Behind The Song: House of The Rising Sun (Part 1)

Introduction

Millions were intrigued by the dark, sultry electric guitar arpeggios gradually blending into an equally dramatic organ harmony – a texture which set a provocative, somewhat dismal tone against Eric Burdon’s raspy-yet-soulful vocals. This voice went onto tell the tale of a life led to ruin in the city of New Orleans, recollecting many a regretful year spent in a house known as the Rising Sun – either a brothel or a gambler’s paradise, depending on individual interpretations.

This was the first number one hit of the so-called “British Invasion” unconnected to the Beatles and an instant breakthrough chart topper on both sides of the Atlantic. Eric Burdon and his band, The Animals, had been in search of a distinctive song to sing while on tour with Chuck Berry and had found the missing link when they heard the ballad in a club in Newcastle. Little did they know, they’d found themselves a signature piece, described by BBC writer Ralph McLean as “arguably the first folk-rock tune.”

There is more to the song, however, than the Animals’ rendition, as suggested by US music critic Dave Marsh when he described their sound as if “they’d connected the ancient tune to a live wire.” Keyword: “ancient.”

It turns out that the Animals, while credited for thrusting the song into the mainstream, actually make up about the third or fourth century of performers portray the voices of sin and misery in the House of the Rising Sun. This is probably the one disadvantage of having an arrangement so popular: flattering as it may be to have such a timeless classic as a footnote in your career, mesmerized listeners get so caught up in the buzz that the song’s true history is lost.

Like most folk ballads, the House of the Rising Sun’s history is incomplete, but such shadiness pasts are half the intrigue of such tunes. The puzzle must be completed with the imagination of the listener, but first, let us start you off with the following pieces:

Song Origin

Not surprisingly, the tune of House of the Rising Sun was popular in the halls of brothels during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In spite of the (memorable) geographical location the lyrics reveal, however, it did not originate as a house in New Orleans. Much like the Animals’ breakthrough, House of the Rising Sun was a ballad of transatlantic popularity.

While the authorship is uncertain, some musicologists point to the Broadsides that circulated the lands of England, Ireland and North America during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. These single sheets of cheap paper were printed on one side with a ballad, rhyme or even news, sometimes with woodcut illustrations and were one of the most common forms of printed material during this era. These broadsides were an inexpensive and common way to sell news and history, and the aforementioned nations in which they were most abundant associate these papers with one of the most important forms of traditional music: the ballad.

Many of the early broadsides were taken to America by early settlers. The containing ballads generally had “if only” themes, and eventually emerged as American songs and formed the genre we now refer to as “blues,” based on the concept that telling a sad story has a therapeutic effect.

No such record has been identified of House of the Rising Sun, however, its past has been followed all the way across the big pond to Soho, on the west end of London. Throughout Great Britain, it became a popular melody of many different lyrical settings. One was a tune called “Lord Banard and Little Musgrove,” and another was entitled “Rising Sun,” and was widely heard in the halls of English houses of prostitution. In its original form, dating back as early as the sixteenth century, the lyrics spoke of a bordello in the ballad’s alleged birthplace of Soho. The song was brought to America by English immigrants and the lyrics over time were adapted to a New Orleans setting. New Orleans was, after all, the “den of iniquity” of the South.

A 17th Century Broadside, much like the one House of the Rising Sun may have derived from

According to Ted Anthony of the Associated Press, House of the Rising Sun’s Americanization has been dated as far back as the late nineteenth century. Anthony made the following comment about the song in an article published on September 16, 2000:

Various accounts have it kicking around the South since the Civil War, a cautionary tale for those who’d stray. Sometimes when it came from a man’s mouth, it was a gambler’s song. More often it was a woman’s warning to shun that house in New Orleans that’s “been the ruin of many a poor girl.”

A few other musicians from the region were singing it between the world wars.

The oldest known existing recording of the ballad is dated 1933 and comes from Appalachian artists Clarence “Tom” Ashley and Gwen Foster. Ashley had learned it from his grandmother. Though many incarnations of folk music were applied to House of the Rising Sun between the late 40’s and 50’s, the song may have been lost to obscurity if not for the efforts of folklorist Alan Lomax.

Lomax and his father were curators of the Archive of American Folk Song for Library of Congress in 1932, and searched the nation for traditional material, of which it was their mission to preserve. He took an expedition with his wife in eastern Kentucky, when he heard the seemingly obscure ballad sung by Georgia Turner, sixteen-year-old daughter of a local miner, while setting up his recording equipment in the Middlesborough home of singer/activist Tilman Cadle. On September 15, 1937, Lomax made a recording of Turner’s arrangement and called it “Rising Sun Blues.” Turner could not remember where she’d learned the song, but maintained that it was one she’d grown up with on the front porches of her parents and grandparents’ houses in the rural town.

Clarance Ashley too, said shortly before his death in 1967, that the ballad of House of the Rising Sun was “too old for me to talk about. I got it from some of my grandpeople.” Lomax also pointed to similarities to the traditional English Ballad Matty Groves.

Both the mystery and wonder of the city of New Orleans and this associated ballad, leave many listeners wondering if such a place ever really existed in the city. Much like the lyrics and melody, this, too, is up for speculation… though luckily for exceptionally curious souls, there are a few points of interest in this area.

