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The House of the Rising Sun

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This article is about the folk song "The House of the Rising Sun". For information about the Lost episode, see House of the Rising Sun (Lost).
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a United States folk song.

Contents

Origin

Like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of "The House of the Rising Sun", sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues", is dubious. Folklorist Alan Lomax, author of the seminal 1941 songbook Our Singing Country, wrote that the melody was taken from a traditional English ballad and the lyrics written by a pair of Kentuckians named Georgia Turner and Bert Martin. Other scholars have proposed different explanations, although Lomax's is generally considered most plausible. It has been suggested that the phrase "Rising Sun" may have been an old euphemism for a brothel, but it is not known whether or not the house described in the lyrics is an actual or fictitious place.

The oldest known existing recording is by Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster and was released in 1934. Ashley thought he had learned it from his grandmother, Enoch Ashley. Texas Alexander's "The Risin' Sun", which was recorded in 1928, is sometimes mentioned as the first recording, but this is a completely different song. Roy Acuff, who recorded the song commercially on November 3, 1938, may have learned this number from such neighboring Smoky Mountain artists as versatile entertainer Clarence Ashley or the Callahan Brothers, an influential duet team of the '30s and '40s.

Artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Dolly Parton to Bachman-Turner Overdrive have covered the song, and it has been a standard cover for at least four decades by bar bands and major recording artists alike. In an interview by Martin Scorsese in his Dylan biopic No Direction Home, folksinger Dave van Ronk recounted that he had originally worked out the arrangement that Dylan then "borrowed" for his first album, and which was subsequently borrowed in turn by Eric Burdon, who, in 1964, took the song to newfound popularity when it was recorded by his British rock group The Animals. The Animals' version has become a staple of oldies and classic rock radio stations. In his 2006 release, 9th Ward Pickin Parlor Shawn Mullins provided a rousing rendition of the song sung from the womans perspective.

The gender of the singer is flexible. Earlier versions of the song are often sung from the female perspective, a woman who followed a drunk or a gambler to New Orleans and became a prostitute in the House of the Rising Sun (or, depending on one's interpretation, an inmate in a prison of the same name), such as in Nina Simone's version. The Animals version was sung from a perspective of a male, warning about drinking and gambling.

The real house?

Various places in New Orleans, Louisiana have been proposed as the inspiration for the song, with varying plausibility. Only two candidates have historical documentation as using the name "Rising Sun"; both having listings in old period city directories. The first was a small short-lived hotel on Conti Street in the French Quarter in the 1820s. An excavation and document search in early 2005 [found evidence] supporting this claim, including an advertisement with language that may have euphemistically indicated prostitution. The second was a late 19th century "Rising Sun Hall" on the riverfront of the uptown Carrollton neighborhood, which seems to have been a building owned and used for meetings of a Social Aid & Pleasure Club, commonly rented out for dances and functions. Definite links to gambling or prostitution, if any, are undocumented for either of these buildings, neither of which still exist. A guidebook called Offbeat New Orleans asserts that the real House of the Rising Sun was at 826–830 St. Louis St. between 1862 and 1874 and was purportedly named for its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant, whose surname translates to "The Rising Sun."

It is possible that the "House of the Rising Sun" is a metaphor for either the slave pens of the plantation, the plantation house, or the plantation itself, which were the subjects and themes of many traditional blues songs. Dave van Ronk claimed in his autobiography that he had seen pictures of the old New Orleans Prison for Women, the entrance to which was decorated with a rising sun design. He considered this proof that the House of the Rising Sun had been a nickname for the prison.

Lyric

The traditional lyric, as recorded by Lomax, are as follows:

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 Mamma said,
I'd 'a' been at home today.
Being so young and foolish, poor boy,
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 sold those new blue jeans.
My sweetheart, he's a drunkard, Lord, 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
To wear that ball and chain.
Going back to New Orleans,
My race is almost run.
Going back to spend the rest of my days
Beneath that Rising Sun.

Performances

Johnny Hallyday sang a French version of the song called "Les Portes du Pénitencier". A Catalan version was performed by the group Els Dracs under the title "La Casa del Sol Naixent". A Finnish version was performed by Virve Rosti, entitled "Nousevan auringon talo". A popular version from the 1930s was recorded by Leadbelly, who added ambiguity to the lyrics by changing the gender of the singer. The Animals version, sung by Eric Burdon, is possibly the best known today.

Other artists to cover the song include:

Trivia

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External links

 

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