Passes them around.
Only pleasure he gets out of life
Is hoboin' from town to town.
One foot is on the platform
And the other one on the train.
I'm going back to New Orleans
Most of the pre-Animals recordings – including those done by Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan – featured these lyrics (or some variation on them) but were muscially quite varied.
The Animals denied that their arrangement was inspired by Dylan's version. Dylan was wowed by the Animals' single when he heard it on a car radio, but stopped performing the song because many fans – unaware that his recording had been released over two years before the Animals' version was recorded – believed he had copied the Animals.
* * * * *
I don't know whether the Animals changed the lyrics so that a male was the narrator, or whether they heard someone else perform it that way. The original lyrics do hang together a little better, I think.
But it always bothers me a little to hear a male sing a first-person song about a woman, or vice versa, so I'm glad the Animals did the song from a male's point of view.
The best (or worst) example of that I can offer of a transgendered song that just didn't cut it is Linda Ronstadt's version of the Lowell George song, "Willin'."
"Willin'" is sung by a "drunk and dirty" truck driver, who's not above smuggling cigarettes or transporting illegals across the border to make an extra buck – a modern-day cowboy, driving the lonely highways of the desert Southwest:
It seems that the woman in the original version of "House of the Rising Sun" is heading to prison because she killed her sweetheart. (In some recordings, he is a "gambler," not a "rambler.") Or was she busted for prostitution? Or maybe the "ball and chain" is meant figuratively, not literally, and she is heading back to the house of ill repute out of economic necessity because her lover has deserted her. Maybe she is fed up with his drinking. (Maybe you have a different theory.)
Cherchez la femme!
So how did the hero in the Animals' version of the song end up in a ball and chain? What terrible thing happened at the "House of the Rising Sun" anyway? Did he kill a gambler who was cheating at cards? Did he kill his father for abusing his mother?
I say cherchez la femme. I suspect a woman was the root of the problem. Maybe he fell in love with a working girl there and killed her – or a customer of hers – in a fit of whisky-fueled jealousy one night.
Or maybe he didn't kill her, but just threw a pot of hot coffee in her face so other men wouldn't want her (like Lee Marvin did to Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat):
Booze, or drugs, or gambling may have had something to do with our boy ending up in shackles, headed for the big house. But trust me, there was a woman involved. That's for sure . . . that's for damn sure.
IT'S THE MUSIC, STUPID
On to the music. If you don't play an instrument, you may want to skip ahead – but if you do have a guitar or a piano, feel free to use the chords below to play the song yourself.
The song begins with 8 bars of guitar arpeggios (basically a chord played one note at a time – going up in pitch and then back down), with a chord change on the downbeat of each bar – the progression is Am, C, D, F, Am, E, Am, and E.
There is never a chord change in the middle of a measure, or on an off-beat – there's no syncopation. That's one reason the song is so relentless. Its tempo is constant (until the slight slowing – or ritardando – at the very end) and the always-on-the-first-beat accents (reinforced by the accompanying chord changes) are as regular as heartbeats – but somewhat speeded-up heartbeats.
The time signature is a quick 6/8 – really two units of three beats apiece -- with the accent on the first of the three beats: ONE two three one two three. (Many 4/4 versions of this song have been recorded, but the 6/8 time signature is a very important part of why the Animals' version works so well.) The twitchy three-beat figures ratchet up the tension the listener feels as the song progresses.
There are six verses – each is 14 measures long (plus one syllable), and each is followed by an 8-measure instrumental bridge, the chords of which are the same as the chords in the introduction.
Here's the first verse, with the chords added:
There is a house in New Orleans
Am C D F
They call the Rising Sun
Am C E7 E7
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
Am C D F
And God I know I'm one
Am E (Am)
Yes, I know that's 15 chords, not 14. The way I see it, the last word of each verse is sung on the first beat of the 8-bar bridge.
(I don't want to get bogged down in minutiae, but another way to look at the musical structure of "House of the Rising Sun" is to say that it consists of 18-measure verses and a 6-measure bridge. Actually, the most accurate way to describe the structure may be to say that there are 18-measure verses and 8-measure bridges, each paired set of which has 22 measures. The two transitional measures – whether you think of them as the last two bars of the verse, or the first two bars of the bridge – really do double duty. It's like one voice sings for 18 measures, and a second voice sings for 8 measures – but the second singer begins to sing when the first one still has two measures to go. Capisce? Probably not, but let's not worry about it any longer.)
Eric Burdon sings the first verse accompanied by only the guitar arpeggios. Alan Price sort of sneaks in on his Vox Continental organ during the instrumental bridge between the first and second verses, and the organ increasingly dominates as the song progresses.
