Loading summary
Transcript374 lines
- [00:00]
Scott Bertram
Foreign.
- [00:08]
Jeff Blair
Everybody and welcome into another edition of Political Beats, a presentation of National Review. Find us on X at Political Underscore Beats. Also on Facebook as well. Subscribe to our feed for new episodes through Apple Podcasts or where you get your audio. You can also find us at nationalreview.com, click on the podcast tab. Find our episodes and all the fine NR audio there. Listen and leave reviews where possible and we direct you over to Our Patreon page patreon.com Politicalbeats you can support the show there. Help it stay ad free as it has been. We have entry level there for support and voting privileges. Just recently put out a full full question about what artists you might want to see covered soon on the show that's there mid level early access to our shows and at a higher aud audio quality and our upper level best friends early access, higher audio quality monthly exclusive content shows, remastered episodes, playlists and more. That's all@patreon.com politicalbeats now the part of the program where we thank some of our Patreon supporters specifically and individually. And we start with people who have jumped on and joined us since last time. Hello and thank you to Darren, to Rob Jackson, Mike R, Michael, Bob frangouls, also some OGs, some people who've been with us for an awfully long time. We say thank you to Michael o'. Connor. Also former guest Jeff Pojanowski, Michael Buchanan, Chet Archbold, Daniel Boylan, Jason Swick, Justin Cassell and Sean Jester. Thank all of you for being a part of Political Beats. We can't do it without you. Join us@patreon.com politicalbeats My name is Scott Bertram. You can find me on X. ScottbertRam, my tag team partner standing by as always, Jeff Blair. Jeff, how are you?
- [02:17]
Connor Friedersdorf
I've made trouble for myself again like I always do. Scott, I got a little bit too much into the swing of things this month, and I'm just going to tell you, you'd be surprised at how hard it is to go to the bathroom with a parrot perched on your shoulders. You know, the worst thing about it too, is that when we're done with this episode, it's just going to repeat the whole thing back to me.
- [02:39]
Jeff Blair
If you can coordinate your bathroom activities with the parrot, that might. That might be okay. Find Jeff on X at Esoteric cd Our guest on today's episode is a staff writer at the Atlantic, where he writes about politics and culture fol on civil liberties. He's the founding editor of the Best of Journalism newsletter on Substack, where he highlights the best nonfiction that he encounters each week. You can find him writing@theatlantic.com, you can find him on Xonner 64. He's Connor Friedersdorf. Connor, thanks so much for joining us.
- [03:16]
Guest Speaker
Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.
- [03:17]
Jeff Blair
We appreciate you coming on to talk today about our featured artist and before we do, give you an opportunity to talk a bit about your journalistic career and how you ended up at the Atlantic and what you're doing over at the Best of Journalism.
- [03:30]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, so I started my career in Southern California in newspapers. I got a job at the local newspaper near the college. I went to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, where I covered Rancho Cucamonga, California. Great name for a city to start out at. And once I had a job where I got to go around asking people, you know, what they did and having them explain it to me and getting to explain it to other people. Going to a regular office job seemed impossible at that point, even though the pay was terribly low. But I loved magazine journalism and I also loved blogs and the kind of arena of public discourse. And I was trying to figure out how to get from that small Southern California newspaper to someplace like the Atlantic. And I ended up getting an offer of free tuition at NYU Journalism School. So I moved to New York City and I studied under a bunch of great writers and read a lot of great stuff and ended up at the Atlantic shortly thereafter. I'd been there 15 years and, you know, in the opinion journalism business, sometimes you get shouted at by readers, which. Which is okay. But I started this newsletter, the Best of Journalism, to share the best stuff I find each week. And that's a thing that people don't shout at me about. They just enjoy the great long reads in the kind of noise of the Internet. And so I've been at that for almost a decade now as well.
- [04:53]
Jeff Blair
Well, we'll see. It's possible you might get shouted at because of opinions professed on this particular program, but that's we'll have to wait and see about that. Connor is with us today to talk about, you know, our All American Summer continues, featuring inadvertently, but it worked out nicely, American artists during this summer. And we continue with Jimmy Buffett today. Going to be an interesting, fun show. We open the floor up to Connor first to tell us why you love Jimmy Buffett, how you got into him, and why other people should care about this music.
- [05:28]
Guest Speaker
So When I was 12 or 13, my grandparents drove me from Southern California where I Grew up to Indianapolis, and we were visiting cousins in Columbus, Indiana. And it was a long road trip with my elders and then a kind of long time sitting watching golf with older aunts and uncles. But there was this promise that my older cousins were going to take me to a concert one of these days. And so I was very excited, even though I had never heard of this guy Jimmy Buffett, who we were going to see. And yeah, this was one of my first concerts. And I show up at Deer Creek, a venue near Indianapolis, and we have seats on the lawn. And this was my own Pascagoula run of sorts. I had never seen a party anything like this. I'd never seen. I'd never been around drunk people in their 20s and 30s and 40s. I had never smelled marijuana before. I'd never watched drunks roll around under a blanket. So why don't we get drunk and screw? And so it was just an eye opening experience.
- [06:26]
Scott Bertram
I really do appreciate the fact you're sitting here. Your voice sounds so wonderful, but your face don't look too clear. So bar may bring a pitcher another round of brew, honey. Why don't we get drunk and screw? Why don't we get drunk and screw?
- [07:06]
Guest Speaker
And even though it wasn't the same style of music I listen to, Jimmy Buffett is such a stage performer, he will just charm a crowd. And so between the party and the infectious enthusiasm of Buffett himself, I came back to California and, you know, I start high school at a. At a Catholic school. And I tell my new friends who are very skeptical that this Jimmy Buffett guy, when he comes to town, maybe we should at least go to the parking lot because it's a fantastic party. And sure enough, Jim Buffett comes around to Irvine Meadows. And he was coded country in the minds of the few people who had heard of him. And this was the worst thing. You could be coded in Orange county at that time, at least if you were my age. But then, sure enough, we show up. And the parking lot at Irvine Meadows is even better than anything I saw in Indianapolis. Maybe it was something about the income bracket of the people in Orange County. I don't know what it was, but I saw Corona Waterfall off the top of an RV into a kiddie pool. I saw people trucking in loads of sand and making their own beaches on the parking lot. Endless Winnebagos, you know, tables of enterprising college youths with bottles of tequila who would do a little Mardi Gras, show us your boobs for a tequila shot. And, you know, they were venial sins, more than mortal sins that I saw in that parking lot. But for Orange county, it was just a party in this relatively conservative suburban place that was unlike anything that went on the rest of the year. It was the only place certainly, where if you were 17 or 18 or 19, an adult would just hand you a beer or possibly a margarita that was blended in a kind of exercise bike style setup where the blender was attached to the exercise bike and it was pedal power. And so every year we would bring a few more people, a few more friends of ours to this party. And lo and behold, almost everyone would come away enjoying the atmosphere and even enjoying the music. And it became a kind of nostalgic thing. And every once in a while there was someone who couldn't enjoy the music. And we would always feel sorry for them. We would always think, ah, well, you know, you have your very cool taste and you think you're too cool for Jimmy Buffett, but you are missing out on enjoying this thing.
- [09:28]
Scott Bertram
She came down from Cincinnati it took her three days on a train Looking for some peace and quiet Hope to see the sun again but now she lives down by the ocean she's taking care to look for sharks they hang out in the local bar and they feed right after dark can't you feel em circling honey pants and feel em swimming around? You got fans to the left, fans to the right and you're the only fan in town.
