Where is the mythic ‘House of the Rising Sun’?
As well as being the stuff of folk-rock legend, ‘House of the Rising Sun’ has provided the geographically inclined their own mythic legend since its release. Where exactly is this mysterious den of inequity that leads poor boys to their ruin? It’s a hard one to pinpoint, given historians can’t even identify the song’s origins, which has been covered by everyone from Bob Dylan to Nina Simone.
It appears on the Roud Folk Song Index only as number 6393, having popped up in English folk tracks and Appalachian works from the 1930s without a clear original version ever materialising. The term “Rising Sun” is a good summary of those transatlantic connections, either referencing the name of a traditional British pub or a brothel.
As popularised by The Animals, who had heard Simone’s version before recording their own, the song references a house in New Orleans. Lyrics about “sin and misery” and a “ball and chain” have given rise to two popular theories as to where precisely the Rising Sun is. The first runs with the most obvious chunk of information and concludes it is about a historic New Orleans brothel named none other than The House Of The Rising Sun – named after its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant, whose surname conveniently translated to “The Rising Sun”.
The brothel operated without issue on St. Louis Street until the late 1870s when neighbours started complaining about the noise. When that theory became commonplace, Animals lead singer Eric Burdon told the LA Times he started to question if he’d permanently altered the city’s reputation. “They’re trying to build up tourism, and here’s this Brit singing about a whorehouse,” he laughed.
But the mystery has bolstered the fascination with New Orleans, and for every theory you’ll find about the Rising Sun, another pops up to counter it. The second most popular theory, largely built on the back of the ball and chain line – is that the track is about the Orleans Parish women’s prison. The gate guarding the building was said to have a mural of a rising sun.
Talking about his frequent visits to New Orleans, Burdon said he’d heard it all. “People would come up to me and say, ‘You want to know where the real House of the Rising Sun is? And I’d say, ‘I’ve heard that one before,'” he recalled. “Then I started going along for the ride.” Entertaining the many theories meant he was extended invites to all manner of places, assumed to be the authority on its real location.
“I’d go to women’s prisons, coke dealers’ houses, insane asylums, men’s prisons, private parties,” he said. “They just wanted to get me there.” The enduring mystery, coupled with the fact nobody can claim rights to the song and it can be covered at will, means it remains a permanent fixture in folk rock.
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