House of the Rising Sun

Factual Questions
1

Does anyone know who wrote the song, House of the Rising Sun (it wasn’t Eric Burdon). My friend insists that it was Dolly Parton. I laughed at first but then found the original lyrics …

http://www.nutz.org/olga/chordpro/t/Traditional/HouseOfTheRisingSun.chopro

…and sure enough, it’s from a woman’s p.o.v. Back in the day it was a common practice to have songwriters and then performers (ie.Leiber/Stoller>Everyone). So it doesn’t sound too unusual after all. Does anyone have the dope?

2

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/DailyNews/risingsun000930_1.html

Funny, Abcnews.com run a special on this very topic a couple of weeks ago. The link above will tell you everything that you need to know. Basically:

  1. Dolly Parton did not write it.

  2. No one knows who did write it.

  3. It is a vgery old song.

3

Please excuse my spelling errors above.

4

Wow, That is an amazing story. Thanks for the response. The article said there is a copy in the library of congress, I wonder where I could get a copy or hear it?

5

It’s possible it could be on a Folkways label. If it’s at LC, you’d have to go there and ask VERY NICELY to listen to it.

6

I was under the impression that it was written by Dolly Parton because that’s the name in my music book. But when I posted such in a thread many months ago (at least I think it was here), I was told that the version in my song book was arragned by Parton, not written by her.

7

The original Animals’ recording of “House of the Rising Sun” listed their organ player, Alan Price, as the composer, but obviously variations on the song were around LONG before any of the Animals were born.

It’s safe to say the REAL author died a long time ago, or he’d have sued a LOT of people for plagiarism.

8

Here is one set of lyrics:

9

Check out the versions of it done by a band called “Preacher”, it’s on mp3.com (legally).

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/71/homegrown_-_peter_preacher.html

10

…IMHO the Bob Dylan version leaves all others in its dust ( although Dylan relates that, upon hearing the Animals cover of the song, he was inspired to “turn electric” and did so amidst cries of “Judas” at Monteray.)

11

This link is great. But it’s a shame that they talk so much about this old recording of the song, but don’t put it on their site. I’d love to hear it. Could it be under copyright still?

12

The really definitive version of this is Dave Van Ronk’s–he taught it to Dylan, and that’s basically the arrangement he used. The Animals’ version owes a lot to him by way of Dylan, too.

(For a giggle, check out Andy Griffith’s version on Andy Griffith Sings the Blues, also collected on Golden Throats Volume One. I had to pull the car over the first time I heard it, I was laughing so hard.)

13

I love to play this song and in all my guitar books the author is listed as “Traditional”. It occurs to me that this “Traditional” person wrote a whole lotta music.