- [10:10]
Guest Speaker
And I think that there was something about the Orange county ethos in those days that even though Buffett was a Southeast act, who was biggest in the Midwest, probably in his touring, he had this quality. He was laid back and we were laid back. And he was yet quietly ambitious underneath it all, and so were we. He was earnest and yet not so self serious that he couldn't laugh at himself. And if you were in the milieu where you grew up on, you know, it was 1994 and grunge was starting, but we'd grown up on the Beach Boys. We were more Gwen Stefani than Kurt Cobain. Sublime was there and the Scar revival was going on. And so this guy comes along and he has horns and he's covering Southern Cross and Brown Eyed Girl and what's not to like? And so over the years, my friends and I would return every year as we moved on to different parts of life in different parts of the country. And we would often during college and afterwards, have our reunions at Jimmy Buffett concerts. And the best way to see Jimmy Buffett is live as One of his songs says he can charm a crowd till they snake dance round.
- [11:13]
Connor Friedersdorf
And he called an album you had to be there.
- [11:17]
Jeff Blair
Yeah.
- [11:17]
Guest Speaker
And if you can enjoy Jimmy Buffett's music, you know, the escapism is well executed. There's a lot of it. Like any cocktail drinker, Buffett knows you have to mix in a lot of bitter and sour with the sweet or it'll be cloying. And he does that well. And then you have these odd characters and Gulf coast storytelling. And if you're a writer and you like offbeat characters, if you like Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway like he does, you know, and like those people, he creates this image. He's canny enough to monetize his own Persona in a way that maybe only rivals Jay Z at this point. There's this line in the Sun Also Rises where Jacob Barnes says it's very important to discover graceful exits like that in the newspaper business, where it's such an important part of the ethics that you should never seem to be working. And Buffett worked his ass up while cultivating that same impression that he was never really working, that he was living the perfect crime and, and crime paid more than it used to. And so, you know, there's something to love about the atmosphere, there's something to love about the music. And if you can enjoy it, there's something to love about the mythos of this guy who, you know, found at least the wisdom in this self serving character that he created, that life is short. We better learn how to enjoy it. To indulge nostalgia for the way things used to be. But not looking back too much, we got to enjoy the hell out of the present and lust for the future and 40.
- [12:47]
Connor Friedersdorf
Yeah, right.
- [12:48]
Guest Speaker
And some of it will be tragic, but that's what the margaritas are for.
- [12:59]
Scott Bertram
My lost shaker salt. Some people claim that there's a one thing that I know it's nobody's fault.
- [13:23]
Connor Friedersdorf
What a heck of a setup. Okay, Scott.
- [13:25]
Guest Speaker
Yeah.
- [13:25]
Jeff Blair
An excellent introduction to Jimmy Buffett. This is. I was introduced to Jimmy Buffett, by and large by a Chicago talk show host, DJ Steve Dahlia. And people in the area know about him. Our friend Carl, big listener, knows about Steve. Steve loved surf music and Hawaiian music and Jimmy Buffett. And so I was introduced by him to Brian Wilson, Beach Boys and the Ventures, the lively ones, all sorts of surf music, but also Buffett and not necessarily those Big eight Buffet songs that he plays at every concert, played at every concert, and not necessarily the ones that people knew by heart. Some of the more some of the deeper tracks were played on his show. And I. I did a very Jeff thing. That's one of the only times I've done this Jeff thing in my musical career, listening career. And that is I thought, hey, kind of like this Jimmy Buffett guy. And I saw the box set at a UCD store. Boats, beaches, bars and ballads. I said, well, I guess it's time to figure out exactly how much I do like him. And so I bought the box set, four CDs, and that was my introduction. There's a greatest hits collection called Songs, you know by Heart. That's one that a lot of people have. That's a fine entry point. But I went whole hog into boats, beaches, bars, and ballads. And so one of the questions I wanted to answer by doing this show is whether Buffett is the kind of artist where you only need a greatest hits package or maybe an expanded box set or were there fantastic albums along the way? Did he put things together to have those historically great albums in his career in addition to these fantastic songs? That's something I want to explore throughout the course of the show today.
- [15:22]
Scott Bertram
Are the box Carol Merrell poetry to on the floor. No. I'll hold out just as long as I am able Until I can unlock that lucky door. Well, she's no big deal to no spoke but she's everything me. Cause my whole world lies waiting behind door number three. Oh my.
- [16:09]
Jeff Blair
But I, I came to really enjoy Buffett as a songwriter and performer. Now I want to say this is how good I think Jimmy Buffett is. Was at his job. I fairly famously don't like most of the things he's talking about in his songs, or at least the experience he's selling to people. I don't love drinking. I. I don't frankly, love relaxing all that much. I like work. I don't like the beach. I don't like being in the sand.
- [16:44]
Connor Friedersdorf
I don't like.
- [16:44]
Jeff Blair
I hate the heat. I don't like the ocean. I'd rather swim in a pool or maybe a lake. I mean, the saltwater Westerners griping about Jimmy Buffett.
- [16:53]
Connor Friedersdorf
Right?
- [16:53]
Jeff Blair
Right. I don't love Florida necessarily. It's too hot and humid. I, you know, I'm not the biggest live music fan in the world. I would argue that sometimes you don't necessarily have to be there to experience. That's why I said in the email thread that we had earlier, I wouldn't call myself a Parrothead. I didn't go to the shows. I didn't embrace the lifestyle. But Jimmy Buffett was so good at his job that he, in some way, had me longing for things that I didn't actually even want. The vibe was right. The way he was singing, the way those songs are constructed, are so strong that I connected to them.
- [17:37]
Connor Friedersdorf
Though.
- [17:39]
Jeff Blair
The outcome or what he was longing for, the experience he was trying to convey wasn't necessarily the one I was. I was also longing for, wasn't my picture of, like, a fantasy life. And so that's a credit to him, I think, that he was able to do that to me, to me. And so I really love his songwriting and I really love a number of his songs we'll talk about along the way. One of those questions, as I said, I do want to ask and answer, hopefully here, is, is there, like, a definitive Buffett album? Do you miss anything by not digging in album by album, as we're going to do on the show today? We'll talk about it, but in the meantime, you're gonna have a great time.
- [18:23]
Scott Bertram
Well, he's on his third drink before the wheels of the plane leave the ground Making parts with the steward is high over Long Island Sound she's also spending some time on the island Too much city madness gives her the blues they make her day to go dancing and dining it seems neither has that much to lose the weather is here I wish you were beautiful My thoughts aren't too clear but don't run away My girlfriend's a bore My job is too dutiful Hell, nobody's perfect Would you like to play? I feel together today.
