Home  House Of The Rising Sun - Traditional Lyrics  Printer Friendly

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.
When I was young, a few years back, us lads who thought we could play guitar had to master the first few bars of this tune. Back in the early 1920s, the name "Rising Sun" was attributed to brothels. The traditional version of "The House of the Rising Sun" speaks, not of a boy's experience, but of a girl's. Fact was, the Animals did not write "The House of the Rising Sun" If you look at the really small print on their 1966 album, The Best of the Animals, you'll find it was only arranged by Burdon / Chandler / Price / Steele / Valentine. According to folklorist Alan Lomax in his book Our Singing Country (1941), the melody of "The House of the Rising Run" is a traditional English tune and the lyrics were written by Georgia Turner and Bert Martin (both from Kentucky). Above are the traditional lyrics from Lomax's book. Did the House of the Rising Sun ever really exist? A guidebook called Offbeat New Orleans asserts: "The real House of the Rising Sun was at 826-830 St. Louis Street, between 1862 and 1874 and was named for its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant, whose surname translates to The Rising Sun". But no one knows for certain.

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