Lyrics from the earliest American versions include lines like “Going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run. Going back to spend the rest of my days beneath that Rising Sun.” So despondent! Maybe a prison or hospital is plausible after all? Time to delve deeper into local lore. Well, that certainly lends credence to the house-of-ill repute theory, but it’s by no means proof. In his book, Chasing the Rising Sun, the Journey of an American Song, author Ted Anthony actually traces the song’s origins back to a bawdy English folk song that goes, “If you go to Lowestoft and ask for the Rising Sun, there you’ll find two old whores, and my old woman’s one.” The two earliest recordings date back to 1930s Appalachia, but it’s known to be older than that. Was “the house” a brothel? A tuberculosis hospital? Slave quarters on a plantation? An antebellum syphilis clinic for prostitutes? (Really, that’s an actual theory!) The lyrics have been changed so much over the years, it’s really hard to tell. Everyone agrees that it’s about the dark and debaucherous side of New Orleans’ culture, but that’s pretty much where the consensus ends.

Like many other myths and legends in the Crescent City, a cloud of mystery surrounds “ The House of the Rising Sun,” the song made famous by The Animals in the 1960s.

Image of the sun rising