Depending on the version, the song may be sung from the perspective of a woman or a man.File under: 'You learn something new ever day'.
and shame on Bob Dylan for trying to rip it off as his own. Oops, I mean 'Bob Zimmerman'.
The House of the Rising Sun actually existed between 1862 to about 1874 and was run by a Madam Marianne LeSoleil Levant whose name translates from French as such. Offbeat New Orleans, a guide book on New Orleans asserts that the real House of the Rising Sun was at 826-830 St. Louis St. between 1862 and 1874 and was purportedly named for its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant.
In May 2005, Archaelogists found the remains of this bordello.
It was never a prison as some people have claimed.
In Anglo-American culture; during the Victorian period Brothels were often refered to using puns/double entendre as a House of the Rising Sun.
The ballad goes way back and no one is sure who the author or composer is. Mickey Roark claimed to have written the song but lost copyright to Dylan and others in some of the legal battles that followed.
Some of the earliest forms of this ballad so not refer to a male but to a female who has been corrupted because she must work to support herself as her husband is a drunkard and does not work. In Victorian days no respectable woman worked nor did she wear any make up. A working girl was viewed with suspicion and again a ‘working girl or woman’ often refered to a woman who was a prostitute.