# About Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-jimmy-buffets-margaritaville/598416>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 3, 2011, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-jimmy-buffets-margaritaville/598416 "2011-10-03T07:30:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-jimmy-buffets-margaritaville/598416/41 "2011-10-05T22:22:41Z")

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> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> “Sweet Caroline” is a pretty upbeat love song, too.

Supposedly, about a then 12-year-old Caroline Kennedy, according to Neil Diamond. :eek:

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**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-jimmy-buffets-margaritaville/598416/42 "2011-10-06T11:48:54Z")

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> [@astorian](#):
>
> What’s so hard to believe? Irish Rose is about the cheapest wine there is. If a guy is broke and can’t find a woman, he can always get a “date” with Rosie (who’s literally “store-bought”), and spend a few pleasant hours getting plastered. Remember, Neil sings that he and Rosie have all night. A hooker won’t give you all night, she’ll give you 15 minutes! But you can make a bottle last a lot longer.

Largely because when I first heard the song when I was like 12 or 13, I loved the idea that he was talking about a (gasp!) hooker!!! :eek: (And somehow I got a mental picture of “an olde-time prospector in like the Yukon with a whore with a heart of gold” in my head that persists to today–there’s nothing in the song to support that, but it’s still how I “see” it. 🙂 )

I’m not that invested in it, but for me, it just makes much more sense. Wine mellows you out, it doesn’t make you “sing like a guitar, humming”

Cracklin’ Rosie, make me a smile  
God if it lasts for an hour, that’s all right  
We got all night  
To set the world right

He and she do have all night, but if it lasts for an hour, well that’s all right.

Finally, I don’t think he came up with the “it’s booze, not a hooker” thing until the mid '80s…which strikes me as being about 10 years too late to set the record straight on the song.

That said, either way, it’s a fun, upbeat, happy song. (That’s now stuck in my head, goddamnit)

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