The Real House

Though the ballad is generally understood to be an allusion to a house of prostitution, other astute observations have been made that the lyrics could have just as easily been referring to a gambling hall or a women’s prison. During the time House of the Rising Sun was penned, whenever exactly that may have been, “Rising Sun” was generally understood to be a euphemism for a brothel or other illicit business. Though the most primitive edition of the ballad points to a bordello in Soho, England, the bulk of the historical interest appears to be centered around the mythical house in New Orleans.

Both prostitution and backroom gambling were illegal in the United States during the 18th and most of the 19th centuries. Because of this, it is likely that such practices refrained from advertising themselves. Still, they existed, even if their advertising did not. New Orleans is a port city, where merchants and sailors far from home continually streamed in and out. In 1862 during the American Civil War, the confederate army in New Orleans surrendered the city, which subsequently fell into union occupation. Northern soldiers, easily homesick, sought out entertainment.

There is no definite answer as to whether these “ruined” people were the victims of such unlawful entertainment or of prison, however. Theories and myths have spawned supporting both possibilities.

Theory #1: The Daughter and the Prison

One myth in circulation has been that House of the Rising Sun is a song that depicts a young daughter who kills her father, an alcoholic gambler, after he beats his wife. The daughter was incarcerated in a women’s prison. The term “Rising Sun” is a metaphor of the prisoner and how she would be the first to see the sunrise every morning. The line containing the “ball and chain” lyric could support this claim, although this phrase has also been used to describe marital relationships for at least as long as the song has been in print.

Folk-blues legend Dave Van Ronk, who enjoyed House of the Rising Sun as a signature piece a mere several years before the Animals’ rendition was released, reveals in his autobiography that he believes this myth to be true. He spoke in his life story of seeing pictures of the Old Orleans Parish Women’s Prison, the entrance of which was decorated with a rising sun design. This was proof enough for Van Ronk that the name “House of the Rising Sun” must have been a nickname for the prison.

Similarly, slave pens of plantations were also common themes for traditional blues songs. The lyric could be a lament of this type of imprisonment as well.

Theory #2: Unsafe Sex

Since the ballad was sung more frequently by women than by men during its early days of existence, House of the Rising Sun, may have been a place where prostitutes were treated for syphilis. Since the old time “cures” with mercury were ineffective, frequent trips to the house would have been very likely.

Theory #3: A Thriving Cathouse for Union Troops

As one could probably imagine, a number of claims do exist regarding the house as having been an actual landmark and the following is probably the most popular of those stories. According to a guide book entitled “Bizarre New Orleans,” the real house in the song was located on 1614 Esplanade Avenue (or St. Louis Street in the French Quarter depending on the source) and was owned by a woman by the name of Madame Marianne Le Soleil Levant (which translates from French to “Rising Sun”). The house served as a bordello between 1862 and 1874 when union troops occupied New Orleans, and was ultimately shut down due to excessive complaints by neighbors.

While it certainly makes for a fun story, no solid evidence has been found to support it.

An 18th Century Brothel

Theory #4: Rising Sun Hall

Rising Sun Hall is one of two places that exist in old New Orleans directories under the name of “Rising Sun.” It was in halls like this one where jazz music was born, and it is possible that prostitution and gambling occurred in back rooms with constant transience of traveling musicians. This is speculation, of course – there is no written history.

The hall called Rising Sun served as a “benevolent association” (that is, a social aid and pleasure club) during the late 19th century and was located on the riverfront in uptown Carrollton Neighborhood. Its rooms were often rented out to musicians and other performers and organizations.

The Rising Sun Hall no longer exists.

Theory #5: Rising Sun Hotel

This long-defunct landmark is by far the most intriguing of all supposed locations of the true House of the Rising Sun – if indeed there was one. It is the second location bearing the ballad’s name in old directories is appears to be the most probable match. It was uncovered by accident in 2005 when archaeologists staked out the area in search of Native American artifacts. What they found instead were an unusually large number of old cosmetics and pots of rouge, as well as an advertisement with language that may have been euphemistically linked to prostitution. Dated January of 1821 in the wake of new ownership, the ad maintains that the new owners will:

…maintain the character of giving the best entertainment which this house has enjoyed for 20 years past. Gentlemen may here rely upon finding attentive servants. The bar will be supplied with genuine good liquors; and the table, the fare will be of the best the market or the season can afford.

The hotel was located on Conti Street during the early 1800’s, before it came down in flames in 1822.

Lead archaeologist Shannon Dowdy confessed that these fairly recent findings make the hotel look “impressively like a bordello.” Others feel it could just as easily have been a place where guests were simply invited to “let the good times role.”

The Ruin of Many a Poor Myth?

Though a number of New Orleans landmarks appear to offer insight as to how this traditional English ballad of a house “they call the Rising Sun” became integrated into the American backdrop in the city of New Orleans, not everyone believes that such a house ever stood. Pamela D. Arceneaux, a research librarian at the Williams Research Center in New Orleans is quoted as saying:

I have made a study of the history of prostitution in New Orleans and have often confronted the perennial question, ‘Where is the House of the Rising Sun?’ without finding a satisfactory answer. Although it is generally assumed that the singer is referring to a brothel, there is actually nothing in the lyrics that indicate that the ‘house’ is a brothel. Many knowledgeable persons have conjectured that a better case can be made for either a gambling hall or a prison; however, to paraphrase Freud: sometimes lyrics are just lyrics.

We’ll probably never know for sure. This is probably why each version of this song recorded has at least one thing in common: a mysterious undertone whether sung as a warning or a lament, by a man or a woman.