[Jandek] House of the Rising Sun

[BlackMonk]

Listening to it again, there are some lyrics that are distinctively from the 
Animals' version, or versions that took after the Animals' version. The 
reason I don't consider it a cover of the Animals, or of any version, for 
that matter, is because neither the melody nor the chords have anything to 
do with the song as done previously: Uptempo and in a major key as opposed 
to slow and minor. I wouldn't be surprised if he heard the song shortly 
before recording, thought "that's a good one. I should do that," but didn't 
know the chords so he just sang the lyrics over a progression he had. If 
that sounds implausible, remember that Jandek, like Beefheart, heard the 
same music that everyone else of his generation did. He just did different 
things with it.

Tying this in with another current thread, it's likely Jandek did know how 
to play guitar in standard tuning. Again, he didn't grow up in a plastic 
bubble. When he picked up his first guitar, it was probably in standard 
tuning, and he would have learned the basics on it.