Why goodnight vienna

Log in. Install the app. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Goodnight Vienna. Thread starter Kharlitos Start date Dec 12, Hi Friends. There is a song called "Goodnight Vienna" by Ringo Starr, I've always thought it could be translated literally, but I've just heard that it is an idiom, if so, what is the meaning of this idiom?

The title track was written by John Lennon. The lyrics of the song are ambiguous but they do seem to refer to the 'the inevitable happened' meaning of the phrase. Again, Lennon didn't coin the phrase but its use as an album and song title brought it to a much wider audience. If she was to see you in that dopey shirt and yer face covered in Randolph Scotts! Well, it'd been goodnight Vienna, wouldn't it. That's the history of the phrase but how did it come to be coined?

The 'goodnight' part seems intuitive and an allusion to 'things are finished', 'the lights are off', ' Elvis has left the building ', but why Vienna? Well, it seems unless the Coventry Standard piece really did originate the phrase that there is no compelling reason - it could just as well have been 'goodnight Berlin' or 'goodnight Miss Piggy". The reason for thinking this is that there have been many 'goodnight [random noun]' phrases dating back as far as Middle English variants from the 16th century.

These include:. Goodnight Landlady, the moon is up. John Day and Henry Chettle, Goodnight Nicholas, the moon is on the flock bed.