# Was "The House of the Rising Sun" A Gay Brothel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293 "2011-09-14T15:25:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/21 "2011-09-15T08:03:26Z")
“House of the Rising Sun” is also one of the first things young boys in junior high school learn to play on the guitar. The boys love to sit amongst a circle of young girls, playing a few bars that vaguely sound like the opening of the song. Then the girls smile and sigh, and say, “Oh, how cool.” ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/22 "2011-09-15T08:49:27Z")
I always thought it was about heroin. You learn something new every day. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/23 "2011-09-15T13:42:53Z")
I always wondered about the Japanese connection. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/24 "2011-09-15T15:51:14Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > It can also be sung to the tune of “Amazing Grace.” Or to the tune of the “Gilligan’s Island” theme. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/25 "2011-09-15T16:03:48Z")
I was taught to play this song on guitar, in the 5th grade. By a nun. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/26 "2011-09-15T16:05:11Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > I always wondered about the Japanese connection. 🙂 Wait…it’s _not_ supposed to be set in Japan? I’m so confused. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/27 "2011-09-15T16:06:32Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Just how fond are those memories? If there’s snark there it’s wasted, because I don’t get it. I enjoyed time spent drinking beer with friends in college. I strongly suspect many other people did too. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/28 "2011-09-15T16:52:14Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > It wasn’t just a whorehouse – it was a den of iniquity. Whores, gambling and booze (remember, his father was a gambling man.) Probably a guy with a derby hat and sleeve garters playing ragtime on an upright piano, too. A one-stop sin shop. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > _sigh_ Where can you **find** a place like that any more?! > [@DrFidelius](#): > > Hoboken? Reno? Vegas burbs? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/29 "2011-09-15T16:56:31Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > If there’s snark there it’s wasted, because I don’t get it. I enjoyed time spent drinking beer with friends in college. I strongly suspect many other people did too. I think the joke was that you enjoyed spending time in a gay brothel, as per the thread title. Didn’t read like snark to me. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/30 "2011-09-15T17:00:13Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > I think the joke was that you enjoyed spending time in a gay brothel, as per the thread title. Didn’t read like snark to me. Ah. Well, that would explain the loud whooshing noise I seem to be hearing, then. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/31 "2011-09-15T19:01:09Z")
Well the important thing we have learned from this thread is that if the Knights Templar wanted to spend time in a gay brothel, drinking and having fun, there should be a piano player with bands on his sleeves and a straw hat. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/32 "2011-09-15T20:31:49Z")
Don’t forget the Amazing Grace and Gilligan singing. That’s important, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/33 "2011-09-16T18:38:41Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > It can also be sung to the tune of “Amazing Grace.” As well as to any of the following: Mickey Mouse Club Theme Song Stairway to Heaven Yankee Doodle Pop Goes the Weasel Peaceful Easy Feeling I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing Yellow Rose of Texas Ghost Riders of the Sky Rocky Top Lion Sleeps Tonight Tangled Up in Blue Whiter Shade of Pale Light My Fire O Little Town of Bethlehem Jingle Bells God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Greensleeves Jolly Old St. Nicholas The First Noel O Tannenbaum It Came Upon a Midnight Clear I’ll Be Home for Christmas Take Me Out to the Ball Game In-a-Gadda-da-Vida Marines’ Hymn Wabash Cannonball America the Beautiful The Internationale Onward Christian Soldiers Ode to Joy Mack the Knife A Hundred Bottles of Beer Clementine La Cucaracha Semper Paratus The Wearing of the Green (The Rising of the Moon) The Itsy-Bitsy Spider I’ve Been Working on the Railroad Sympathy for the Devil Rollin’ Down to Old Maui Acres of Clams Bread and Roses Sink the Bismarck Forest Green (UK “Little Town of Bethlehem”) Tomorrow Belongs to Me The Girl I Left Behind Me The Wabash Cannonball MacNamara’s Band ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/34 "2011-09-16T20:56:26Z")
> [@tanstaafl](#): > > Or to the tune of the “Gilligan’s Island” theme. The man went to a brothel for a 3 hour trip A 3 hour trip … ---
**Author:** ![jehan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jehan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jehan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/35 "2011-09-18T13:30:55Z")
I think that most of the earliest versions of the song (collected in Appalachia, I think in the 1920s) were sung by women. While it makes sense as a man’s song- it works better as a woman’s song. Joan Baez does a lovely version of it on one of her albums. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293/36 "2011-09-19T20:02:20Z")
It can also be sung to the English language Pokemon theme that goes “I want to be the very best…” Also, a LOT of Christian hymns in general. Look up “common meter” and “ballad meter”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-house-of-the-rising-sun-a-gay-brothel/596293.md?page=1)