SDSTAFF Songbird replies:

Listening to all those lyrics about balls and chains, Jo, you'd probably think there was some pretty strange stuff going on in "The House of the Rising Sun."

And you'd be right.

Back in the early 20s, the name "Rising Sun" was popularly attributed to brothels in our Anglo/American culture. The traditional version of "The House of the Rising Sun" speaks, not of a boy's experience, but of a girl corrupted into a life of ruin.

Your confusion probably starts with the fact that the Animals did not write "The House of the Rising Sun." (If you look at the really small print on their 1966 album, The Best of the Animals, you'll find that it was only arranged by Burdon/Chandler/Price/Steele/Valentine.)

According to folklorist Alan Lomax in his book Our Singing Country (1941), the melody of "The House of the Rising Run" is a traditional English ballad and the lyrics were written by Georgia Turner and Bert Martin (both from Kentucky). The song was first recorded in the 1920s by black bluesman Texas Alexander and later covered by Leadbelly, Charlie Byrd, Roy Acuff, Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, Peter, Paul & Mary, Henry Mancini, Dolly Parton, David Allan Coe, John Fahey, Waylon Jennings, Tim Hardin, Buster Poindexter, Marianne Faithful, Tracy Chapman and Bob Dylan . . . just to name a few.

Here from Lomax's book are the traditional lyrics :

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun.
It's been the ruin of many a poor girl,
And me, O God, for one.

If I had listened what Mamma said,
I'd 'a' been at home today.
Being so young and foolish, poor boy,
Let a rambler lead me astray.

Go tell my baby sister
Never do like I have done
To shun that house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun.

My mother she's a tailor;
She sold those new blue jeans.
My sweetheart, he's a drunkard, Lord, Lord,
Drinks down in New Orleans.

The only thing a drunkard needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk.
The only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk.

Fills his glasses to the brim,
Passes them around
Only pleasure he gets out of life
Is hoboin' from town to town.

One foot is on the platform
And the other one on the train.
I'm going back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain.

Going back to New Orleans,
My race is almost run.
Going back to spend the rest of my days
Beneath that Rising Sun.

Did the House of the Rising Sun ever really exist? A guidebook called Offbeat 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, whose surname translates to "The Rising Sun."

But no one knows for certain. When the Animals made the song popular in the 60s, Eric Burdon was overwhelmed by the theories:

"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."
This from http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrisingson.htm