# Brandy, you’re a fine girl. But when did you live? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 15, 2024, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235 "2024-07-15T00:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/221 "2024-07-18T18:21:34Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I want to know who animated that video and made the locket GOLD 🤨 And the chain wasn’t braided, either. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/222 "2024-07-18T18:22:25Z")
1000 points for whatever Hogwarts house you’re in. Well done! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/223 "2024-07-18T18:31:24Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > And… I emailed the songwriter, Elliot Lurie, for his input: > > "_Some friends were discussing “Brandy” and we were surprised at our varying assumptions about the implied time period. Some were sure it was meant to be contemporary to the writing (late 1960s), some thought it was set during the era of sails._ > > _Often writers are loath to limit the interpretations of their creations, but if there is a actual answer about your personal vision, I’d love to know it._ > > _Thank you for your time._" > > **His response:** > "_I’m flattered that you were discussing my song with friends. Your question is a good one that I’ve not often been asked. I was writing about an earlier time. ‘The era of sails’ describes it well._ > > _Best wishes,_ > _EL_" And that’s the answer. Great minds think alike. I DM’d Elliot on instagram but didn’t get an answer yet. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/224 "2024-07-18T18:36:48Z")
True, but surely this puts to rest any assertions that the songwriter couldn’t have intended to convey an old-time era. IOW, I was right. So there. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/225 "2024-07-18T18:47:27Z")
This is not settled at all. We need more info from Mr Lurie. What western port in this “age of sails” ? Were there even shipbuilders on the pacific coast of the US territory? Was Brandy easy, putting out to make ends meet while working where? Tavern, ale house, pub, or Mrs Miggins Pie Shop? Fiction or not it’s still not making sense. ⚓ ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/226 "2024-07-18T18:55:21Z")
I think “western” is just one of those descriptors that works better in lyrics, like trains are always southbound in folk songs. I base that on zero research or even being able to remember a single additional example, so you can take it to the bank. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/227 "2024-07-18T19:21:34Z")
> [@chela](#): > > This is not settled at all. We need more info from Mr Lurie. What western port in this “age of sails” ? Were there even shipbuilders on the pacific coast of the US territory? Was Brandy easy, putting out to make ends meet while working where? Tavern, ale house, pub, or Mrs Miggins Pie Shop? > > Fiction or not it’s still not making sense. ⚓ Looking Glass was a Rutgers band. The most western place on the Raritan River that sailing ships arriving into Raritan Bay could go was New Brunswick. New Brunswick is the home of Rutgers University. QED ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/228 "2024-07-18T19:36:52Z")
Ingenious move, contacting the artist! Cecil Adams would be proud. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/229 "2024-07-18T20:26:23Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Another clue, to me, that it’s from a different era is that he’s simply called a sailor. Would people from the 70’s and onward be referred to that way? While those in the navy obviously are sailors, how often are they called “sailor”? The song was released in 1972. No “70s and onward” from there unless you meant 1870s and onward. And the absent man is almost certainly a merchant seaman, not a naval seaman. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/230 "2024-07-18T20:58:50Z")
Did anyone else think Brandy looks like Daria Morgendorffer with short hair and no glasses? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/231 "2024-07-18T21:27:11Z")
I hope not. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/232 "2024-07-18T21:46:54Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Did anyone else think Brandy looks like Daria Morgendorffer with short hair and no glasses? Wayne: noooooooo (laughter) I kinda pictured her looking like Arija Bareikis in the Criminal Intent episode Astoria Helen. Kinda plain, kinda cute, with a sensitive vulnerability. [![](https://pixel.disco.skyshowtime.com/uuid/fe6e2b51-fba6-3487-950a-f8385a5082a8/LAND_16_9?language=en-US&proposition=SKYSHOWTIME&version=d222f14c-5cee-30a9-921e-2c993bb84414) ](https://pixel.disco.skyshowtime.com/uuid/fe6e2b51-fba6-3487-950a-f8385a5082a8/LAND_16_9?language=en-US&proposition=SKYSHOWTIME&version=d222f14c-5cee-30a9-921e-2c993bb84414) Obviously Arija Bareikis was six years old when the song came out, but I projected backwards. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![truthseeker3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@truthseeker3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthseeker3)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/233 "2024-07-21T20:53:34Z")
Me too. I always took the “fine girl” speech as a gentle rejection, an admonition to find a nice lad and settle down - which I imagined Brandy eventually doing. (She doesn’t seem to have a shortage of admirers.) As for the locket, the song says the sailor came “bringing gifts” - plural - I never thought they were all for Brandy (whom I pictured as looking sort of like an auburn-haired version of the St Pauli girl). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/234 "2024-07-22T03:53:17Z")
> [@truthseeker3](#): > > (whom I pictured as looking sort of like an auburn-haired version of the St Pauli girl). That’s exactly what she looks like. ---
**Author:** ![truthseeker3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@truthseeker3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthseeker3)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/235 "2024-07-22T14:16:14Z")
Do you also picture her donning a forest green cloak at the end of the day? And maybe carrying an old-fashioned lantern? I have a less distinct vision of the sailor, but I think he’s maybe 40ish - young enough to appeal to a girl in her late teens or early twenties but old enough to have risen in rank (possibly even to captain) and gone on a host of adventures. He has the means to obtain nice things, and he has good taste, but there isn’t room to build a collection on a ship, so he uses them to Make an Entrance when he sails into town. (The pretty Welsh things he obtains here - the “western bay” is clearly in Wales - will seem exotic wherever he goes next.) I think the fact that Brandy “could feel the ocean fall and rise” speaks to the vividness of his stories; he’s not giving her any special attention - he’s working the crowd, and he’s uncommonly good at it. He has no objection to partaking in the pleasures of the flesh, mind you, but he wants a woman, not a girl - “and Brandy does her best to understand.” ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/236 "2024-07-22T16:46:11Z")
Brandy looks like _Wrath of Khan_-era Kirstie Alley. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/237 "2024-07-22T18:09:22Z")
I think she’s more innocent looking than that. More of a cross between the St. Pauli’s girl and the girl next door. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/238 "2024-07-22T18:22:41Z")
i reckoned on him looking like the original old spice sailor, or the ghost from the ghost and mrs muir. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/239 "2024-07-22T18:31:15Z")
The sailor I envision is an uncommonly good looking ordinary seaman who is lucky at cards thus he’s flush with coin. He has a Brandy in every port, though this particular one almost snared his heart. But tide waits for no man or woman and that’s his easy escape. On to the next port! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/240 "2024-07-22T18:32:43Z")
This is what I pictured our sailor “Sterling” as. Maybe a little younger. [![](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/A1B56J/juggernaut-year-1974-director-richard-lester-richard-harris-A1B56J.jpg) ](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/A1B56J/juggernaut-year-1974-director-richard-lester-richard-harris-A1B56J.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235.md?page=13)