- [19:14]
Connor Friedersdorf
Well, okay. Now I'm gonna have to find something intelligent to say after what you two have both offered. And it's gonna be difficult for me because Jimmy Buffett, for me, was almost a phantom in my youth, okay? In my youth, my only childhood memories of him were my dad's. I've talked about this so many times on political beats. My dad's old, like, you know, videotaped music videos off, and there's a live performance from the 80s of cheeseburger in Paradise. Right? I knew that once I finally started listening to classic rock radio. I heard Margaritaville being played every now and then. It sounded like Monkey island music. I don't know if anybody is ever familiar with the game. The Curse of Monkey island. The secret of Monkey Island. It's got all this very Caribbean, you know, marimbas and steel drum music. And it almost sounded like, you know, some sort of weird, ironic gimmick song out of the corner of my ears. It didn't really mean anything to me. And you can understand why, because, like, who was I? I was a child of Washington, D.C. i might have been a few miles from the Atlantic or the Chesapeake Bay, but I felt as landlocked psychologically as they could get. I was just like a kid, more or less interested in British music at the time, in the 90s when Buffett was like, huge. He just. Believe it or not, it was only the mid-90s when Jimmy Buffett became an enormous commercial proposition. My dad had nice things to say about him. He said, well, you know, he's actually a really smart songwriter if you listen to some of his stuff. But we didn't have it in the house. And so he was just a name for me. And it was a name that was so easily easy, you know, as Scott has said, to sort of dismiss. Because, you know, what cares I for the lifestyle? Is it just a lifestyle living in the Gulf coast, the south eastern part of the United States, Florida? Well, maybe. Then again, you know, a lot of people who argued that the Grateful Dead was just a lifestyle. And that's the thing that emerges the most to me, listening to Connor talk about these amazing stories about, like, you know, the parking lot game at Irvine Meadows, man, I sounds like something I wish. I desperately wish I could have been there for. And I probably have a completely different understanding because, you know, that that's an experience and it's a scene. And so it becomes easy to dismiss an artist on the basis of that. Just like, you know, and here's a band again, I'm making the comparison to the Grateful Dead. Now, of course, I think they are League of Their Own, particularly as a live act. We despair of ever being able to even figure out how to cover them on this show. But you talk about a group where they really last because the music is solid. And Buffett is actually going to last because this music is solid. It's fascinating to see almost how the streams in his career, for me, somebody who's coming to it now really new, brand new. I mean, I know some of these songs. I know the general trajectory of his career, but I don't know anything about the specifics up until like the last three, four months ago. A little bit before that, actually, it was years ago. I talked with Connor and he was like, hey, I love Jimmy Buffett. So I. I got into that box set that Scott mentioned. I was like, okay, this is pretty decent. It's way better than I thought it would be. But I've really started only exploring the album since we thought about doing this show. And it's fascinating to find where he becomes sort of the commercialized, commodified version of himself versus he's just a singer songwriter in the same mold as people who are. We have already talked about on this show that I love. This guy reminds me, if you dig into his lyrics, his approach, he reminds me of a combination of Jackson Brown and Warren Zevat. Okay. In terms of his lyrical approach, there's some sincerity, There's a seriousness that you get from the kind of Jackson Brown worldview. There's also a sentimentality, a drunken sentimentality, and. Or an ironic detachment that you get from Zivon. And I guess the thing that. What unites both those two and Jimmy Buffett is the writerliness of them all. This is the thing, I think, that comes through the most to me when I study Jimmy Buffett here. He's a writer, and it just. It's no surprise to me that he's hanging out in Key west with guys like Truman Capote or, you know, other novelists, you know, like Hem. He loved Hemingway. He became a writer on the side on his own, because his lyrics are really the thing that grabbed me the most. He's actually a better songwriter on the musical line of things. He's actually a better guy with a hook than you would think. And that's, of course, why he became a big hit maker after a while. But really, it's his lyrical approach that grabs me, and that's the thing that I did not appreciate about Jimmy Buffett when he was just about, like, you know, seashells and seashores and parrots and birds of various types, whether they be avian or female, like, you know, that kind of Jimmy Buffett lifestyle thing. Hey, man, I'm from Washington. I live in Chicago. What would I know of boating around in the Gulf of Mexico? Mexico. And yet it comes to life for the same reason that a good novel comes to life. His music is interesting for the same reason that any writer is interesting and is also actually worth returning to. So it'll be really fun to sort of talk about this as we move on.
- [24:34]
Scott Bertram
Sam. But I have been traveling quite a bit.
- [25:10]
Connor Friedersdorf
Now. The question is, who wants to discuss the origins of Jimmy Buffett? And, of course, I'm the least equipped man to do this. Did any of you want to chip in?
- [25:19]
Guest Speaker
I would just say on. On his first two albums, down to Earth and High Cumberland Jubilee, which was recorded In, I think, 1970, but not released until much later because it was lost for a little while.
- [25:33]
Connor Friedersdorf
Oh, no. I was going to get into the whole story in detail because there's some hilarious business bad dealings behind all that mess.
- [25:39]
Guest Speaker
Well, I think one more person he reminds me of is Randy Newman in this sense, another kind of writerly storyteller, singer, songwriter. And I think, like Randy Newman in his first album or two, he hadn't quite figured out who he was as an artist, which was gonna become a lot more singular than just another early 70s singer songwriter. And I always feel glad that Jimmy Buffett didn't move to Laurel Canyon and hang out with Jackson Brown and Joni Mitchell, because we wouldn't have had this weird character who banged around bars in the Southeast and wound up in Key west and had a much more particular outlet for his writerly talents.
- [26:21]
Jeff Blair
Yeah, yeah.
- [26:22]
Connor Friedersdorf
I mean, so, I mean, that brings us to the start. Like, who is Jimmy Buffett? Where does this guy come from? Pascagoula, Mississippi. He's a man from the Gulf coast and then thereabouts. And so that's a part of the country that we talk about only at times. We only talk about this region musically, if it's about Southern rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd and All My Brothers, or if it's like Delta blues. And here was something completely different that comes out of that entire worldview, which is what fascinates me. Scott, were you gonna help us out with some of the basics?
- [26:54]
Jeff Blair
Yeah, well, you know, he was born on Christmas Day, December 25, and he would later release a few Christmas albums, which makes sense. Yeah. Mississippi Grew up in Mobile, Alabama, as well. As a youth, and perhaps unsurprisingly, his family was involved in sailing. His grandfather was a steamship captain. His dad was a marine engineer and a sailor. Later, Buffett worked in a shipyard as an electrician and a welder. So, you know, this boating stuff, it actually comes to him somewhat naturally through family. As a youngster, 15, 16 years.
- [27:31]
Connor Friedersdorf
It's not like John Fogarty pretending to be from New Orleans even though he's from San Francisco, which is, of course, the national comparison. Right?
- [27:37]
Jeff Blair
Yes. Yes. 15, 16 years old. Saw a folk music ensemble perform in Mississippi and said he wanted to be a musician and started to learn how to play. Enrolled in Auburn, where he flunked out after a year. He was taught how to play guitar at a fraternity to. Well, to pick up chicks and flunked out of Auburn, by the way.
- [27:59]
Connor Friedersdorf
One thing they don't say about him flunking out Auburn, they know that he goes back on. He gets his degree later on, but. But why do you Think he did that because it's late 1960s. He was dodging the draft, my friend. He was in college.
- [28:11]
Jeff Blair
Yes.
- [28:12]
Connor Friedersdorf
Staying in college to stay out of.
- [28:13]
Jeff Blair
The University of Southern Mississippi is where he ended up graduating. Degree in history, in case you're wondering. He played in an acid rock band in college called the Upstairs alliance and tried to sound like Jefferson Airplane a bit. Probably best he went to his own way after graduating. He makes the move to New Orleans in 1969. 1970, moves to Nashville because he began as this folk country artist, which is where Connor was leading us to, you.
- [28:45]
Connor Friedersdorf
Know, these busker basically at first, and then he just finally got some attention, played some coffee shop gigs, and then headed to Nashville to seek his fame.
- [28:53]
Jeff Blair
Yeah, and that fame did not happen on this first album called down to Earth, which was released in 1970. In fact, if you believe some of the numbers out there, it sold quite literally 320 some copies. My guess is since that time the reissue has sold a bit more, considering his fame since that time. But nobody heard this first album, which sounds much more like a folk rock singer songwriter than anything we'd hear in the future from Jimmy Buffett. Jeff, do you know my touch point for this record, actually, what this sounds like to me in a lot of ways?
- [29:29]
Connor Friedersdorf
Okay, no, I have a couple in my notes, but what are yours?
- [29:32]
Jeff Blair
Is Mike Nesbitt.
- [29:33]
Scott Bertram
You complain high youth forget the gospel. You remind them Seek and you shall find. Maybe youth will have time for seeking after they clean up what you left behind. It's a hell of a time to be thinking about heaven. Didn't you forget the golden rule?
- [30:10]
Connor Friedersdorf
Yes, okay. Okay. Yes, yes. It sounds like. Yeah, immediate post. Monkey stuff.
