# How long were Brenda and Eddie married? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717 "2016-03-21T00:28:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/21 "2016-03-21T15:46:04Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am still wondering whatever happened to that real estate novelist and Davy ‘whose still in the Navy’ from one of his other episodes. Billy Joel has his strengths as a musician and songwriter but character development isn’t among them. Davy will probably be in the Navy for life. So that’s what happened to him. 🙂 I heard this song come on the other day and was waiting for that verse, which never came. Poor Davy can’t even get in some versions of the song. It was also missing they guy who could be an actor, if he could get out of this place. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/22 "2016-03-21T15:57:16Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Davy will probably be in the Navy for life. So that’s what happened to him. 🙂 Nope. Davey got a degree which made him immune from all future convictions. Good thing too as he sold some stocks on a steel mill in Allentown. The catch? There are no steel mills in Allentown! I understand he later opened up a grand cafe and became quite the big shot. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/23 "2016-03-21T16:19:36Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Davy will probably be in the Navy for life. So that’s what happened to him. 🙂 > > I heard this song come on the other day and was waiting for that verse, which never came. Poor Davy can’t even get in some versions of the song. It was also missing they guy who could be an actor, if he could get out of this place. Joel refers to his song being cut in _The Entertainer_. “I am the entertainer, I’ve come to do my show, You’ve heard my latest record, it’s been on the radio It took me years to write it, they were the best years of my life, It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long If you’re gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit So they cut it down to 3:05” ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/24 "2016-03-21T16:47:00Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > Yeah, now that you mention it, I’ve always wondered if that was a reference to “now we’ve graduated to popping pills” instead of drinking wine. I refuse to believe it wasn’t pills. I already googled it and everyone wants to deny it. But listen to the aching and melodrama in the voice. It was 1978 I think. After all that building up of a straw man to tear him down, How would the song advance without that step up from the wine? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/25 "2016-03-21T17:17:25Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#): > > I always figured it to mean that they had had the best time of their lives by the summer of 75. So anything after that was worse. No idea how long it took them to realise it, though. The song came out in 1977, I think, so this was a look back from not far in the future at all. > [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > And don’t bring up Maxwell Edison. At least with him we got to learn about his profession and his hobby. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/26 "2016-03-21T17:25:35Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > “Brenda and Eddie,” you say? > > I really hate Billy Joel and never owned any of his albums, but “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” is one of those god damn songs you can’t ignore if you’ve listened to any FM radio since the 1970s. > > Because BJ sings like he has a mouthful of billiard balls, I always heard it as “Thunder and Eddie.” Which always made me think of “Johnny Thunder,” from The Kinks album _Village Green Preservation Society_. Johnny Thunder was another great Catholic rock n’ roll hero, like a lotta people in BJ’s songs. (I have no idea why Ray Davies wrote a Catholic rock song.) > > So for 30 years I’ve been thinking “Thunder and Eddie!” Billy Joel might be a Long Island meatball, but he wrote a song about gay lovers real early on! I love his music and I don’t think that in general he sings like he has a mouth full of billiard balls, but that line has always sounded to me like “Thundering Eddie”. “Thundering Eddie would always know how to survive”. 😛 Of course I always knew it was “Brenda and Eddie”. If nothing else, the context tells you that it’s two people. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/27 "2016-03-21T17:49:52Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I love his music and I don’t think that in general he sings like he has a mouth full of billiard balls, but that line has always sounded to me like “Thundering Eddie”. It’s because he pronounces her name as “Brender.” (Like the robot!) ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/28 "2016-03-21T17:51:32Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > The song came out in 1977, I think, so this was a look back from not far in the future at all. Think bigger - perhaps the song was set in Miami 2017…😛 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/29 "2016-03-21T18:23:25Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > It’s because he pronounces her name as “Brender.” (Like the robot!) Yup. Because Billy’s from Lawn Guyland. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/30 "2016-03-21T19:24:49Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am still wondering whatever happened to that real estate novelist and Davy ‘whose still in the Navy’ from one of his other episodes. Billy Joel has his strengths as a musician and songwriter but character development isn’t among them. Since Joel has stated that these were real people he knew during his short stint playing in a piano bar he probably did not know them long enough to find out what happened to them. