My mother was a tailor

She sewed these new blue jeans 

My father was a gambler 

Down in New Orleans 

The only thing a gambler needs 

His suitcase and a trunk 

The only pleasure he gets out of life 

When he's all drunk 

I know the song I sing when 

I spend my time in 

Down at the Rising Sun 

So mother tell your children 

Not to do what I have done 

Spend my life in — sitting in misery 

Down at the Rising Sun