- [30:16]
Jeff Blair
Yes, yes, that's exactly. Especially on the Christian, which is the first song on the record. But even stuff deeper inside. Mike Ness. I don't know if Jimmy Buffett was influenced by Ness, but I'm not saying that. But I am saying that when I hear what he's trying to get to here, it sounds like what Nesmith also was trying to get to in his work post Monkeys. Nesmith might have been a bit more successful in this particular genre. There's a lot of, you know, drug references here. There's a song literally called lsd. E, L, L, I, S D, E. Spell that out like helping to get LSD.
- [30:49]
Connor Friedersdorf
You're 10 years old, right? Yeah, right, right.
- [30:52]
Jeff Blair
But there's not, you know, Captain and the Kid is a song that clearly Buffett liked because he re recorded but three other times later on in his career. That's here on this first record, down to Earth. That's not embarrassing by any stretch, but I don't know if there's any, you know, certain highlights I'd pick out and say you've got to hear these particular songs. Decent first effort, but again, in a.
- [31:15]
Connor Friedersdorf
In a.
- [31:15]
Jeff Blair
In a genre that was essentially a dead end very quickly for, you know, the folk rock Jimmy Buffett.
- [31:21]
Scott Bertram
His world had gone from sailing ships to raking mom's backyard he never could adjust the land Although he tried so hard we both were growing older then and wiser with the years that's when I came to understand Understand the course's heart still steers.
- [31:58]
Connor Friedersdorf
Any thoughts, Connor, on the weird high school baby photographs of Jimmy Buffett?
- [32:03]
Guest Speaker
No. The only note for this album, for me, is that the Captain and the kid, well, not my favorite Jimmy Buffett song is definitely the beginning of the character Jimmy Buffett. And it's rooted in, you know, a real song that's true to his life. And so I think there is some authenticity there. This connection to his grandfather. He's a son of a son of a sailor, and he's going to plumb that to great effect through his career. So, you know, this is only important to the hardcore Jimmy Buffett fan in that it's the beginning of that character.
- [32:34]
Connor Friedersdorf
Okay, well, you know, since, you know, as a tradition on Political Beats, we typically pick our top two albums, top five songs at the end of the show. I just want to let everyone know in advance that this one's going to be on my list. High Cumberland Jubilee, clearly the most important Jimmy Buffett album. So important that it wasn't, in fact, released until 1976. 6. This gets back to the joke I was. I was referring to indirectly earlier on when Connor mentioned it. This is Jimmy Buffett's second album. The first one, because it sold, like, only 348 records, it basically cost more to print than it was ever worth. So Andy Williams's little, like, Podunk record label, the country singer Andy Williams, was releasing these records. I think people there just decided to pretend that they'd lost the masters and therefore, oops, this one just can't come out at all because it's not even worth the vinyl it's printed on. Quite literally. We would be better off saving that raw stock for something else. That's how useless this album was considered in its day. Of course, once he became famous in, like, 76, 77, it came back out again. We don't really have to spend that much time on it. It's Kind of funny, though, here, Jimmy Buffett doing hillbilly music, which is actually what it feels like. The COVID says it all. They're gathered around a fireplace and all that. I think, man, it's like. It's just like, boy, you can just tell this guy has not found his sound yet.
- [34:01]
Scott Bertram
Papers, they print it every day. Housewife wraps the garbage then throws it away. I don't guess she thinks they have that much to say. But when the time is right, she'll be the lady with so much to pay. You gotta bend a little one way or the other. Got to leave your mind open to discover. Seems I've been fighting it all along. You gotta bend a little no matter which side you're on. Soon you'll be gone.
- [34:44]
Connor Friedersdorf
Yeah.
- [34:44]
Jeff Blair
I can't tell you the record label was wrong about. About holding it back and quote, unquote, losing the masters. Not that again. Not that it's terrible, but there's nothing here that would allow you to think you'd recoup your costs, right? There's nothing that's going to break out. It just sort of washes over you, and it's pleasant enough, but there's nothing.
- [35:04]
Connor Friedersdorf
It's totally inoffensive. You'd be like, you found this thing playing on autoplay on YouTube, which is the way sometimes random stuff will pop up for me, and I can like, oh, this is pleasant, generic. And then you find out it was created by AI, Right, because everything's now created by a. This is like an AI folk rock album, or kind of like. Yeah, sort of. With a little mountain texture to it. It's not that memorable.
- [35:26]
Jeff Blair
No, it's not. Well, that meant that a change had to come because this was not working. The album wasn't even released. High Cumberland Junction. So something happens that's important to Buffett during this time period. He meets Jerry Jeff Walker, one of the great Texas singer songwriters from this era. And he said, come on down to Coconut Grove in Florida. And in late 71, Buffett goes down and he loves it. And he and Jerry Jeff Walker go down to Key west on a busking expedition down there. And Buffett really loved Key west, so much so that he moved there in the spring of 72. And this is where in the future. But even early on, as Jeff alluded to, Buffett gets involved in the literary scene here. And it's just a creepy, creative place for Buffett to figure out what he's gonna do next. And what he does next helps push him on. Let's call it the right musical path. 1973's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. Not the carnation but the crustacean in 1973. And there are a few songs here that stayed in his repertoire till literally his dying day. Some very well known songs on this first true Jimmy Buffett album. And I'll let Connor sort of introduce us to Mach 2 Jimmy Buffett 2.0. That began with a white sport coat and a pink crustacean.
- [37:06]
Scott Bertram
The crystal about as drunk as we could be in walks the deputy sheriff and he's holding our TV rough dust and he cuffed us and he took us off to jail no pictures on a poster no reward and no fail Now I wish I was somewhere other than here I said down in some honky tongue sipping on a beer Yes, I wish I was somewhere other than here Calls that Greatville station holder Cost me two good years yes, that great filling station holder it cost me two good years.
- [37:56]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. You know, returning to this album, it is amazing, actually, how many greatest hits there are on it. And also striking to me is you think of Jimmy Buffett as this Caribbean rock. He's in the islands, but there are these other Jimmy Buffett places, and Texas is one of them. And the great filling station holdup gives you a little taste of Texas, and Paris is another one. It's a place that Jimmy Buffett loved, that he would talk about in his concert in his little monologue riffs. He had a soft spot for his heart in Paris, and it would keep coming up in his songs. And it's something of the weird singularity of Jimmy Buffett that he kind of authentically owns the Texas part and the Paris part and the island part, and he's kind of starting to blend them all together. And this is also the era when he. He comes up with the perfect name for a Jimmy Buffett backing band, the Coral Reefer Band. And he hasn't quite figured out that this is the character Persona he's going to be for the rest of his career. But a lot of the parts are just kind of clicking into place naturally.
- [39:04]
Scott Bertram
10 speed no need My pickup gets.
- [39:12]
Jeff Blair
Me where I please.
- [39:15]
Scott Bertram
Chugging down the.
- [39:16]
Connor Friedersdorf
Street.
- [39:19]
Scott Bertram
But I'll be leaving in a little while so close your eyes and I I'll be back real soon I take it Reapers ladies charges. Everybody dance. Here we go.
