House Of The Rising Sun: A Song History

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"House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional American song, often sung as the lament of someone whose life has gone wrong in a house in New Orleans, with a warning to others to stay away[1]. The Traditional Ballad Index notes that it is often tied to African American tradition but circulated widely among white singers as well; the earliest date the Index assigns it is 1933, from the Vocalion record "The Rising Sun Blues" (02576) by Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster[1][2]. Where the song began is unclear: Lomax wrote that its tune was akin to one setting of the old English ballad "Matty Groves," and the phrase "Rising Sun" has a long history as British slang for a bordello[3]. Just what the house was is not settled: notes quoted by Mainly Norfolk present its link to one 1860s New Orleans madam's establishment as only "one theory among several"[2], and none of the sources consulted here confirms any particular building.

George Inness painting of a hazy sunrise glowing through trees over a meadow

George Inness, Sunrise, oil on canvas, 1887. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its title; it has no connection to the song.

On 15 September 1937 Alan Lomax recorded Georgia Turner, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a miner, singing "The Rising Sun Blues" in Middlesboro, Bell County; the disc, AFS 1404 A1, belongs to the Alan and Elizabeth Lomax Kentucky collection at the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center[4][3]. Ed Hunter, who played harmonica at the session, later said she was the first person he had heard sing it[3]. Lomax printed the song in Our Singing Country (Macmillan, 1941), compiled with John A. Lomax and Ruth Crawford Seeger, on pages 368–369[4][1].

From that book the song passed into the New York folk circle of the 1940s, reaching Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and Josh White[3]. White's minor-key performance, issued in 1942 on the flip side of "Evil Hearted Man," is credited with first carrying a tune near the now-standard one[2][3]. Bob Dylan included it on his debut album, Bob Dylan (March 1962), in an arrangement worked out by his friend Dave Van Ronk[2][3]. In 1964 the Animals recast it as an electric single, and in September of that year it went to number one on the Billboard chart[2][3].

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "House of the Rising Sun, The".
  2. Mainly Norfolk (Reinhard Zierke): "The House of the Rising Sun".
  3. The Seattle Times (Ted Anthony, Associated Press): "House of the Rising Sun: An old song with a long story".
  4. Alan and Elizabeth Lomax Kentucky Recordings (University of Kentucky, Berea College, American Folklife Center): "The Rising Sun Blues".