I don't blame anybody for thinking that this song is about drugs. That was my first thought, too. But upon further consideration of the lyrics, I've decided that I don't think that's what it's about at all.
The key line for me was "In this world that's getting cheaper." "Cheaper" refers not to price, but to quality. In the eyes of the singer, a night dancing at the disco is the last place a person can get that feeling of glamor and opulence (albeit filtered through the dubious aesthetic of the 1970s). "Rid[ing] on a white horse" does refer to Bianca Jagger's entry to Studio 54, and to the over-the-top sensibility it represents. When the singer says "lend me a whole new world all night," she's not looking for the "new world" of a drug high to replace the "old world" of being sober -- instead, the "new world" is simply the excitement of being in the disco, while the "old world" is the world outside. Finally, she refers to feeling like "real leather." Not just leather, mind you, REAL leather. The implication being that real leather is to be distinguished from fake leather. This seals up the song's theme of the disco being a place of luxury in a world in which luxury is getting harder to find.
I don't blame anybody for thinking that this song is about drugs. That was my first thought, too. But upon further consideration of the lyrics, I've decided that I don't think that's what it's about at all.
The key line for me was "In this world that's getting cheaper." "Cheaper" refers not to price, but to quality. In the eyes of the singer, a night dancing at the disco is the last place a person can get that feeling of glamor and opulence (albeit filtered through the dubious aesthetic of the 1970s). "Rid[ing] on a white horse" does refer to Bianca Jagger's entry to Studio 54, and to the over-the-top sensibility it represents. When the singer says "lend me a whole new world all night," she's not looking for the "new world" of a drug high to replace the "old world" of being sober -- instead, the "new world" is simply the excitement of being in the disco, while the "old world" is the world outside. Finally, she refers to feeling like "real leather." Not just leather, mind you, REAL leather. The implication being that real leather is to be distinguished from fake leather. This seals up the song's theme of the disco being a place of luxury in a world in which luxury is getting harder to find.