Doubtful.
“Reds” was popular drug slang for Seconal, but “White(s)” was not a popular term for any illicit drug in pill/capsule form. Amphetamine sulfate would be a real stretch. Other colors besides “red” are rarely used as single names in drug slang, but are often used as adjectives (e.g. *Black *Beauties, *Blue *Devils). “Red and Blues” was a popular term for Tuinal, but that wouldn’t meter well in Joel’s song.
No, it’s “Brenda Rinetti.”
You may be right.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that you couldn’t sing at all with a mouth full of billiard balls (full being one ball, at most). I’m not even sure you could breath.
Well, if you think you know better than Lowell George:
“Willin’”
I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I’m drunk and dirty, don’t ya know?
And I’m still, willin’
And I was out on the road, late at night
I seen my pretty Alice in every headlight
Alice, Dallas Alice
And I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me, weed, whites and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’ to be movin’
Read more: Little Feat - Willin’ Lyrics | MetroLyrics
This is from 6 days on the road - Dave Dudley
Well I pulled outta Pittsburgh a rollin’ down that Eastern Seaboard
I got my diesel wound up and she’s a runnin’ like a never before
There’s a speed zone ahead alright I don’t see a cop in sight
Six days on the road and I’m a gonna make it home tonight
I got my ten forward gears and a Georgia overdrive
I’m takin’ little white pills and my eyes are open wide
I just passed a Jimmy and a White I been a passin’ everything in sight
Read more: Dave Dudley - Six Days On The Road Lyrics | MetroLyrics
Don’t post more than 5-6 lines of a song, please.
<snip>
Besides being a rather obscure slang reference to amphetamines, a bottle of reds, a bottle of whites simply doesn’t make any sense in the context of the song.
First of all, the lyrics are: a bottle of red, a bottle of white, not: *a bottle of reds, a bottle of whites. *
Secondly, the line that follows is: perhaps a bottle of rose instead. Since when is rose a viable alternative to uppers or downers? It is, however, a good alternative (well, not really) to red or white wine. And, Italian restaurants are typically associated with wine drinking. Popping pills…not so much.
Thirdly, if you want to numb yourself to the harsh realities of life, you do so with alcohol, or narcotic analgesics…possibly with barbiturates (e.g. “reds”/Seconal), but certainly not with speed (“whites”/amphetamine sulfate).
Lastly, popping pills just doesn’t fit the bittersweet romantic motif of the song.
Well the discussion is about it sounding like he is pluralizing with an S at the end of the words, at the end of the song, not at the beginning, to make a change in the arc.
This is the line in question as published on line:
A bottle of red, a bottle of white
Whatever kind of mood you’re in tonight
I’ll meet you anytime you want
In our Italian Restaurant
Notice the second line which is suggestive of the drugs polarities. Notice it doesn’t say “Bottle of rose instead” or repeat the motif reversed. Most of all notice that it comes at the end, after a whole lot of drama and changes, 1970s style.
I could be wrong but I heard it that way for years, and it makes me think less of the song if it’s not there.
Exactly- I’ve listened closely and I never hear the first verse as whites/reds but always hear the second that way.
I listened to it at the end, and the sybillance (S) is unmistakeable at the end of the words, on white and red.
At the beginning there is no sybillance on red, but it seems to be there on white. So there is some ambiguity, probably intentional.
They knew it was there even if it came from the recording technique. It was mixed that way.
It was a lot cooler to reference drugs back then.
Ok, I listened to your link and I believe I understand the confusion. This is what I heard:
The first verse:
A bottle of whites, a bottle of red.
The last verse:
A bottle of whites, a bottle of reds
So, what does this mean?
It could mean:
Or, it could mean:
Personally, I think # 1) has more artistic integrity. Plus, I don’t think Joel is clever enough to construct the wine/pill juxtaposition of # 2).
However, you should interpret art as it strikes you, not as others interpret it for you (not even the artist: he’s/she’s just a vessel through which the art flows). If Billy Joel’s song works with you with red and white pills, then that’s what it should be for you.
Well, if you’re not prepared to blow up the budget, any pair of sneaks you can get is just gonna have a fight to the DEATH with a bright orange pair of pants.
Every time I demonstrate some point you just say “See I told ya I was right”
You’re explanation makes absolutely no sense, grammatically, that is if you’re even trying to explain the "S’s. If not why mention them?
He could have been talking about wine in the first verse and punning the wine with pills in the last.
I’m no fan of his but you just said he’s not clever enough to do that. I think that this kind of bathetic switch was a specialty of his, actually. See this:
When I hear him singing at the end it’s not the same thing as at the beginning.
One thing we know about Billy Joel is that he was always very defensive about his hipness, and would do anything to appear cooler than he is. Like make a drug reference in 1978. It’s not like it wasn’t common enough. Also he couldn’t turn down a good phrase or moderately clever twist any more than a dog could refuse bacon.
[Bolding mine]
Please tell me I’m being whooshed here - Eleanor Rigby came out in 1966, She’s Leaving Home in 1968, and Another Day wasn’t even a Beatles song, it was a McCartney solo in 1970.
Not really whooshed. More like creative interpretation.
I just figured Paul had more to say about the character, but by them the Beatles had broken up, so he had to record the third installment (the middle section) as a solo piece.
I truly believe that the three songs are about the same person. Whether Paul feels the same, I cannot say…
I’ve always thought the same thing. In my mind, in the opening verse, Brenda and Eddie are meeting surreptitiously at the Italian Restaurant after “all these years.” Eddie now has a “new wife and a new life” and can’t believe Brenda looks so good after all these years. Then the Ballad of Brenda and Eddie tells the back story of how they married young and divorced. Then the song winds up with them back at the Italian restaurant - and yes, it is “reds” and “whites” which almost sounds like bottles of pills rather than wine!
And I always thought it was “real estate novice”.
I’ve always assumed that he was using wordplay and referring to wine at the beginning and pills at the end. It would make no sense to pluralise wine that way. You would say “bottles of red”, not "bottle of reds’.
Listening to drad dog’s link, the “s” sounds are obvious and unambiguous at the end. At the beginning, “red” is obviously not pluralised. Admittedly, “white” is ambiguous. It may or may not end with an “s”, but if it does have an “s” sound that would kill the wordplay or at least make it less sensible, so I’ve always assumed that it doesn’t.
It is definitely “real estate novelist” according to the lyrics.