This seems to conflict with the stories of your old age. Weren’t you a young teenager in the time before electricity was discovered? Is the song old enough that it was played on the harpsichord?
Little-known fact: The ancient Greeks invented the organ in the 3rd Century BC. It was called the hydraulis, because the Greeks had mastered hydraulics, and used the weight of water to push the wind through the pipes!
The Romans picked it up around the second century AD, and began to use a bellows to operate the pipes, which was more efficient. It was actually a popular source of music.
So it didn't need electricity.
The harpsichord wasn't invented until the 16th Century. It's a latecomer!
I've told this story before here:
When I was 16-17 I had pretty decent grades and test scores, and was given an interview by the local Harvard rep. Harvard used to have successful grads who were not Harvard employees as gatekeepers to screen out the hot-polloi. The only way you were given an application was to meet with the rep, and impress him enough to offer you an application.
His incredible house had a pipe organ(!). I remarked that it was magnificent.
Then he insisted I play it. I'm sure he thought I'd do some Bach or other serious organ music. I didn't know that stuff back then (I didn't play Bach until much later).
So I played
House of the Rising Sun. Because that was my jam!
I followed it up with
Green Onions.
Played the bass lines with my feet, the whole deal.
Words cannot express the puzzled, disappointed expression on his face. At that moment I realized I was far too lowbrow to have a shot at Harvard.
I remember crumpling up the application he was kind enough to give me, and throwing it away when I got home. Frankly, I wasn't Harvard material, which I pretty much knew, and didn't have a clue why he even interviewed me. Maybe it was the SAT scores. I never applied. I happily went to Michigan, and had a ball.
There were times I even studied!!
It was an afternoon of my typical teenage idiocy. But I'll
never forget that pipe organ.