The Animals
After three verses, Price gets a 14-bar solo – the solo functions as sort of a 7th verse, with the usual 8-measure instrumental bridges on either side of it. (Or 18 and 6, or 18 and 8 equalling 22.) He is joined by guitarist Hilton Valentine, playing chords instead of arpeggios, which carry quite a bit more force. This is when all hell starts to break loose.
The organ and guitar back off a little when Burdon returns with the fourth verse, but quickly crank it back up for the fifth verse – as does the singer. Nothing's held in reserve.
But the song doesn't end there – there's a sixth verse (actually, it's the first verse repeated once more), and it is just as loud and fast and intense as the previous verse was . . . only more so.
After Burdon sings the last line of the last verse, you finally get to catch your breath. The song ends with a 18-measure instrumental coda, which is twice as long as the introduction or the between-verse bridges. The tempo slows down just a bit – I would mark it decelerando, not ritardando. (To me, ritardando is like putting on the brakes. Decelerando is taking your foot off the accelerator.) You realize that you've been breathing shallowly and so you're a little short of oxygen, so you take a nice deep breath as the song decelerates.
The whole experience reminds me of the last time I rode one of those modern thrill rides that teenagers love but no sane adult views with anything other than abject terror. You start climbing relatively slowly, but it doesn't take long before the scary stuff begins. There's a bit of a break about halfway through and you let your guard down a bit – just in time to get scared silly by a vertical loop that takes you a full 360 degrees. But before you have a chance to fully recover from that, it's time for a couple of head-over-heels corkscrew 360s.
The "Alpengeist" at Busch Gardens (Williamsburg, VA)
Finally, you start to coast, gradually slowing down until the brakes are finally applied and you come to a complete stop. You climb out of the ride wishing you could lie down for a few minutes with a cool washcloth on your forehead until your heart rate returned to normal and your brain started functioning properly again.
By the way, this discussion is about the original 4:29 version of the song. A hastily edited 2:58 version was released in the U.S. as a single. We will speak of it no more.
APRES LES "ANIMALS,"LE DELUGE
A whole lot of people did "House of the Rising Sun" after the Animals did – including (in no particular order) Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bon Jovi, Toto, Tori Amos, Duran Duran, Gary Glitter, Sinead O'Connor, David Allan Coe, and the Seamonkees. Don't waste your time.
Click here for another Spanish version – a 1972 recording by a rock band from Colombia that seems to have gone by Gene-sis, Genesis, and Genesis de Colombia:
The ride's over, folks – if you made it all the way to the end, I'm impressed by your endurance.
But before bringing this post to a close, I'd like to reflect for just one moment on the first year of 2 or 3 lines.
When you're the creator of a wildly popular blog like 2 or 3 lines, you have very little time to rest on your laurels – you've got to keep your eye on the prize. If you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards. That's just simple physics, n'est-ce pas?
But one startling statistic should not go unremarked. I'm not talking about the record-breaking numbers of hits and page views that 2 or 3 lines is achieving month after month after month. I'm talking about the content that generated all those hits and page views.
The first six months that 2 or 3 lines was in existence, I produced 18 posts. The last six months, I produced 73 – yes, I said 73! In fact, I wrote more posts in October alone than in the first six months of 2 or 3 lines. (And as the quantity of posts increased, did the quality fall off? Well, maybe just a little.)
So don't tell me that 2 or 3 lines is just a hobby – a diversion – a pleasant way to while away some of my leisure time. No, no, no, no, no . . . it is much more than that. It is a force of nature – an unstoppable force and an immovable object, all rolled up into one. It's a big deal, and don't you ever forget that.
In the words of Maino's "All the Above" (a song that could just as well have been written about 2 or 3 lines):
How the hell could you stop me?
Why in the world would you try?
I go hard forever
That's just how I'm designed
That's just how I was built
See that look in my eyes . . .
Take a look
And you can tell that I'm destined for greatness
I did take my foot off the accelerator a little bit this week, and took my time for a change. Every 2 or 3 lines post is very special, but I wanted this one to be very very special – so I gave this truly great record all the time and effort it so richly deserved.
But this post took a lot out of me, so don't be surprised if I sort of phone in the next one. (You can't expect a magnum opus every time.)
Th-th-th-that's all folks. Hasta luego . . . hasta la vista . . . hasta yo mama!
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Click on the link below to order "House of the Rising Sun" from Amazon:
Since I retired last year, I’ve been trying new things.
For example, when I woke up with the flu last Friday, I did something I’d never done before: I installed myself on the sofa and binge-watched an entire season of a television show in a single day.
