Sail On, Jimmy!
Last week we lost another legendary musician from my younger days (the seventies), as is happening ever more frequently as these music icons age, but I was still surprised to hear about the passing of
Jimmy Buffett, who seemed like he would just keep going on indefinitely. But Jimmy Buffett died on Sept 1 of Merkel cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, at the age of 76, and which apparently he had been battling the last few years. I have a long history with Jimmy's music, as I have all his albums from the '70's and '80's, and he holds a special place for me. However, I was not planning on posting anything about his passing as I didn't think I had much to add to the accolades he would be receiving. But after seeing and hearing most of the lame 'tributes' and memoriam segments about his passing in the media I knew I had to at least say a few words about what his true legacy and enormous contributions to music are. Not surprisingly, most of the reports focused on the sort of carefree island music and lifestyle he was known for and his legion of fans that made his concerts famous for their party atmosphere, and of course, they mainly noted his biggest hit, 'Margaritaville', and the lifestyle it represented, as well as a few other humorous or party songs. But a disturbing number of the segments I saw also highlighted his business deals and how he parlayed his one (and only) big hit single, 'Margaritaville', into a billion dollar empire of restaurants, resorts, and cruises, etc., and even went on to say that that those businesses may be his greatest legacy, more so than his music career. What? And what I didn't hear any reports talk about was his legacy as a songwriter, and one of the great songwriters of our time. Yes, Jimmy wrote many fun, whimsical, and humorous songs, but also wrote wonderful truly touching, heartfelt songs about people and the human condition, and whether humorous or heartfelt, always featured clever, insightful, well-constructed lyrics. Other songwriters praised his songwriting. Like a couple of his good songwriting friends, Steve Goodman and John Prine, who were also known to write both humorous and deeply moving songs, Jimmy wrote compelling story songs with heart and meaning, and excellent wordplay. He was also one of the favorite songwriters of another legendary songwriter, one Bob Dylan, who admired his engaging and efficient storytelling in many of his songs. As Jimmy himself would often say when he was asked about going into his various business dealings, 'I'm not a great singer and only a so-so guitar player, so I need to have something to fall back on'. But what he left out was his value as a great songwriter, and in addition to his great personality and admirable spirit and attitude, what he should be known for is as a great songwriter.
I first saw Jimmy Buffett live way back in 1974, not long after 'Come Monday' came out, which was his first song to receive any radio play. After seeing his wonderful performance, I started buying all his albums as they came out and they always contained numerous great songs. I generally like all his songs, but especially the more sincere and thoughtful ones, and those early albums had great ones, whether they were his own personal stories, such as 'Come Monday', 'The Captain and The Kid', 'Wonder Why We Ever Go Home', or 'Son of a Son of a Sailor', or relating the stories of others, such as 'He Went to Paris', 'A Pirate Looks at Forty', 'Havana Daydreamin' and many others. And my all-time favorite Jimmy Buffett song is 'Death of an Unpopular Poet', from his first major label album,
A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (1973), and it is not found on any of his compilation albums, or in any of his live shows, but it is a simple, moving story about a modest poet who became famous after his death, and it shows the beauty and efficacy of his storytelling and songwriting. This was one of the songs that Dylan singled out as being great songwriting. But he has many songs that capture that unique moment, spirit, or style, and express it beautifully in song. Even his humorous songs are very well-crafted and often have a core of heart or deeper meaning, such as 'Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season', Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes', 'Boat Drinks', and 'Fins'. He has released many excellent albums over the years, and all of his albums have a mixture of fun songs and more serious, thoughtful songs that are quite moving. My favorite albums are still probably those early ones throughout the '70's,
White Sport Coat (1973), Living and Dying in 3/4 time (1974), A1A (1974), Havana Daydreamin' (1976), Changes in Latitudes (1977), Son of a Son of a Sailor (1978), and
Volcano (1979), but most of the others still contained some really great songs, right up to the present. And Jimmy did finish another album before his death,
Equal Strain on all Parts, to be released later this year (November 2023), and the just released single from that album, 'Bubbles Up', looks to be another classic Buffett song, once again showing his great songwriting style. So, there is still some more Jimmy Buffett music yet to come, but the musical legacy he has left behind means so much to so many people, and will be embraced and remembered for generations to come. Thank you Jimmy, and sail on for that final voyage.