- [39:50]
Jeff Blair
It's still more Nashville than Key west, but he's clearly unlocked something that he can mine. He's not just going to be the folk singer, and he's not just going to be the crying, the beer. Country sort of singer, either. And I love what Connor said about the marriage of these places. Yes, he authentically owns the Gulf Coast. He authentically owns the Texas part. He authentically owns the Key west part part. And different songs will highlight these different Personas or different aspects of Jimmy Buffett's songwriting. But this from the start, you have a number of things that, again, will stay forever. The songwriting and these sketches. Death of an unpopular poet or especially, of course, He Went to Paris. The song that is extremely well known and one of his that stood the test of time, wrote it after meeting this one armed veteran of the Spanish Civil War after a show in Chicago. That is enough to inspire even me, perhaps, to write a song. Dylan loved this song. Waylon Jennings covered He Went to Paris. And this guy who loses his son, loses his wife in the midst of war, eventually, late in life, escapes to the islands to. To sort of tell his story, write his memoirs. And, you know, Buffett's great at writing these extremely memorable quotable couplets, which is part of his magic, right? Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but I've had a good life all the way. Right at the end of He Went to Paris. And that's a song, again, that very much stood the test of time from this very first record from Jimmy Buffett.
- [41:33]
Scott Bertram
Well, the war took his baby the bombs killed his lady and left him with only one eye his body was battered his whole world was shattered all he could do was just cry While the tears were falling he was recalling answers he never found.
- [42:01]
Guest Speaker
So he hopped.
- [42:02]
Scott Bertram
On a floor freighter Skidded the ocean and left England without a sound now he lives in the islands Fishes and pilings Drinks his green label each day Riding his men from heart Losing his hearing but he don't care what most.
- [42:32]
Jeff Blair
People say Connor mentioned the great filling station hold up, which is a fine song on its own, but it's B side is the much more important part of the Buffett story. The B side on that record is, why don't we get drunk and screw and screw? A song. I had to make sure I listened at minimal volume when I was a youngster at home. That's not one my parents would necessarily approve of, but, you know, again, Buffett said, you know, there's all these sort of suggestive country songs, but not explicit, and you have to sort of read between the lines. And he said, well, we're just gonna blow it out. This is gonna be the most explicit, no doubt song about getting drunk and having sex. You could possibly imagine. And people loved it. People reacted to it even as the B side on the Great Filling Station pulled up.
- [43:20]
Scott Bertram
Why don't we get getting drunk and screw? I just. On the water that is filled up for me and you they say you are a snub queen Honey, I don't think that's true so why don't we get drunk and. And screw it now, baby I said why don't we get drunk and screw?
- [44:00]
Jeff Blair
That's another one. As Connor said, there's so many songs that would be played for decades and decades into the future. His best known stuff appears now. I don't think that means it's his best album. Some of the album cuts, the lesser known ones, aren't quite as good. I do like the Peanut Butter Conspiracy is one of my favorites that I didn't quite know enough about before getting here. This honky tonk ramble this hard luck hero stealing to eat but he's got the heart of gold, right? Because if they ever get rich, they'd pay the Mini Mart back for all the stuff they'd thrown through the stolen through the years. Buffett accessible, relatable, fun. That's all on that particular track. And again, he's finding that Persona here. White Sport company.
- [44:48]
Scott Bertram
Ricky would watch that big brown mirror and I'd fill up my coat Then we'd head for the checkout out with a lemon and a bottle of beer into the car guy to make it up Supper time's getting near so who's gonna steal the peanut butter? I'll get the can of sardines Running up and down the aisle of the Mini mart Sticking food in our jeans Never took more than we could eat There was plenty left on the rack we all swore if we ever got rich we would pay the mini Mark back Yes, sir, yes, sir, we would pay the.
- [45:41]
Connor Friedersdorf
So he absolutely finds his voice on this first album. I think I would say. Of course, I'm the noob, but I would probably put this one for real this time in one of my top two at the end of the show. And the reason is that everything kind of comes together almost instantly in the sense of. It's almost like, Scott, you pointed this out. Steeping among the influence of rock writers and characters. Kind of reminds me of the way Tom Waits would hang out in, like, the lobby of, like, the Hollywood motels and just, like, watch all the strange people and hookers and drug addicts go in and out. You write his songs around those kinds of characters. Well, I mean, think about where this Album was when it came out. Remember the time. 1972, 73. But it's written in 72. Who's he listening to? Well, the Eagles haven't even really become huge yet. They're about to become big. That would be the sort of comparison I might reach for in the Source of. It's got an easygoing country ish, but a rockish sound to it. But the lyrical observation on this is just like, several steps above. I mean, there are moments here that are actually kind of pretty crucial to his mythos. There's a song here called I have Found Me at Home, which I am assuming has to be about him finding Key west, finding, you know, my, you know, southern Florida, saying, like, I finally. I roll myself around the bars and the beaches of my town. There aren't many reasons I'd leave. Yes, I found me some peace. And the ladies aren't demanding there. Of course, that's what he really likes about it. They never ask too much. And when you're coming off a cold love they sure have a nice warm touch. Anyways, that's sort of that. That painting of time and place feels very like, you know, personal to him. It feels very evocative.
- [47:25]
Scott Bertram
My old gets me around to the bars and the beaches of my town. There aren't many reasons I would leave. Cause I have found Ms. Peace. And the ladies are demanding, man. And here they'll never ask too much. When you're coming off a cold love that shoe a nice warm touch. Yes, I have found me a home. I have found me a home. You can have the rest of everything I own. Cause I have found me home. And the day you go to, like.
- [48:35]
Connor Friedersdorf
Travel places like the Cuban crime of passion, that one's amazing. That's probably my argument for the best song on the record. I don't know if it's actually that well known or if it's liked by, like, Jimmy Buffett fans or whatever, but, like, those lyrics that kind of give me a Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts kind of vibe, you know, a guy who. Who met up with Marita, the dancer from the coast. Half woman, half child, she drove him half wild. Like, who knows what kind of disastrous hijinks they're going to find their way into. It's a Cuban crime of passion, and already in that early era, he's going to really develop that kind of Gulf Coast Caribbean sound in some ways. But right at the beginning, in 1973, he has it. The last one I want to say something about is the last song on the record. And it's just genuinely was like I'd never heard of it. But what a fantastic song Death of an Unpopular Poet is, which is just a very moving little vignette about like a great line. You wouldn't know this guy. He died unknown he died he wasn't famous but he wrote a line that I made into a famous line and you wish you had known him but everyone's searching for the king of underground well they found him down in Florida With a tombstone for a crown the death of an unpopular poet Everybody knows one line of his but not two.
- [49:49]
Scott Bertram
It's a great song Everybody knows from his book that costs 4.99 I wonder if he knows he's doing quite this fine Cause his books are all best selling and his palms were turned to song at his brother on talk show Though they never got along and now he's called immortal Guess he's even taught in scoot they say he used his talents most proficient too.
- [50:49]
Jeff Blair
Great song. Good success with White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. And he. Jimmy Buffett is on the, you know, the album A Year plan, as many artists in the 1970s were. So you don't have to wait long for Living and dying in three quarter time time, which is early 1974. And in addition to discovering a love for Florida Key west, that lifestyle Living and Dying in Three Quarter Time also sort of introduces this idea that he really doesn't like what was happening in Nashville, doesn't need to be there anymore, and isn't all that fond of the record labels and how hit songs are made and constructed. And this is a theme that will pick up time and again in these early albums as well. Living and Dying in Three Quarter Time again starts with two very famous songs, Pencil Thin Mustache Come Monday. There's more later on in the record too. Connor, what do you think of this one?
- [51:58]
Scott Bertram
Arriving my hometown I thought I'd lost my blue Yes, I thought I'd paid my due I thought I'd found a life to suit my style but here I said old Spider John the Robber Man Long, tall and handsome.
- [52:27]
Guest Speaker
You know this album like you Don't Dance Like Carmen no More on the last album and Pentlethon Mustache on this album. It taps into this aspect of Buffett that we haven't talked a lot about yet, which is just this nostalgia that he has for the past, this kind of wistfulness. And it.
- [52:44]
Connor Friedersdorf
It feels a Hollywood thing to it almost. Right. It's cinematic in a way. It's like old memories of like you know, things that you've seen in the films and the tropes.
