According to Alan Lomax, "Rising Sun" was used as the name of a bawdy house in two traditional English songs....
...The oldest published version of the lyrics is that printed by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925, in a column "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" in Adventure magazine.[9] The lyrics of that version begin:[9][10]
There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many a poor girl
Great God, and I for one...

я про текст, а не вики

Ну я нашел 3 разных первых куплета и бросил )) Самый ранний - см. выше ))