It would have been too much to get through an entire season of a dramatic show with hour-long episodes in just one day – especially when I kept nodding off – so I binge-watched the first season of Master of None, a Netflix comedy series with half-hour-long episodes.
* * * * *
Master of None stars Indian-American comedian Aziz Ansari as Dev Shah, an aspiring thirty-something actor who lives in an apartment in New York City and hangs out with an eccentric but lovable group of single friends. (If you think that the show sounds like Seinfeld and Friends and Girls and Louie and numerous other old and new sitcoms, you’re right.)
The critics went absolutely ga-ga over Master of None. The show is very funny at times but not so funny at other times. In fact, it’s downright annoying at times.
When I say Master of None is downright annoying at times, I really mean Aziz Ansari is downright annoying at times.
* * * * *
The Master of None episode titled “The Other Man” was by far the most interesting episode from the show’s first season. First one thing, it starred Claire Danes. For another, it starred Claire Danes.
Claire Danes
In “The Other Man,” Danes plays a well-known restaurant reviewer named Nina who starts talking to Dev at a party so she can avoid talking to some other guy. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon Dev and Nina are back at her gorgeous Manhattan apartment, ready to get busy.
But they don’t get busy. That’s because Dev notices a photograph of Nina with a handsome guy on a table near the sofa where they are making out. She claims the guy is her brother, but Dev is suspicious – when he points out that she’s wearing a wedding dress in the photo, she fesses up and admits she is, in fact, married to the guy. As a result, Dev decides not to have sex with Nina.
* * * * *
The plot of “The Other Man” strained credulity. We’re talking CLAIRE DANES here, boys and girls. We’re supposed to believe that Dev would turned this woman down just because she’s married? (Not a chance, dude.)
Danes and Ansari – in your dreams, dude
There was another problem as well. I didn’t believe for a minute that the Claire Danes character would have been interested in the Aziz Ansari character. Ansari is short and not particularly attractive, and his character is goofy and immature.
* * * * *
Not surprisingly, Dev begins to have second thoughts about his decision as soon as he leaves Nina’s apartment.
One of his friends – a lesbian who is much more of a sexual predator than the straight male characters in the show – tells him there was no reason for him to feel guilty about sleeping with Nina just because she’s married. After all, she’s the one who’s cheating. (Dev’s not only unmarried, but doesn’t even have a girlfriend). Also, she and her husband don’t have children – in her view, sleeping with someone else’s wife isn’t a big deal, but sleeping with someone else’s mom is.
Dev eventually comes around to his lesbian friend’s point of view, but only after he sees the husband acting like an entitled assh*le at a neighborhood ice cream shop. Because the husband is a pr*ck, it’s OK to mess with him. So Dev pays a booty call on Nina.
Claire Danes in “Homeland”
The script then jumps the shark. Dev and Nina get caught by her husband. He flips his lid, but so does she – the hubby has a little somethin’ somethin’ going on the side as well, and Nina calls him on his infidelity when she gets caught in the act.
A month later Dev runs into the couple and learns that his getting caught with Nina by her husband has saved their marriage. The incident caused the two to face their infidelity issues head on and work through them. Now they are the happiest they’ve been since they were newlyweds.
In other words, Dev helped save a couple’s marriage by having sex with the wife. (Really?)
* * * * *
What’s the coolest thing about being the creator and the star of a successful TV series? You have the ability to cast CLAIRE DANES on the show as a character who has the hots for your character.
I guarantee you that when Ansari cast Danes for the Nina role, he fantasized that Danes might be attracted to him and that something would happen between them off-camera. (I’m sure he knew it was a long shot – probably an extremely long shot – but dum spiro, spero as they say in South Carolina.
And I also guarantee you that he wrote the episode the way he did in hopes of making a favorable impression on her. First, his character turns her down when he finds out she is married – how noble is that! Second, when Dev does have sex with Nina after all, that leads to Nina and her husband rekindling the spark of love that made them get married in the first place. In other words, Dev’s getting caught having sex with a married woman saved her marriage.
(Hey, it was worth a shot)
If you don’t think that Ansari was hoping against hope that his script would make Danes consider the possibility that having sex with him off camera would be a good thing for her real-life marriage, you don’t understand how the male mind works.
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“Cheating” – which was written by Eric Burton and Animals’ bassist Chas Chandler – was the B-side to the group’s 1966 hit, “Don’t Bring Me Down.” Both songs were released on the Animals’ fourth American album, Animalization.
Here’s “Cheating,” which plays during the closing credits of “The Other Man”:
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