- [52:54]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, it's cinematic and also romantic. It's. It's, you know, and there's a. There's a tragic kind of romance story that Jimmy Buffett writes that he went to Paris, but then there's just a kind of. Yeah, an entertainment kind of romance that he evokes here and there. And. And then you also have the Ballad of Spider John and the Wino and I know and. And these are, I think, are two of his best ballads. I think they both appearance on the box set and just kind of show off this writer's touch, I think. Ice Cream man, he's a hillbilly fan, is how the Wino and I know starts. And there's a great evocative scene later where he's at the Cafe Dumont at New Orleans. And so he's just kind of building up this repertoire of great lines, great couplets sometimes and adding to the places that he's kind of putting his stamp on.
- [53:53]
Scott Bertram
Donuts are too hot to touch Just like a fool when old sweet good is cool. I eat till I eat way too much. Cause I'm living on things that excite me. Be that pastry or lobster love I'm just trying to get by. Be being quiet and shy In a world full of push and show and the Wide open thy nose. A pain of back busting like some farmer knows the pain of his pickup truck Rustin Strange situation, wild occupation Living my life like a song.
- [54:39]
Connor Friedersdorf
I'll say that the one song on this one that really actually jumps out to me because again, it. Buffett writes on the nose, I've noticed he actually writes about the simple realities of, well, being Jimmy Buffett and doing what it is he does. So this, the best song on this record is something called Saxophones, where. Where he. He's talking about basically being a gigging musician. You know, he's like, well, I cut my teeth on gumbo rock. Benny Spellman, Dr. John. And he used to boogie woogie all night long. And. And all he knows is that, boy, if he could finally get himself up on stage with a band that had some saxophone big baritones cleaning up the muddy breaks. If he had saxophones, he could get some recognition from that Mobile, Alabama dj. That is a great. By the way, not only is that a. A great little line and a great little sort of vignette from what it's like to actually be a working musician back down there, he's starting to sing. Well, he's not that's probably something that's like the least talked about thing when it comes to Jimmy Buffett. He has a very interesting singing voice that contains it. It really. He finally really himself out around changes in attitudes, changes in latitudes, I'd say. But he has a snark, a sort of a sharp sarcastic wit. He has that Southern twang to him. But he's got that mischievous tone too, that just like, you know, he's the guy who's gonna steal you blind if you're not careful or get you into an enormous amount of mischief. He's got that sort of witty. That intelligence that comes through in the way he sings his lyrics. That's probably why he gets away with some of his sentimentality because despite the fact that, you know, he's the character he's singing about is feeling sentimental and is in their cups or whatnot, he still comes across as a more intelligent narrator than he might ought to be. And that's another hallmark of the way Jimmy Buffett writes these songs.
- [56:27]
Scott Bertram
I cut my teeth on gumbo rock. The Dennis Filmer, John Sweet, Irma Thomas and Frogman Henry used to book it. We'll gay all night though I love rock and roll. The acoustic guitar was the only way I had a becoming a star. I'm doing really nice traveling around, but they won't play my record in my old hometown. But if I had saxophone give big baritone cleaning up the muddy brakes. If I had saxophone, I could get some recognition from that Mobile, Alabama dj.
- [57:20]
Guest Speaker
You know. A couple of business significant things. One, of course, Come Monday was by far his biggest hit from. From this album. And I've never thought that it is such that it looms nearly as large among his greatest songs as. As you know. I don't know why this was the one.
- [57:40]
Connor Friedersdorf
It's. It's nice and accomplished for radio standards. It's the one that's like very radio friendly. Oh, it develops right nicely at that point. But you're right, it doesn't jump out in any way. It's just smooth and clergy. It's not a bad song. I don't want to dismiss it like it's like our worst number ones that we did recently, but it's just not super distinguished. I agree.
- [58:01]
Scott Bertram
I can't help honey, you're that much a part of me now. Remember that night in Montana when we said there'd be no room for doubt? I hope you're enjoying the scenery. I know that it's pretty up there. We can go hiking on Tuesday with you. I'd Walk anywhere California has worn me quite thin I just can't wait to see you again Come Monday day It'll be all right Come Monday and then.
- [59:00]
Guest Speaker
At the end of this album, Godzone Drunk gives the audience that is just getting Jimmy Buffett albums and who's never seen him live, a taste of a first taste of what a Jimmy Buffett concert is like. He was famous in those years for talking for a long time between songs.
- [59:17]
Connor Friedersdorf
Very Arlo Guthrie, almost right, you know, Alice's Restaurant kind of a thing almost sometimes.
- [59:23]
Guest Speaker
And he would go through actually a lawsuit about this because it was, you know, Lord Buckley's routine and there were intellectual property issues. And so he stopped performing it for some years and then eventually started performing it again. But it's a taste of what you'll later get on the many live albums he released in his career. That was, you know, the first look for people who are just buying his albums without having seen him.
- [59:46]
Scott Bertram
So I took old buddy Bear by his island size paw and I let him over to the steel. He's a sniffing around that thing because he's smelling something good. I gave him one of them jugs of honeydew vine mortar. He downed it upright. Looked like one of them damn bears in the circus, sipping sassarily in the moonlight. I gave him another and another and another. Born nude. He down eight of them and commenced to do the bear dance. Two snips of snore to fly, turn in the grunt. It was so simple, like the jitterbug. It plum evaded me and we worked ourselves into a tumultuous uproar. And I was awful tired. Went over to the hillside and I laid down, went to sleep, slept for four hours and dreamt me some tremulous drinks.
- [60:35]
Jeff Blair
That's not my favorite thing. I'm kind of famously not a fan of like those monologuing performances like Arlo Guthrie, things like that. That for God's own drunk.
- [60:46]
Connor Friedersdorf
But usually one offs like they're entertaining the first time and then the second time you're like, cut to the music, you know.
- [60:53]
Jeff Blair
Yeah, but here I had mentioned, you know, how much he's sort of distancing himself from Nashville in that scene at this point. There's a couple of so brand new country star, these complaints, which, I mean, probably you could, you could slap down in any decade, complaints about the new country sound and the new country image coming out of Nashville. He's a hot Roman candle from the Texas Panhandle. He can go country or pop and you've got Those same complaints that seem to arise anytime there's a new country star that's not real country. He can just write a pop song and throw some pedal steel on it. And then West Nashville Grand Ballroom gown. I really like that song. I really like that story about girl hitchhiking that Buffett the narrator picks up, rebelling against expectations of being from a proper place like Nashville. The parties and going to church. It's another broadside against, you know, the town and the structure. And just even being from the city of Nashville sat right beside me as.
- [61:55]
Scott Bertram
The meter hit 60 explaining her travels and her family background when she got through I could not help but thinking She's a long way from the West Nashville grand ballroom gown. Her father had money and her mother had love Channeled entirely to her dear sister duh. 22 years in society's land Cancel and swing her dear mother mother's hand.
- [62:35]
Jeff Blair
Speaking of cities, I like Ringling Ringling here, about a dying little town with 40 people in it. There's great playing on that track. And then since we're nearing the end, I guess I'll say Pencil Thin Mustache. First song on the album, Connor. We both have talked about it, but Connor specifically about the nostalgia and this talking about the pop culture of his childhood and the Ricky Ricardo jacket and. And there's this nostalgia and simplicity about the way things used to be. Now they make new movies in old black and white. And that line right at the end about Brill cream. A little dad will do you. Pencil Thin Mustache sort of pushes that sensibility to the front at the very start of living and dying in three quarter time. The fact that you can also sort of turn around and look back and find things to sing and celebrate in Jimmy Buffett's catalog.
