House of the Rising Sun 45
Caught an archived addition of On Point today. Fascinating. A discussion of the roots of an American classic, The House of the Rising Sun. Far more to it than I had previously ever thought about. And our old friend, Alan Lomax, plays a major part in the story. It wasn’t just The Animals involved. In fact, far from it. They just made the most famous version in 1964. But so many others covered the tune and it originated, most likely, in the Kentucky hills. Though it’s possible that it goes back even further, well into the 18th century. At least part of the song.
Sung by men and women, the song takes on completely different meaning. With the former, it sounds like a young man who has fallen into dissolution, and can’t escape from it. Perhaps he’s killed someone, and has to go back to New Orleans to do jail time for that or for debts incurred while gambling. When a woman sings it (Alan Lomax first heard a woman do the song), it’s likely about prostitution, with the House being her bordello, and the ball and chain being anything from servitude to disease to jail time.
Dissolution, decadence, for those who believe in sin, sin. It’s so 1890s Europe in a sense, though it’s classically American. Blue Jeans puts it there, perhaps more than any other part of the lyric. Locates the song. Locates the poverty and sorrow and longing for home and family. Longing for a way out though resigned to the facts that say otherwise. Amazing that it all probably started in Appalachia, but is about a return to New Orleans, which may be the least Appalachian of our cities. Sin, dissolution, decadence, and the feeling of being inexorably drawn to one’s own demise might just be universal. Might just be a template we can all hum to. There is a house for that sort of thing.
I have a tough time with the Appalachia to New Orleans link for the song.I knew about the New Orleans cathouse meaning of it but it seems hard to think that a young man from the hill country would wind up in New Orleans with this type of life song.To me hill folk would have wound up in an east coast southern port.I always think of New Orleans back then as approached by water and spreading up the mighty Miss into interior USA.Though I guess the Mountai ranges would have spit folks east and west or south to the coastal plains.
The Appalachia to New Orleans connection is probably more about the song’s DNA than the actual story. Though, who knows at this late date? It does sound more likely that it would be a move from the deeper south into Louisiana, and not likely from the hills of Kentucky. For some reason, though, the song found its way up there and that’s where Lomax recorded it for the first time. The song may have traveled in a way at slight variance with the narrative. So many different musicians covered it, too. Dylan, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie. There were problems along the way with song credits, even within The Animals band. As the radio program shows us (it’s worth a listen), we have Punk versions now, along with Rap and Hip Hop. This isn’t our House anymore. The Sun also Rises for them that’s over thar and there and there …
Testing new feature.
Second test of new feature.
Another test for new feature.
And, last but not least, yet another test.
Dave’s not here man
Hey, John. Can you test out the new preview, plus bells and whistle feature? Italics and bold, etc. Or is it bold and italics?
Oh, well. I give up. :>)
Will be reviewing a movie tomorrow, after I go see one. What a concept, right?
Hope all is well –
Now I see what you were doing.Here I thought it was the cute little quilt like pattern things to the left of the posters name.
The quilt pattern things can be changed. They’re really just placeholders for personal gravatars. I haven’t uploaded any for meself, or really looked into signing up with gravatar. But, at least theoretically, anyone should be able to attach them. Might need further research.
:>)
Anyway, will be trying some new things in 2009 for the site. We’ll see how it goes.
THOTRS was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar… way back when.… It’s a song that I always thought meant different things to different people. I heard it as a song from a man who lost a good woman, love, committed a crime, wound up in New Orleans, and thinks himself only worthy of physical affections from women in the local bordello.…
Would love to see some of the ideas from the man who researched the song.…
Thanks for the post.
You should click on the NPR link. Fairly long interview and call in show from the researcher.
From their website:
NPR On Point
Originally broadcast: June 20, 2007
For a ballad of ruin and loss, there is none in the American songbook with more dark power than “House of the Rising Sun.” Everybody’s sung it. Everybody knows it.
The Animals made it a big hit in the 1960s, but its roots go way back. Alan Lomax first heard it from the lips of a dirt-poor 16-year-old girl in Middlesboro, Kentucky in 1937. And she wasn’t the first to sing it.
This hour, in an archive edition of On Point: chasing the remarkable history of a remarkable song of ruin — House of the Rising Sun.
–Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Ted Anthony, author of the new book “Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song.” He has worked for the Associated Press since 1992, where he was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Sounds like a very interesting book by Anthony. I may review later this year … or do another kind of following on this post, etc.