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/31 "2016-03-21T19:42:11Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am still wondering whatever happened to that real estate novelist and Davy ‘whose still in the Navy’ from one of his other episodes. Billy Joel has his strengths as a musician and songwriter but character development isn’t among them. I’ve always wondered just what the hell a “real estate novelist” is, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/32 "2016-03-21T19:45:53Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Think bigger - perhaps the song was set in Miami 2017…😛 Or 3017 – maybe he really is saying “Bender.” 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/33 "2016-03-21T21:09:54Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I’ve always wondered just what the hell a “real estate novelist” is, anyway. A guy who’s writing (actually staring at blank pages and thinking about writing) the “great American novel” while paying the bills by selling real estate, which is of course just a way of paying the bills until he gets his big break - or so he keeps telling himself… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/34 "2016-03-21T21:31:19Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > A guy who’s writing (actually staring at blank pages and thinking about writing) the “great American novel” while paying the bills by selling real estate, which is of course just a way of paying the bills until he gets his big break - or so he keeps telling himself… Yup. Like John the bartender keeps telling himself he could be a movie star if only he could get out of the bar. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/35 "2016-03-22T00:18:40Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Yup. Like John the bartender keeps telling himself he could be a movie star if only he could get out of the bar. Billy Joel doesn’t seem to be big on sophisticated rhyming schemes. I am pretty sure my junior high English teacher would have failed me if I turned in some of his style of lyrics for a poetry assignment. It doesn’t have to be like that. I still worry about Tommy and Gina to this day based on all the problems Bon Jovi laid out in just a few verses. Jack and Diane are another couple that weigh heavily in my thoughts from time to time but Davy and John’s only known redeeming quality is that they have jobs that rhyme with other convenient short words. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/36 "2016-03-22T03:37:05Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I love his music and I don’t think that in general he sings like he has a mouth full of billiard balls… My original plan was to write “mouth full of gum balls,” but I recently saw the episode of ARCHER where everyone gets drunk and Pam decides to see how many billiard balls she can fit in there. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/37 "2016-03-22T14:35:38Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > A guy who’s writing (actually staring at blank pages and thinking about writing) the “great American novel” while paying the bills by selling real estate, which is of course just a way of paying the bills until he gets his big break - or so he keeps telling himself… My wife says it’s a guy that writes real estate listings as if they are short story entries. He doesn’t just write “2Br 2Ba ocn vu”, but instead describes the house by relating it to the people that have lived there, and their stories. She compared it to the NYT wedding announcements, which she described as mini stories that were worth reading even if you didn’t know the people involved. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/38 "2016-03-23T03:00:54Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Davy will probably be in the Navy for life. So that’s what happened to him. 🙂 > > I heard this song come on the other day and was waiting for that verse, which never came. Poor Davy can’t even get in some versions of the song. It was also missing they guy who could be an actor, if he could get out of this place. I heard he’s doing a stand-up routine in LA. And Davy was trying to decide if he should buy some speakers. He got some kicks instead, they weren’t cheap either. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/39 "2016-03-23T03:21:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > My wife says it’s a guy that writes real estate listings as if they are short story entries. He doesn’t just write “2Br 2Ba ocn vu”, but instead describes the house by relating it to the people that have lived there, and their stories. > > She compared it to the NYT wedding announcements, which she described as mini stories that were worth reading even if you didn’t know the people involved. I don’t think so. The whole song is about people who have bigger plans that they’ll never actually get around to, either through procrastination, lack of ability, or simply circumstances. Most Americans, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717/40 "2016-03-23T04:00:59Z")
I don’t think Davy was literally still in the Navy. It’s just that his time in the Navy is all he’s got. Now he sits on barstools and reminisces about his adventures. And yeah, a real estate novelist is someone who is just doing real estate ‘temporarily’ while they write the great novel - a process that will likely continue forever. Like ‘actresses’ in Hollywood who are temporarily working as waitresses - or hookers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-brenda-and-eddie-married/749717.md?page=3)