Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song - Hardcover

Anthony, Ted

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743278984 ISBN 13: 9780743278980

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2007

Synopsis

Chasing the Rising Sun is the story of an American musical journey told by a prize-winning writer who traced one song in its many incarnations as it was carried across the world by some of the most famous singers of the twentieth century.

Most people know the song "House of the Rising Sun" as 1960s rock by the British Invasion group the Animals, a ballad about a place in New Orleans -- a whorehouse or a prison or gambling joint that's been the ruin of many poor girls or boys. Bob Dylan did a version and Frijid Pink cut a hard-rocking rendition. But that barely scratches the surface; few songs have traveled a journey as intricate as "House of the Rising Sun."

The rise of the song in this country and the launch of its world travels can be traced to Georgia Turner, a poor, sixteen-year-old daughter of a miner living in Middlesboro, Kentucky, in 1937 when the young folk-music collector Alan Lomax, on a trip collecting field recordings, captured her voice singing "The Rising Sun Blues." Lomax deposited the song in the Library of Congress and included it in the 1941 book Our Singing Country. In short order, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, and Josh White learned the song and each recorded it. From there it began to move to the planet's farthest corners. Today, hundreds of artists have recorded "House of the Rising Sun," and it can be heard in the most diverse of places -- Chinese karaoke bars, Gatorade ads, and as a ring tone on cell phones.

Anthony began his search in New Orleans, where he met Eric Burdon of the Animals. He traveled to the Appalachians -- to eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina -- to scour the mountains for the song's beginnings. He found Homer Callahan, who learned it in the mountains during a corn shucking; he discovered connections to Clarence "Tom" Ashley, who traveled as a performer in a 1920s medicine show. He went to Daisy, Kentucky, to visit the family of the late high-lonesome singer Roscoe Holcomb, and finally back to Bourbon Street to see if there really was a House of the Rising Sun. He interviewed scores of singers who performed the song. Through his own journey he discovered how American traditions survived and prospered -- and how a piece of culture moves through the modern world, propelled by technology and globalization and recorded sound.

About this title

About the Author

Ted Anthony joined the Associated Press in 1992. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by the AP in 1998 and 2001 and won the National Headliner Award for feature writing in 2001. He was the AP news editor in China from 2002 to 2004. Anthony is the editor of asap, a multimedia news service produced by the AP. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

The song "House of the Rising Sun," which became a chart-topping hit in 1964 by the Animals, has a murky history, said to have originated in Appalachia, maybe New Orleans and perhaps even England, as well as having a thriving universal afterlife among cover bands and karaoke singers. Anthony, an editor for the Associated Press, crisscrossed the globe in search of the twisted roots and many spreading branches of this lonesome ballad of unknown origins. The song's ultimate odyssey began in 1937 when folklorist Alan Lomax recorded a version by 16-year-old Georgia Turner Connolly in Middlesboro, Ky. Lomax published the lyrics as "The Rising Sun Blues" and from there it grew in popularity and was performed and recorded by many, including Bob Dylan on his first record in 1962. The story seems promising, but Anthony's narrative is an uneasy mix of memoir, dissertation-like detail (with tedious repetitions of multiple versions of lyrics), journalistic feature writing and esoteric trivia. Anthony at times unconvincingly adopts the authoritative voice of an American studies expert, and he also lacks the musical or poetic knowledge to dissect the song. This exploration will be of most value to those who share Anthony's unbridled obsession with this ubiquitous ballad. (June)
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Depending on age and background, folk-music fans associate "The House of the Rising Sun" with Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Josh White, or Bob Dylan. Many more remember what some consider its definitive rendition, recorded by the sixties English rock band the Animals. Anthony travels to places throughout America and a few beyond its borders to uncover the song's origins for this musical detective story that is also in part straightforward music history. We meet early country-music stars Clarence Ashley and Charlie Poole, several record collectors, and renowned folk-song collector Alan Lomax, who also recorded early commercial versions of the song. Anthony even hunts down the harmonica player at the 1937 session in which 16-year-old Georgia Turner recorded the song for Lomax. Anthony's travels take him from Middlesboro, Kentucky, to Springfield, Missouri, and down to New Orleans, where the house ostensibly operated. Although Anthony's style veers from the poetic to the prosaic, the tale he tells remains fascinating, especially for enthusiasts of traditional songs, folklore, and folk music. Sawyers, June
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743278984
• ISBN 13: 9780743278980
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320