The World’s First Folk-Rock Hit That Inspired Bob Dylan To Go Electric (After He Already Stole an Acoustic Version From Someone Else)

Part of Bob Dylan’s singular songwriting talent is his ability to observe and absorb the world around him, then distill it into new descriptions and metaphors no one has ever used before. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t taking more obvious cues from the artists around him early in his career as he honed that skill. And for the man whose version of “House Of The Rising Sun” Dylan lifted, he’d likely say it went past “obvious” and leaned into the “offensive” territory.

Dylan included “House Of The Rising Sun” on his eponymous debut. Aside from two originals, the album was full of folk standards, of which “House Of The Rising Sun” was part. But while the song was a traditional standard, the specific arrangement Dylan used could be traced back to Dave Van Ronk, a notable player in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene. Van Ronk’s version was somewhat of a signature song for him, and Dylan heard it during his time in the city.

Then, in 1962, Dylan took it upon himself to make it his own.

Dave Van Ronk Recalls Bob Dylan Asking for Forgiveness, Not Permission

In his memoir, The Mayor Of MacDougal Street, Dave Van Ronk recalled Bob Dylan approaching him while he sat in the back of the Kettle of Fish club. “He had been up at the Columbia studios with John Hammond, doing his first album. He was being very mysterious about the whole thing, and nobody I knew had been to any of the sessions except Suze, his lady. I pumped him for information, but he was vague. Everything was going fine, and, ‘Hey, would it be okay for me to record your arrangement of ‘House Of The Rising Sun’?”

Van Ronk hesitated, telling Dylan that he had plans to record it on his album in the near future. He asked Dylan if he would mind waiting until he could cut his record. “A long pause,” Van Ronk wrote. “‘Uh-oh.’ I did not like the sound of that. ‘What exactly do you mean, ‘Uh-oh’?’ ‘Well,’ he said sheepishly. ‘I’ve already recorded it.’”

Van Ronk described Dylan’s version of his arrangement as having “all the nuance and subtlety of a Neanderthal with a stone hand ax.” But once Dylan’s star rose and people began asking Van Ronk to play “that Dylan song,” he opted to stop playing it altogether.

Next, The Animals’ Version of “House Of The Rising Sun” Served As Crucial Inspiration

David Van Ronk might have been the impetus for Dylan to record a jazz-inspired arrangement of “House Of The Rising Sun”, but it would be The Animals who inspired Dylan next. Using a similar inspiration to Dylan (and Van Ronk, technically), The Animals released an electric version of the folk standard in 1964. According to John Steel, Dylan told The Animals drummer that hearing their version of “House Of The Rising Sun” was life-changing, personally and professionally.

“He said he was driving along in his car and [the song] came on the radio,” Steel recalled, per Ted Anthony’s Chasing The Rising Sun: The Journey Of An American Song. “He pulled the car over and stopped and listened to it, and he jumped out of the car, and he banged on the bonnet. That gave him the connection. He could go electric.”

As the adage goes: good artists copy, great artists steal. And indeed, maybe that’s why Bob Dylan is as great as he is.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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