See full version: House of the Rising Sun (song)
An instrumental excerpt from the song was played during the 2006 tour, and again in the 2010 and 2013 tours as an intro to Time is Running Out. This instrumental is not played in the same fashion as Muse's recorded rendition, but instead in one similar to The Animals' version. here
The song was never played live, and never released on any of Muse's singles - only an NME cover album. This song has been covered by many huge artists, including Tommy Emmanuel, The White Stripes, The Eagles, Bob Dylan, The Animals, and coincidentally Nina Simone (the same jazz artist who made Feeling Good famous). It was also the first song Tony Blair learned to play on guitar.
House of the Rising Sun is an American folk song, thought to be written by Georgia Turner and Bert Martin. This song tells of hard times in New Orleans. The most well known version was recorded by Eric Burdon and The Animals in 1964.
There is a house in New Orleans They call the Rising Sun It’s been the ruin of many a poor boy And God I know I’m one Well mothers tell your children Not to do what I have done While you spend your life in sin and misery In the House of the Rising Sun Well there is a house in New Orleans They call the Rising Sun Well It’s been the ruin of many a poor boy And God I know I’m onehere
'The House of the Rising Sun' is a folk song by an unknown author. The version recorded by the British group 'The Animals' is the most popular and is considered a folk-rock hit.
It was an old negro spiritual song but there's no record of who actually penned it. The story goes that when The Animals recorded it they were all under the impression that the credit became theirs - as a group. Alan Price knew better and registered the credit in HIS name only. This caused an unhealable rift between him and the rest of The Animals - especially Chas Chandler and even more so Eric Burden. The enmity was compounded when every time the group performed the track or it was aired on TV or radio, the royalties went solely to Alan Price!
Since then Chas Chandler has openly stated on TV that should he come across Alan Price in the flesh he will 'chastise' him. I get the impression that that is an understatement.
Answer has 17 votes.
Wiki describes it as a traditional folk song which probably originated in England. It was first recorded in the 1930s, with the version by The Animals being the best known.
Currently voted the best answer. here
Some sources credit Georgia Turner with the earliest recording of the song that best fits the version that all modern covers are based on.
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans; many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock band the Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and also in the US and Canada. [1] As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit". [2] [3]
The song was first collected in Appalachia in the 1930s, but probably has its roots in traditional English folk song. It is listed as number 6393 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
As for the location of the famous House of the Rising Sun, many New Orleans tour guides claim that it was a hotel in the French Quarter that operated between 1808 and 1822 and that was actually a men’s hotel, in other words, a brothel. This has become one of the most popular stories, since the song clearly states that the life of the young woman tragically changed when she abandoned her house, and it’s most likely that she was taken to the brothel to work. [links]
Music specialists claim that the song belongs to the folk ballad tradition that was so popular between the sixteenth and nineteenth century, which doesn't really help us pinpoint when the song was created. They believe that although there’s no way to really know who wrote it or when, because of its folkloric nature, it can be traced more than two centuries back. Now, although many people are certain it's an American song, some specialists believe that it actually evolved from a popular song called “The Unfortunate Rake,” an English sixteenth-century folk song with many variants, one of the most popular being a story about a man dying from syphilis. Over the years, passing from voice to voice, it was transformed and adapted to many different situations and stories, like soldiers dying in the war or sailors lost at sea. more
In his book, Chasing the Rising Sun, Ted Antony explains how the song came to both musicians at a time when information was still hard to move from town to town, reaching the conclusion that, originally, the song was transmitted orally thanks to the railroad. Ashley traveled around in the Appalachian region in the 1920s. Back then, medicine shows were extremely popular. These shows were basically people selling “medical” remedies (which were usually nothing but alcohol mixed with sugar), while singers performed for the people who gathered around them. The singers made money from these performances, of course, while the "doctors" used the songs as jingles that people could remember and associate with their products. Another theory is that in the previous decades, the railway was still being built, so workers sang folk songs as they worked, which would explain how the song traveled across the country. [links]
There are songs that, like myths, are ingrained in our collective imagination and have become anthems passed on from generation to generation. That’s the case of “The House of the Rising Sun,” a ballad that has been adapted and covered countless times because of the tragic and emotional story it tells. But what’s the story behind this song, sung and popularized by the British band The Animals in the 1960s, and that since then has remained one of the most famous folk songs?
As for the name of the song, it’s believed that “Rising Sun” was a popular name for English pubs and that New Orleans was only a way to claim the song and make it more relatable when it arrived in the US. Now, if you think about the history of the city, there are other versions of the story that could also fit in their theories. Since the city belonged to the French for such a long time, other musicologists believe it was actually introduced by French migrants, but that the song dates back to the time of Louis XIV, meaning that it was a popular song during the seventeenth century and not the previous one. more
It tells the story of a woman (apparently a very young one) talking about how her life became a living hell when she decided to abandon her family. Many people see it as a representation of poverty and injustice, and thus, an anthem many people can actually relate to. Set in New Orleans, many historians, musicologists, and anthropologists have devoted their time and efforts to find not only the song's origins, but also the House's location to understand what happened to the woman in the song.