- [63:31]
Scott Bertram
I'm getting old, don't wear underwear. I don't go to church and I don't cut my hair. But I can go to movies and see it all there just the way that it used to be. That's why I wish I had a pencil thin mustache the Boston blackhead kind. I do Jones Ricky Ricardo with jacket and an autographed picture. Vandy Divine. Oh, I could be anyone I wanted to be. Maybe Swaver o' Flynn or the Sheep.
- [64:07]
Connor Friedersdorf
Of Araby brings us. Unless anybody has anything to add to his next album, A1A which I would, you know, again with my new. My new orientation, I would consider this a slight dip in quality. It has, however, one song that I, I think pretty much encapsulates what he is going to come to stand for lyrically, over the rest of his career. And it's interesting you just talked about looking back, Scott. Well, what about looking forward? A1A? I think most of us will agree the signature song is A pirate looks at 40. It's a fascinating little tune, and it gets at. People accuse Jimmy Buffett of selling a lifestyle to his fans and all that. And I'm sure at a certain point, people who had listened to these songs thought themselves, hey, I'd like to live under palm trees with coconuts falling upon my head. That would be really nice. You know, why wouldn't they? Right? The Jimmy Buffett doesn't write nearly as many songs about the humidity, I'll point out. Okay. You know, there aren't. There aren't a lot of songs about flying cockroaches in Jimmy Buffett's discography, but there's this wonderful song about basically an old drug smuggler who's getting too old for this job. All right, what has he been doing? He's done a bit of smuggling. He's run his share of grass. He made enough money to buy Miami but he pissed it away so fast it was never meant to last. And now. Now he's. He's on a bender. He's been drunk for over two weeks. He's passed out, he's rallied, he's sprung a few leaks. He's looking at 40. He's already getting too old for the job, the life he's chosen. And he doesn't really know exactly what's going to go happen to him moving forward. All he knows, he's got to go down to the water again because his occupational hazard is simply being, you know, it's his occupation. And another day will rise and how long will this go on? It's one of those songs that sounds sentimental at first, and then the more you listen to it, the more you realize there's a real kind of a sad, resigned layer of yearning hidden underneath it that, you know, people who talk about the parrot heads and the coconuts and the daiquiris and all that stuff, there's a really interesting story here that could just as easily come out of, like a Michael Mann film, like Miami Vice.
- [66:20]
Scott Bertram
Yes, I am a pirate. It 200 years too late the cannons don't thunder there's nothing to plunder I'm an over 40 victim of fate Arriving.
- [66:36]
Connor Friedersdorf
Too late.
- [66:39]
Scott Bertram
Arriving too late But I've done a bit of smuggling and I've run my share of grass I made enough money to buy Miami But I pissed it away so fast Never meant.
- [67:00]
Connor Friedersdorf
To last.
- [67:03]
Scott Bertram
Never Meant to Lay.
- [67:08]
Guest Speaker
He's absolutely drawing on these kind of low rent drug smugglers that he encounters in Key West. And a Pirate looks at 40, which is one of the great Jimmy Buffett songs. You can see it every time you go to a concert. You know, if there's one song people want to hear and sing along drunkenly with their friends, it's A pirate looks at 40. It's an encore. Sometimes it's where the lighters come out or where they used to when people still had lighters. I do the. The other two songs on this album that really draw from key. Well, three of them actually. Trying to reason with Hurricane Season, nautical wheelers and 10 cup chalice title alone says it. Yeah, they don't all scream Key west when you just kind of look at nautical wheelers and 10 cup chow trellis. But he is just drawing a little details of his life there. And there's a great, there's a great story behind Nautical Wheelers that he goes into sometimes in his concert monologues and is spelled out in his biography where they had this thing, I forget what they called it, the Something Regatta. But they would basically have three tequila shots and one of them was set up at the end of a swimming pool and the next one was set up down on the beach and the last one was set up on these catamarans that were famously of low rent quality. And they had this race in Key west where they stumble out of the bar and they decide on this one drunken day and they all wind up, you know, three tequila shots in, out on their respective catamarans and they proceed to all break down one after another until they have, you know, kind of gone out to sea and they're getting pulled up by the current and they realize like, oh God, this I'm hanging off of this one. And the sails broken on that one and the rudder fell off on that one. And they ended up having to get kind of towed back in. It's one of these many times when, you know, you could have had disaster in this lifestyle that Jimmy Buffett is living. But he seems to come through it with, with a lot of good luck along the way.
- [69:03]
Scott Bertram
Sony. A line from a sailboat. All nautical Wheeler sailing. And it's dance with me, dance with me Nautical Wheeler Take me to the stars that, you know, come on and dance with me, Dance with me Nautical Wheelers. I want so badly to go.
- [69:44]
Connor Friedersdorf
Well, the sunrise Jimmy Buffett, basically, we don't, we don't give him enough credit for this. But Jimmy Buffett's music is the literal musical origin of the story of Florida Man.
- [69:52]
Guest Speaker
Yes, yes, absolutely. But, you know, you don't get all of that backstory in nautical Wheelers unless you've heard it. You can kind of piece it together and make sense of the lyrics, but still, you get something of the flavor of living in Key west, in this small community at the time, time, that has as much to do with this small bohemian community as it does with where it's located. And I think Jimmy Buffett capturing that authentically in his early years is how he was able to own this kind of escapist island thing that lots of other people tried to do in a way that was deeper and resonated with an audience that was interested in the singularity of this person.
- [70:37]
Scott Bertram
So all alone I walk back home Sat on and then I made up this song and now I must confess I could use some rest I can't run at this pace very long yes, it's quite insane I think it hurts my brain but then it cleans me out Then I can go on.
- [71:19]
Jeff Blair
I. I'm going to disagree with Jeff because I don't think A1A is a step down. I think it is a step up. And I think it is one of his very best records from start to finish. I think it's one of his most consistent records from start to finish, and does a good job job of pulling together all these threads he had begun early on in his career. Nautical Wheelers. Beautiful, beautiful song. Wonderfully written, this Three Quarter Time waltz, which, referencing back to the last album, it actually is in Three Quarter time that is a highlight of this record. Life Is Just a Tire Swing is a strong Buffett song. And I see him here, this is, you know, pictures of his youth, essentially stories of being a kid. And I see him equating that freedom of youth swinging out a tire swing to the kind of freedom that he wants as an adult as well. Right. I want my life to be just as untethered and just as free as it might have been when I was 12 in the summer on a tire swing. But later in the album, you get Migration, which I almost see as like the sequel to Tire Swing, because Migration's about after childhood, love, divorce, the moving to Florida, and this projection of looking forward, if I ever live, to be an old man. And this has one of, I think, the quintessential Buffett lines that helps describe what he does. I got a Caribbean soul I can barely control in some Texas Hidden here in my Heart. That's a decent way of describing a lot of these songs from this particular era.
- [72:54]
Connor Friedersdorf
I mean, that is Buffett, right?
- [72:58]
Scott Bertram
That is why. It's still a mystery to me why some people live like they do. There's so many nice things happening out there they never even seen a clue. Yeah, but we're doing fine we can travel and rhyme I know we've been doing our part Got a Caribbean soul I can barely control and some Texas hits can heal yeah. Got a car.
- [73:42]
Jeff Blair
Door Number three. You guys don't like Door Number three? I mean, it's.
- [73:45]
Connor Friedersdorf
I do.
