Tom Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster: House Of The Rising Sun (1933)
leadbelly - house of the rising sun
The House of the Rising Sun trough History (1933-2016)
Why would a gambler need a suitcase and a trunk? Shouldn't one or another suffice?
Rumour has it this song was about a house where terrible things took place. Ritual killings and such.
I always thought the House of the Rising Sun was the Orleans Parish Prison.
Or at least that’s what I thought every time I drove by the Orleans Parish Prison,
“And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I’m one”
That one line, playing in my head, kept me out of lots of trouble in New Orleans.
I’ve heard the chord procession we’re familiar with since back in the early sixties was from Dave Van Ronk. Dylan got it from Van Rink and the Animals from Dylan.
I loved that song by the Animals first time I heard it. Became obsessed to learn it on the guitar for a girl I knew.
To get it right, I practiced it so much that I had blood on my strings and fret board. Didn’t get the girl. She ended up getting married 7 times! Glad I escaped that one with just the song. Still love it too!
Nina Simone does a great job on the song.
There is a group of YouTubes where young people hear some of these songs (supposedly) for the first time. Their reaction the House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and Unchained Melody by Bobby Hatfield are priceless.
Where does an “Ethnomusicologist” find a job?
I have a copy of "Rising Sun Blues". The sound quality is pretty bad. Sounds pretty much like he was "singing into a can". I keep it in my playlist because it is a bit of musical history that most folk don't know.
I seem to recall reading many years ago that it was an opium den.
O2
Woody Guthrie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX_bEDqxHFw
Lyrics are from the perspective of a woman.
It was a woman’s song, lamenting her life, telling her baby sister not to do like she has done.
I had heard that it referred to a old English flop house where one could purchase anything one desired, for a price. And if a person expired on site, he or she would be dropped through a hatch into the River Thames to go drifting with the tide.
The song does not in any way conform to Matty Groves.
The chord sequence and melody are interesting and alluring, often used for other songs, such as Amazing Grace and Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem.
For me the best version is by Geoff Castellucci, a bass singer with a phenomenal range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeWEkxgncnA
His Folsom Prison Blues will rattle one’s bones too. Ditto, Sixteen Tons, Sounds of Silence, and Ghost Riders in the Sky. Some songs really need a deep, crypt-cracking bass, and he’s got it.
Clarence “Tom” Ashley: a version of Rising Sun Blues is here:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/original-folkways-recordings-1960-1962-clarence-ashley/220367
The whole album is excellent, if you like old time music...
Eric Burdon had a unique voice. Animals were very underrated IMO.
The House of the Rising Sun, Stairway to Heaven, Layla, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Sweet Caroline and Hey Jude I hope never to have to hear again in my lifetime.
You could make a hell of a collection of all the people who have recorded House of the Rising Sun and it might be entertaining and enlightening to listen to as people many times do it their own way.
When I got my first four track recording rig back in ‘84 I wanted to record HOTRSun but never got around to it. Then a few years ago having nothing musical better to do I did it. The great thing about the song is that you don’t have a clue how you’re gonna do it until you launch, despite being immersed in the The Animals version.
Why would a gambler need a suitcase and a trunk? Shouldn’t one or another suffice?
= = =
Sit on the suitcase, deal cards on the trunk.
I sang that song in a karaoke bar in Japan just outside of NAF Atsugi, sometime in the 80s. It was very well received.