How The Animals Transformed “House Of The Rising Sun” From an American Folk Tale Into a British Rock Classic

The Animals’ singer Eric Burdon discovered “House Of The Rising Sun” on England’s folk circuit in the early 1960s. He then introduced it to his band, and their cover, including Hilton Valentine’s iconic arpeggiated guitar chords, became one of the decade’s defining songs. Though The Animals’ 1964 psychedelic recording remains the best-known version, “House Of The Rising Sun” has a much longer history.

The Ruin of Many a Poor Boy

Burdon sings about a house in New Orleans that becomes like a prison to him as he descends into a dismal life of gambling and addiction.

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.

His mother sewed his clothes, but his father was a gambler who only found peace when he was drunk. The anecdote about his mother being a tailor shows how she tried to repair what everyone around her had damaged.

Oh, Mother, tell your children,
Not to do what I have done.
Spend your lives in sin and misery,
In the house of the rising sun.

The Ruin of Many a Poor Girl

Though the exact origins of “House Of The Rising Sun” are unknown, early versions that predate World War I are narrated by a woman who can’t escape life working in a brothel.

However, by the 1960s, folk musicians Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan were still singing from a woman’s perspective—though the gambling addiction appears to be the root of misery.

There is a house down in New Orleans they call the rising sun,
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I’m one.

Still, you can imagine any number of vices ruining the girl as she returns to the seedy joint. She understands her dark fate. And in Dylan’s voice, which remains my favorite reading, she warns other girls but cannot stop her own disintegration.

Dylan’s hero, Woody Guthrie, recorded a version in 1941. “My life is almost over,” Guthrie sings as the narrator sees no escape. But Dylan’s final couplet reveals a more decisive action: her only way out is death.

I’m going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run,
I’m going back to end my life down in the rising sun.

Photo by G Greenwell and A MacDonald/Mirrorpix via Getty Images