Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I’m one
I LOVE this song and The Animals did it best. According to Wiki:
- the melody was taken from a traditional English ballad and the lyrics written by Kentuckians Georgia Turner and Bert Martin
- folksinger Dave Van Ronk claims he wrote the arrangement first but Bob Dylan recorded it without his permission
- then when Dave Van Ronk did his version, people assumed he’d covered Dylan’s song
- then when The Animals did their version, which was by far the most famous, people assumed Dylan had covered The Animal’s song
- another story went that The Animals had first heard Nina Simone sing it
5 responses so far ↓
1 rocafuentes // Oct 15, 2007 at 4:25 am
Yep - those “Houses of the Rising Sun” have been the ruin of many a poor boy or girl
2 housewife // Oct 15, 2007 at 7:11 am
Dad’s favourite song (and he definately doesn’t do the best version), which he performs complete with air guitar and 60’s foot tapping. So mothers tell your children not to do what I have done.
3 squib // Oct 15, 2007 at 8:06 am
Pheew lucky I never heard that version, might have ruined it for me
4 warthog // Oct 16, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Did you know that I live in a dirty old part of the city where the sun refuses to shine?
5 squib // Oct 16, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Funny you should say that, I was going to do a music double and put that one in there too
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