# 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:** 7
**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 15, 2024, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/121 "2024-07-15T21:36:37Z")
Looking Glass was a very local band to me that was based out of Rutgers/New Brunswick NJ. They were a bit before my time but my siblings saw them around the area in the good old days of 18 year olds drinking legally. I was possibly influenced by the Mary Ellis legend. I’ve always thought it was set in the early 19th century when there were ports along the Raritan River up until it got too shallow and stopped being tidal. I’ve seen the grave of Mary Ellis countless times. ---
**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 15, 2024, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/122 "2024-07-15T22:00:29Z")
So does he have a sea chest of silver chains and lockets that he gives away to every 1 - 3 night stand? ISTM that people into that sort of thing don’t want people to remember their names. ---
**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 15, 2024, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/123 "2024-07-15T22:03:34Z")
Who says the name on the locket is his name? Just as one can have a girl in every port, one can have a name for every port too. ---
**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, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/124 "2024-07-15T22:05:55Z")
I now wonder if she ever had the locket and chain appraised. Maybe it was of a different provenance entirely. ---
**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 15, 2024, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/125 "2024-07-15T22:06:15Z")
Maybe Brandy is a real dim-bulb and the name on the back is the jeweler who made the locket. ---
**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 15, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/126 "2024-07-15T22:12:52Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > topic, but as long as we’re talking about nostalgic songs: Timothy Timothy Timotheeeee Done in by the buoys ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/127 "2024-07-15T22:36:31Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I feel the same way about south Detroit. Downriver, right? ---
**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 15, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/128 "2024-07-15T22:58:18Z")
Brandy’s diary: I doubt that I shall ever see Sterling again. ---
**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 16, 2024, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/129 "2024-07-16T00:16:24Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > the phrase “the east side of Chicago” > [@Dinsdale](#): > > Do you tell the folk from Cairo, IL that they are pronouncing the name of their city wrong? Try to think of it as “the eastern side of Chicago” if that makes it any easier for you. ---
**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 16, 2024, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/130 "2024-07-16T00:19:55Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The fact that he wrote the song about a woman he actually knew seems to rule out the 17th/18th centuries as settings for this song. He used a girl’s name simply because he liked that girl, not because he was writing a song about that particular girl in the present day. ---
**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 16, 2024, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/131 "2024-07-16T00:20:17Z")
There’s a huge conceptual difference between the uppercase “East Side” of any city, a locally recognized sub-region with some distinctive character, and the lowercase “east side” or “eastern side” of any city. ---
**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 16, 2024, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/132 "2024-07-16T00:23:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > How does that refer to an earlier time, though? If none of that evokes an earlier time to you, then I can only surmise you’re never read a bodice-ripping historical romance novel. 🙃 ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2024, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/133 "2024-07-16T00:32:19Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Maybe Brandy is a real dim-bulb and the name on the back is the jeweler who made the locket. > [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Brandy’s diary: I doubt that I shall ever see Sterling again. You two share the thread-winning trophy. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/134 "2024-07-16T00:33:53Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > The implication being that he’s been Bilbao baggin’ a long _list_ of vulnerable women? > > Hm. An erstwhile Lord of the Rings, indeed. Lord of the Braided Chains, sounds more like. ---
**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 16, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/135 "2024-07-16T01:08:58Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > He used a girl’s name simply because he liked that girl, not because he was writing a song about that particular girl in the present day. And David Patch was not in love with Rosanna Arquette when he wrote those lyrics. (She was dating Steven Porcaro at the time, and if everyone wasn’t on the same page, that could have blown Toto to pieces.) And Paul McCartney was never in love with a girl named Michelle. Sometimes you use something just because it works. ---
**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 16, 2024, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/136 "2024-07-16T02:45:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Who says the name on the locket is his name? Just as one can have a girl in every port, one can have a name for every port too. The song said he always told the truth. Plus, again, it’s the narrator telling us that the locket bears the name of the man that Brandy loved. It’s not the man or Brandy saying that. So unless you think the narrator is lying, it’s the truth. ---
**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 16, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/137 "2024-07-16T11:38:44Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > The good old boys were drinking it when I drove my Chevy to the levee But when the levee breaks, I’ll have no place to stay. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2024, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/138 "2024-07-16T11:41:29Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > don’t believe the evocative lyrics “wears a braided chain made of finest silver from the north of Spain, a locket that bears the name of the man that Brandy loved” would have been put there if they weren’t intended to refer to an earlier time. Huh, that seemed perfectly natural to me, to describe a girl in a cape cod harbor in 1970. Or Nantucket. ---
**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 16, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/139 "2024-07-16T12:11:15Z")
The language itself is flowery in a 19th century way. But the message itself is timeless, and poetic language is commonly used in song lyrics even here in 2024. So, like you, I hardly see that as a certain tell the author meant to set the piece in 19th century or even earlier. Consider the famous ballad _Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_. The ship sank on Nov 10, 1975. the song was released 10 months later in Aug 1976. There is no doubt about either of those dates. And yet the lyrics are poetic and flowery in ways that read very 19th Century, if not earlier. Why? Because poetry is prose with the emotion turned up to 11, if not to eleventy. That makes for moving lyrics. _Brandy_ was an instant hit because somehow the audience found the lyrics moving. IOW, poetic. QED. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2024, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235/140 "2024-07-16T15:12:44Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > _Brandy_ was an instant hit because somehow the audience found the lyrics moving. It was an oldie by the time I became aware but I find it more of a fun singalong than a thought provoker. Not with that horn section and the doo-doo-doo-doos. And, of course, Brandy is a hell of a great electric piano song. It’s one of the anthems in the Yacht Rock scene. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandy-you-re-a-fine-girl-but-when-did-you-live/1004235.md?page=8)