Just Dave Van Ronk
folk pop 60s tagged traditional
The well known song, made famous by the Animals, performed by Dave van Ronk. Recorded in 1964, it tells the story of a young man who's addicted to gambling, liquor and prostitutes. He ends up in the House of the Rising Sun, a brothel in New Orleans. Like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of "The House of the Rising Sun" is uncertain. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads such as the Unfortunate Rake of the 18th century which were taken to America by early settlers. Read more on Last.fm.

Dave Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was a folk singer born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York City, and was nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street." He was best known as a pioneer of the acoustic blues revival, but his work ranged from old English ballads to Bertolt Brecht, rock, New Orleans jazz, and swing. He was a pioneer of instrumental ragtime guitar, as well as an early supporter of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, among many others. Van Ronk was very influential on the music scene in New York City in the 1960s. His professional musical career started when he moved from Brooklyn to Queens in 1951 and started doing pick-up work in traditional jazz outfits. Van Ronk died of colorectal cancer (colon cancer) in 2002. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.