Love for Sale: No. 2

'House of the Rising Sun' (1964)
--The Animals

One of the most popular prostitution songs ever recorded, this folk ballad has unconfirmed origins, but pretty much anybody who owned a guitar in the '60s recorded it. The Animals' raspy, garage-rock version was the biggest hit. Given that a) it's about a whorehouse and b) it's about a whorehouse that ruins poor boys, it's a curious choice for weddings.

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Posted by Spinner Staff
Filed under: The Hit List

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Comments (12)

Reader Comments(1 of 1)

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BobbyCeeat 3-15-2008

I always heard this song was about a gambling house.

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spiritbear24at 1-08-2009

i heard it was about asia & japan...

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Jackat 3-15-2008

Another awesome song!!

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Paurikat 3-16-2008

Dylan recorded this before the Animals
Believe it or not it's about a girl
who becomes a prostitute and doesn't know
whether to go back to "The house of the rising sun"

What happened to "Lady Madonna" DUH

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Ascarisat 3-19-2008

I also coulda sworn it was about gambling.

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Kevin Copelandat 3-25-2008

There is also a great version called, "In New Orleans" by the late, great folk/blues artist Lead Belly recorded in late 1948. Out of all the versions I've heard, and I've heard a lot, from Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster's version made in 1933 to The Animals version, this is my personal favorite.

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Kevin Copelandat 3-25-2008

In regard to the post by BobbyCee and Ascaris. This is what I know:

Various places in New Orleans, Louisiana have been proposed as the inspiration for the song, with varying plausibility. The phrase "House of the Rising Sun" is often understood as a euphemism for a brothel, but it is not known whether or not the house described in the lyrics was an actual or fictitious place. One theory speculated it is about a daughter who killed her father who was an alcoholic gambler who had beaten his wife. Therefore, the House of the Rising Sun may be a jail-house, from where you are the first person to see the sun rise. Because the song was often sung by women, another theory is that the House of the Rising Sun was where prostitutes were detained while they were treated for syphillis. Since cures with mercury were ineffective, going back was very likely[19][20].

Only two candidates have historical documentation as using the name "Rising Sun", both having listings in old period city directories. The first was a small short-lived hotel on Conti Street in the French Quarter in the 1820s. It burned down in 1822. An excavation and document search in early 2005 found evidence supporting this claim, including an advertisement with language that may have euphemistically indicated prostitution. An unusually large number of pots of rouge were found by archaelogists at the site.

The second possibility was a late 19th century "Rising Sun Hall" on the riverfront of the uptown Carrollton neighborhood, which seems to have been a building owned and used for meetings of a Social Aid & Pleasure Club, commonly rented out for dances and functions. Definite links to gambling or prostitution, if any, are undocumented for either of these buildings, neither of which still exists.

Another claim is that The House of the Rising Sun actually existed between 1862 and about 1874 and was run by a Madam Marianne LeSoleil Levant whose name translates from French as "the rising sun". Offbeat New Orleans, a guide book on New Orleans, asserts that the real house was at 826-830 St. Louis Street between 1862 and 1874 and was purportedly named for its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant[21].

It is also possible that the "House of the Rising Sun" is a metaphor for either the slave pens of the plantation, the plantation house, or the plantation itself, which were the subjects and themes of many traditional blues songs. Dave van Ronk claimed in his autobiography that he had seen pictures of the old New Orleans Prison for Women, the entrance to which was decorated with a rising sun design. He considered this proof that the House of the Rising Sun had been a nickname for the prison.

The gender of the singer is flexible. Earlier versions of the song are often sung from the female perspective, a woman who followed a drunk or a gambler to New Orleans and became a prostitute in the House of the Rising Sun (or, depending on one's interpretation, an inmate in a prison of the same name), such as in Joan Baez's version on her self-titled 1960 debut album. The Animals version was sung from a perspective of a male, warning about gambling and drinking. Bob Dylan's 1962 version and Shawn Mullins' recent covered version on his album "9th Ward Pickin' Parlor" is sung from the female perspective.

Not everyone, however, believes that the house even existed at all. Quoted on the BBC's 'h2g2' database, Pamela D. Arceneaux, a research librarian working at the Williams Research Center in New Orleans is quoted as saying: "I have made a study of the history of prostitution in New Orleans and have often confronted the perennial question, 'Where is the House of the Rising Sun?' without finding a satisfactory answer. Although it is generally assumed that the singer is referring to a brothel, there is actually nothing in the lyrics that indicate that the 'house' is a brothel. Many knowledgeable persons have conjectured that a better case can be made for either a gambling hall or a prison; however, to paraphrase Freud: sometimes lyrics are just lyrics."

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Kat 3-26-2008

House of the Rising Sun *is* about gambling, but also implies there's ladies of the evening there.:-)

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Kareat 3-26-2008

Pariuk, Lady Madonna is not about a hooker.

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Kareat 3-26-2008

Kevin Copeland, House of the Rising Sun was both I believe, a brothel in N.O. La. in the late 19th century, and a prison wiht the sun design --yes, there were people wiht that name Levant, and that may have actually beene *after* the place.:-)

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Kareat 3-26-2008

Thank you K.Copeland.
Someone who can read, and does his homework--I was going to mention Bob Dylan, but didn't because there was not speicific reason--but you're correct.The song implies lots of things--basically wrong turns in life , addiction/grasping at the golden ring, negativity and poverty and misry begetting moreof same.
Bob Dylan wanted to do the song 1st, but Eric Burden of the Animals did it, and since it didn't belong to anyone he couldn't claim he wrote it, though he would have if he could have, if I'm not mistaken.

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