# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/21 "2024-07-15T03:41:46Z")
It makes me think of an antique age when communications were slow and primitive, people were much more isolated and stories of somewhere a few hundred miles away by ship seemed strange and exotic. 1972 sounds about right. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/22 "2024-07-15T03:52:53Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > In 1975, I gave my girlfriend a cameo on a gold chain for her 16th birthday. Guys have been doing stuff like that since time immemorial. Made of finest silver from the north of Spain? It’s not the jewelry that makes it sound old, it’s the description. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/23 "2024-07-15T03:59:51Z")
Why is that old? I’ve bought amber jewelry from the Baltic. It is what it is. How else would you describe it? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/24 "2024-07-15T04:04:51Z")
How many contemporary women walk around wearing a locket bearing the name of the man she loves? On a chain from the north of Spain? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/25 "2024-07-15T04:06:27Z")
Maybe we can start a poll? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/26 "2024-07-15T04:26:00Z")
I always interpreted it as a contemporary song and for whatever reason assumed the sailor served on a merchant ship. Was it a freight liner or a tramp trader? I always assumed the latter for some reason, probably because a tramp trader is more romantic. Elliot Lurie wrote the song, and being from New York might have seen a few sailors in his day, so contemporary seems most likely to me. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/27 "2024-07-15T04:32:37Z")
It has always struck me taking place in another era. Could be the 1950s, or 1850s, or 1750s, but not contemporary. I love the ambiguity of it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/28 "2024-07-15T05:10:20Z")
What makes it sound then-contemporary to me is that the woman is named ‘Brandy’. That’s not a name that screams 18th C. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/29 "2024-07-15T05:25:13Z")
No, but if she serves sailors whisky and wine, as the song says, she serves them brandy too. Might be where she got her name. “That broad who’s always wondering if we want some brandy? Yeah, well, ‘Brandy,’ as she might as well be called …” The song can take place at any time. I always imagine that the patrons of the bar are merchant seamen. The bar itself is like the place in “Airplane!” only without the disco music. Not fancy, and it’s populated by the kind of people your parents warned you about. But as far as the sailors are concerned, it gets the job done. Brandy is the one bright and clean thing in it. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/30 "2024-07-15T05:33:08Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > 100 ships a day and lonely sailors sounds like the 1700’s or early 1800’s during the height of Colonial trading and shipping This is roughly when I thought the song was set, for that reason. Can’t be contemporary; don’t sailors nowadays all have pRon on their phones? ETA: whelp, I know what earworm is gonna be stuck in _my_ head for a while … ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/31 "2024-07-15T05:36:20Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Why is that old? I’ve bought amber jewelry from the Baltic. Well, that’s the point, isn’t it. You can today easily buy amber jewelry from the Baltic. Anyone can. The song makes it sound like a silver chain from Spain is something rare from a distant land. Something that only a sailor could obtain. I say the song takes place in the age of sail, or early steam age, when Spain was several weeks travel away from America, especially when leaving from a Western bay, and few non-sailors would ever make the trip. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/32 "2024-07-15T05:40:52Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I also think the sailor is lying to poor naive Brandy. The song’s narrator is the one telling is the sailor is truthful. The narrator is telling us the sailor is honest. I guess you can believe the narrator is lying, but that makes no sense since these are made up people anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/33 "2024-07-15T05:41:17Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I also think the sailor is lying to poor naive Brandy. About what? He’s already married? ---
**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 15, 2024, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/34 "2024-07-15T05:48:50Z")
He’s got a girl in every port and he buys those lockets wholesale from Cid’s Northern Spain Jewelry Outlet. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/35 "2024-07-15T05:57:18Z")
There’s a sailor in every port, and there’s some port in every sailor. I wonder about the “port on a western bay.” Is it a port on the North American west coast? Or is it a port on the west coast of Great Britain or Ireland? The former seems unlikely; the latter seems much more likely, especially if Brandy has a locket from northern Spain. ---
**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 15, 2024, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/36 "2024-07-15T06:00:38Z")
I assumed a bay in the Mediterranean. Not sure why. Certainly not on the Barbary Coast. The towns there are never silent, ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/37 "2024-07-15T06:19:33Z")
I wouldn’t say it’s “easy.” That shit is expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/38 "2024-07-15T08:08:04Z")
Is the silver from the north of Spain, or is the chain? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/39 "2024-07-15T08:34:52Z")
I’d say neither. Based on my experience in Spain, in the southern part, the quality silver, and silverwork, comes from the southern part. Andalusia, and around it. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/40 "2024-07-15T09:01:26Z")
I always assumed contemporary and San Diego. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235.md?page=3)