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Guthrie, Woody - The House of the Rising Sun
Identifier
020787
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans; many versions also urge a sibling to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock group the Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and also in the United States, Canada and Australia.
But Woody Guthrie sang it too. The recording below was made in 1941.
Woody Guthrie used as his inspiration many of the traditional folk and protest songs of ordinary people and it is to Woody that we owe the preservation of quite a number of these songs.
The ‘protest song’, for example has a long history. Sung by anonymous multitudes, in taverns and outside factory gates, on marches and sit-ins and lockouts, its history stretches way back, forming part of that great treasury of working people’s songs.
John Steinbeck, a friend of Woody Guthrie said that it was “their sharpest statement, and the one statement that cannot be destroyed. You can learn more about people by listening to their songs than any other way, for into songs go all the hopes and hurts, the angers, fears, the wants and aspirations.”
We have included Woody's version and the one made popualr by the Animals.
A description of the experience
Woody Guthrie tribute - House of the rising sun
The House Of The Rising Sun"
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
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans
Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk
[Organ Solo]
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
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain
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