h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In his biography Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood,there is a photograph of Eric sitting on a sofa in the foyer of a building he says is the House Of The Rising Son.I would leave it up to the individual reader to decide if it is the real thing or not.

Hi Compo, thanks for the interest in my entry!

I did try to leave the possibility of the existance of the house up to reader...sorry you didn't get that. The fact is, the song goes back so far, and with uncredited songwriters, it's impossible to tell what inspired the song. I tried to give some arguments for and against the possibility, but unfortunately it's nearly impossible for anyone (including Eric Burdon) to state definitivley on it's existance.

By the way, Eric Burdon is also quoted as saying on the subject: "People would come up to me and say, 'You want to know where the real House of the Rising Sun is?' And I'd say, 'I've heard that one before.' Then I started going along for the ride. I'd go to women's prisons, coke dealers' houses, insane asylums, men's prisons, private parties. They just wanted to get me there."

Then, with a laugh, he adds, "They're trying to build up tourism, and here's this Brit singing about a whorehouse."

Meh, Compo, face it...New Orleans is (was, will be again) a tourist town. If there's a buck to be made, or an album to sell, someone somewhere will come up with a tale, even with little or no evidence to back it up. So goes life.