House Of The Rising Sun | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| 6/8 Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 1
| Am | C | D | F |
There is a house in New Orleans.
| Am | C | E | E |
They call the Rising Sun.
| Am | C | D | F |
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy.
| Am | E |
And God, I know I’m one.
Instrumental 1
| Am | C | D | F | Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 2
| Am | C | D | F |
My Mother was a tailor.
| Am | C | E | E |
Sewed my blue jeans.
| Am | C | D | F |
My father was a gamblin’ man.
| Am | E |
Down in New Orleans.
Instrumental 2
| Am | C | D | F | Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 3
| Am | C | D | F |
Now the only thing a gambler needs.
| Am | C | E | E |
Is a suitcase and a trunk.
| Am | C | D | F |
And the only time that he’ll be satisfied.
| Am | E |
Is when he’s on a trump.
Instrumental 3
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Solo
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | C | E | E |
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E |
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 4
| Am | C | D | F |
Oh Mother, tell your children.
| Am | C | E | E |
Not to do what I have done.
| Am | C | D | F |
Spend your lives in sin and misery.
| Am | E |
In the house of the Rising Sun.
Instrumental 4
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 5
| Am | C | D | F |
Well, I got one foot on the platform
| Am | C | E | E |
The other foot on the train.
| Am | C | D | F |
I’m going back to New Orleans
| Am | E |
To wear that ball and chain.
Instrumental 5
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E | Am | E |
Verse 6
| Am | C | D | F |
Well, there is a house in New Orleans.
| Am | C | E | E |
They call the Rising Sun.
| Am | C | D | F |
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy.
| Am | E |
And God, I know I’m one.
Outro
| Am | C | D | F |
||: Am | E | Am | E :||
| Am | E | Am | Am |
House Of The Rising Sun’s chords and progressions
Often seen as a common beginner guitar song, House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals is actually pretty difficult due to the fast-picking technique.
Personally, I would class this as an intermediate song as I still find it difficult when played at the full tempo!
Still, the chords are all open-position chords and I supposed you could practice slowly and therefore improve your picking technique, making House Of The Rising Sun’s chords a great exercise.
Speaking of the chords, using Roman numerals, they are VI – I – IIx – IV. Then when repeated, go to IIIx instead of the last two chords. The last two bars are just VI – IIIx.
In the key of Am, this becomes:
||: Am | C | D | F |
| Am | C | E | E |
| Am | C | D | F |
| Am | E :||
The IIIx (E) is a very common variation, more common than Em in the key of Am. The big tension of the chord progression is in chord IIx (D), which if diatonic would have been Dm.
The reason we feel this extreme tension is down to that the D chord has an F# as a 3rd, followed by an F chord, and we get a clash/chromatic movement.
My favorite part of House Of The Rising Sun isn’t the chords, it’s how the pattern itself holds an obvious secret to getting better in general; the open G string at the end of every chord.
Members get an exact, correct, note-for-note transcription using TAB, highlighting this very important detail that you can learn from when playing other tunes as well.
We also look at how to strum the chords, something that happens toward the end of the original recording but is often forgotten by teachers when working on this classic.
Here’s a link to the complete lesson (members only): House Of The Rising Sun chord analysis and TAB.
Become a member today and get unlimited access to all step-by-step guitar courses, TAB for the songbook, the Self-Eliminating Practice Routine, and the eBook Spytunes Method.
House Of The Rising Sun is a traditional!
Nobody knows for certain who wrote it, it may even be several folk songs combined.
One theory is that House Of The Rising Sun is an old English Folk song about a pub called The Rising Sun due to its most eastern location of Lowestoft, Suffolk.
Apparently, some of the lyrics went “If you go to Lowestoft, and ask for The Rising Sun, There you’ll find two old whores and my old woman is one.”
Later the lyrics came to be about New Orleans and were recorded by English rockers The Animals in 1964. Some say this was the world’s first folk-rock recording.
No matter how you twist and turn, House Of The Rising Sun has been and probably always will be an important part of music history.
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