I’ve been listening to Broadway a lot on my SiriusXM, and started noting there are quite a few songs about prostitutes. Some include:
The triumphant “My Body” from The Life
The dark and depressing “Lovely Ladies” from Les Miserables.
In rock, there’s “The House of the Rising Son” by the Animals (the song is older, and was originally written for a woman singer, giving it a different meaning).
Going back farther is the Andrew Sisters" “Rum and Coca-Cola.”
And I see “Greensleeves” may originally have been about a prostitute: “One possible interpretation of the lyrics is that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute. At the time, the word ‘green’ had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase ‘a green gown’, a reference to the way that grass stains might be seen on a woman’s dress if she had engaged in sexual intercourse out of doors.”
Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers,
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there