Talk:Thunderbird (wine)
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There's a rhyme I learned as a youth that might be useful later in this article, but because of its origin and data type, I'm very reluctant to add it to the article.
"What's the word? Thunderbird!
What's the price? A dollar twice!
It's nothing brilliant, but a very memorable piece of alcohol culture. I don't know if it came from street slang I heard growing up, or from an ad campaign from the 1970s or earlier, but if I had to bet, I'd say "street slang". --Unfocused 20:00, 5 May 2005 (UTC)
- The Beastie Boys reference that rhyme in one of their own rhymes (on their album, Paul's Boutique):
- You go upstate to get your head together/ Thunderbird is the word, and you're light as a feather
- ---'light as a feather' referring of course to the buzz you get from drinking it. I used to drink Thunderbird often a few years ago, but I haven't drank it in a long time. Alexander 007 07:16, 21 May 2005 (UTC)
"What's the word? / Thunderbird / How's it sold? / Good and cold / What's the jive? / Bird's alive / What's the price? / Thirty twice."
There is A LOT of interesting info and more history on this page: http://www.dailylush.com/archives/thunderbird_the_american_classic.html
[edit] Removed section
I removed the following text: "Another is: What's the word? Thunderbird! / What's the price? Fifty twice! / What's the reason? Grapes are in season! / Who drinks the most? Them colored folks! / What's the reaction?/ Satisfaction!" I could find no mention of this alternate text doing a google search, and furthermore, it seems highly doubtful that "who drinks the most? them colored folks!" would be part of an advertising slogan. --Xyzzyplugh 09:23, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Pop references
In the article, Jessi Colter is credited with singing Why You Been Gone So Long. A lesser-known country singer named Johnny Darrell had a Top 20 country hit with that song in 1969, a year before Colter recorded it.
Another pop reference would be to the Ian Dury song 'Sweet Gene Vincent' which contains the line, "Shall I mourn your decline with some Thunderbird wine and a black handkerchief?"
Clutch, a hard rock band from Germantown, Maryland, pays homage to Thunderbird and University of Maryland in their song "Worm Drink" from the album "Blast Tyrant."
- then I added some lyrics...
- ~~Wikifreakia
[edit] The wine
From this article I learn that Thunderbird is "an expensive fortified wine brand of E. & J. Gallo Winery in the United States. The wine is sold at between 13 and 18% ABV and first became popular in the 1950s". The rest of it is a lengthy but pointless selection of song lyrics, which must have been easy to write but doesn't tell me why these people wrote about it. What is the wine like, and what does it mean? How is it made? When was it launched, how popular is it? Where is it sold? What kind of wine is it based on? Why is it a "bum wine" - how expensive are other, presumably less insalubrious, alternatives? Why is it used to insult blacks? The wine is "sold at between 13 and 18% ABV" - how come? Are there several varieties, or is quality control very poor? Etc times many. -Ashley Pomeroy 18:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
