Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Is there a link to the excerpt?

I couldn't find one. Too bad. The writing was lively. I'd like to read it after reading Dylan's memoir. I was a Van Ronk fan; my mother was a folk guitar teacher back before it became mainstream what with the Hootenanny! and the Peters, Pauls and Marys...

Mom must have been a Weavers kind of gal. Van Ronk was missing a beat if he thought he could patent an arrangement of a standard like "House of the Rising Sun." He probably ripped his arrangement from Helmut Lotti anyway. Here's what the Straight Dope had to say about the song's provenance:
"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 ballad and the lyrics were written by Georgia Turner and Bert Martin (both from Kentucky). The song was first recorded in the 1920s by black bluesman Texas Alexander and later covered by Leadbelly, Charlie Byrd, Roy Acuff, Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, Peter, Paul & Mary, Henry Mancini, Dolly Parton, David Allan Coe, John Fahey, Waylon Jennings, Tim Hardin, Buster Poindexter, Marianne Faithful, Tracy Chapman and Bob Dylan . . . just to name a few."

The House of the Rising Sun actually existed between 1862 to about 1874 and was run by a Madam Marianne LeSoleil Levant whose name translates from French as such. Offbeat New Orleans, a guide book on New Orleans asserts that the real House of the Rising Sun was at 826-830 St. Louis St. between 1862 and 1874 and was purportedly named for its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant.

In May 2005, Archaelogists found the remains of this bordello.

It was never a prison as some people have claimed.
In Anglo-American culture; during the Victorian period Brothels were often refered to using puns/double entendre as a House of the Rising Sun.

The ballad goes way back and no one is sure who the author or composer is. Mickey Roark claimed to have written the song but lost copyright to Dylan and others in some of the legal battles that followed.

Some of the earliest forms of this ballad so not refer to a male but to a female who has been corrupted because she must work to support herself as her husband is a drunkard and does not work. In Victorian days no respectable woman worked nor did she wear any make up. A working girl was viewed with suspicion and again a 'working girl or woman' often refered to a woman who was a prostitute.

I had thought that Josh White recorded it and that Dylan copied it from him. Anyone have info. on that please?
Rob

Ive decifered it as more than a whore house or a prison, could it be a story about a man who sells his soul to the devil, or plays cards with the devil,@ a place called the rising sun, he then begs his sister, not to follow in his footsteps. when hes "on the train" hes going to repay his debt to the devil, and "ball and chain" could mean his pledge. also, "im goin back to end my life" it kind of makes it seem even more like he has sold his sold (or gambled it)
i dont believe that weather or not the house of rising sun was a whore house matters, it could just be used because it sounds cool or it fits in the song. but so much of this song points towards selling his soul and i dont see what in it implies a whore house?
anyways thats just what i think, i know i cant spell so please forgive, but contact me @ anole73@aol.com and tell me what you think (subject: "house of the rising sun", cuz i get alot of spam)

It seems to me that the degradation of the gifl is not made clear, but if she came from a
good family (mother was a tailor) then there is
something wrong about her degradation.
Yes, of course she might have turned to prostitution, buy why? It seems that the answer is much more likely in addiction, very possibly
to opium, as this was common in those days.
The rising sun (oriental) inference lends credence to the opium theory except for the
fact that the woman's name LeSoleil meant that.
On the other hand her name could have been a
come-on to let everyone know opium (an oriental
drug) was available. It makes some sense.
She could have taken the name for that reason.
As for how a young girl in Kentucky got the idea for the song is a mystery. Yet New Orleans is
not that far from Kentucky. She may have heard it and taken credit for writing it. (Why not?)
If so, the true origin is lost in antiquity.
Dr. Lou Nitti Jr.

I think you guys have this whole thing all wrong. The house of the rising sun is a house upon a hill that grew magical mushrooms all around because of the way the sun hit it. The house of the rising sun is the little house in disney movies on top of the hill with the sunrise ontop of it and the mushrooms all around it.

If you follow this link:
www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrisingson.html
it will give you the best information I have found on this song. :)

who actually wrote the song from the start