- [73:46]
Jeff Blair
It's great. It's this. I mean, the whole thing is a conceit about going on let's Make a Deal and trying to find out what's behind. My whole world lies waiting behind door number three. But it's set up like this very standard country tune, honky tonk piano. Steve Goodman, who wrote a bunch of stuff with Buffett especially early on, co writes Door Number Three. I think that's a really great song, Making Music for Money. Not one that he wrote, but one that really succinctly tells perhaps, the way he wants to approach the business. And by the way, that opening riff on Making Music for Money, that could have been ripped and taken and placed on a Keith urban song from 2005 or a Kenny Chesney single from around that time. That riff stands up to this day, and that's Making Music for Money is. I'm not making Music for money. I'm making Music for me. It's another anti industry kind of song from Buffalo. It. But someone else wrote it, so he kind of has that plausible deniability. No, no, no. I'm. Someone else wrote this. I'm just doing the song. But that's a great lead off. And again, that riff is just indelible.
- [75:19]
Scott Bertram
When I woke up this morning I was tired as I could be. I think I was counting my money When I should have been counting sheep My agent, he just called me and told me what I should be if I would make my music for money instead of making music for me. I said, I know that this may sound. But money don't mean nothing to me. I won't make money.
- [76:07]
Jeff Blair
Pirate looks at 40 you guys already talked about. I mean, I just think that from start to finish, A1A is the strongest collection of his performing and songwriting from this early era.
- [76:19]
Connor Friedersdorf
You know what? The funny thing, Scott, is that the reason I said that is precisely because I think the next one might be the one. Of course, that depends on what you mean by the next one? Does anybody have anything to say about this Rancho Deluxe thing? Does he? Apparently even earlier in his early days he. He made enough friends that he was able to get involved with a movie. And so yes, he did the soundtrack for a forgotten film. It's called Rancho Deluxe. I don't know.
- [76:43]
Jeff Blair
His brother wrote the screen. Do you know that Connor, that story?
- [76:46]
Connor Friedersdorf
No, I don't know the story behind it. I just know the music and I'm like ah, that's okay. But like what, what's the story? I. I also heard it was badly reviewed.
- [76:53]
Guest Speaker
What I understand in the story is that he changed agents and got this very high powered agent who got him into the movie business. And it was effective. The agent. Anything else?
- [77:04]
Jeff Blair
Huh?
- [77:05]
Connor Friedersdorf
It's a perfectly sensible, likable album. There's nothing wrong with it. It simply doesn't stand out. And of course the most important reason for it is that all of these songs, the one, the most important songs would come back Livingston Saturday right. In particular. But like yeah, it's just. It's neither here nor there. What I was thinking of is the next real Jimmy Buffett album which was a real surprise to me. Total Miami Southern Florida cover with the. With the. The big. The blue shirt and the white sport coat. Havana Daydreaming is a remarkable record and for me actually is the sign that he really put it all together. This one starts and ends incredibly strongly. I don't think there's a. He finds some of his great earlier songs from earlier in his career. The Captain and the Kid is where he re records this one here. But man, the whole thing is just. It is like reading a collection of short stories.
- [78:01]
Scott Bertram
Talks about the men she's known and then some. She's seen them in her dreams and on the street she slides her dapper legs from beneath the table as if to reveal some kind of tree.
- [78:27]
Connor Friedersdorf
There's.
- [78:27]
Scott Bertram
A woman going crazy okay. Caroline Street Stopping every man that she does meet Saying if you be gentle, if you'll be sweet I'll show you my place on Caroline Street.
- [78:42]
Connor Friedersdorf
It is probably the first time the whole thing works for me completely now. Now am I wrong? Do you think A1A is better than that or. I. I think. I think that that between the Captain and the Kid and a woman going crazy on Caroline street. Which is just a wonderful like observational thing about the kind of like you know, whatever tourist as you'd seen and then Havana daydreaming Cliches. A cliche is a song about basically him and his grandpa, you know, or not his grandpa, but there's a family thing there where they're going out to like, you know, like explore things. And the only one I think that doesn't work is the. The altogether over mannered, something so feminine about a mandolin, which kind of lays it a little bit too thickly on the nose also because I've never thought a mandolin was a very feminine instrument. You know, the zither is a feminine instrument. The mandolin is a mascul mountain instrument. Anyways, I really like this one. I think Havana Daydreaming is really where Buffett puts it together. And if anyone disagrees, please tell me why I'm wrong.
- [79:43]
Jeff Blair
I disagree again. I'll say my piece. And then a tiebreaker can come in the form of Connor. I think Cavanagh Daydreaming is a little tired and weary. It feels like a holding pattern a bit. And the songs, you have two Steve Goodman songs, two that he co wrote with his then girlfriend, one by the harmonica player, one from Jesse Winchester, one a re recording from his debut Kick It In. Second Wind is literally about like the exhaustion of his life, right? Losing one, losing any more hope of scoring any more.
- [80:18]
Connor Friedersdorf
One of the better songs on the record, in my opinion.
- [80:20]
Jeff Blair
Still got to do another show. I agree it's one of the better songs, but you know, thematically it's about him being tired.
- [80:27]
Connor Friedersdorf
But you know what the thing is, this is a man who writes so autobiographically about his life. I just accept the fact that I guess he was kind of exhausted, I think.
- [80:36]
Jeff Blair
I think Havana Daydreaming. I tried to succinctly say why I think that the songs air toward being more cute than being insightful or truly great. That's one of the main problems I have with Havana Daydreaming overall, despite a couple of good songs.
- [80:54]
Scott Bertram
Because there she sat at the corner of the bar As I broke another string on my own old guitar Someone call a cat lady won't you p my T now my head hurts, my feet stink and I don't love Jesus that kind of morning really was that kind of night I'm trying to tell myself that my condition is improving and if I don't die But Thursday I'll be rolling and Friday night Got to get a little orange juice and a Darvon for my head I can't spend all day, baby laying in the bed I'm going down to foul stools get.
- [81:39]
Jeff Blair
Some chocolate milk Connor, you gotta break the tie.
- [81:42]
Connor Friedersdorf
Oh man, tell me I'm wrong Connor. I'm probably Wrong, because I. I know nothing.
- [81:46]
Guest Speaker
I don't have a strong favorite between A1A and humanity dreaming as albums. I would just say that Kick It In Second Wind is interesting to me because Jimmy Buffett worked really hard as a touring act when his album sales were bad, he could always drum up money and interest and business by going around and playing. And so he would play bars and he would play empty college rec centers at 1 o' clock on a Monday. And this kicking in second wind is one of the few times in his career where he kind of shows you how hard that he is working, how much sweat he has put into this career that he otherwise likes to pretend has come together so seamlessly in this kind of laid back lifestyle. And so I think it's a great song and I think it's a fun little peek into a lot of different nights that he must have had along the way.
- [82:46]
Scott Bertram
So won't you kick it in now? Second win. We got two more hours to go. Losing any more hope this morning anymore co and we still got to do another show. Got to do another show. I got to do another show.
- [83:32]
Guest Speaker
This hotel room is kind of to me a false note. And I suppose, you know, it seems a little gimmicky to me. And for only that reason, I might prefer A1A as an album to Vanity Dream it. But I really like the song Havana Day Dreaming and that seems to me like, you know, it's a vein he mined over and over again in his career, sometimes really successfully, sometimes less so. But I think Havana Day Dreaming comes together very seamlessly, both lyrically and musically.
- [84:02]
Scott Bertram
Spilling wine and sharing good times she sure could make him smile he pays a well but what the hell, he'll be moving in a little while Havana daydreaming Boy, he's just dreaming his life away A vanity dreaming but boy he'll be dreaming his life away.
- [84:57]
Connor Friedersdorf
All right, Scott, do we want to talk about the big breakthrough? How does. How's a guy who's been chugging along on his little tugboat on, on the Gulf coast for the last, what, seven years now? Six, seven years now suddenly breakthrough. And of course, keep in mind the breakthrough is minor. It's not. He doesn't become a truly globe like globetrotting or America trotting rock star until like even as late as the late 80s and early 90s. But here's critically where everybody has to finally sit up and take notice. Scott.
- [85:28]
Jeff Blair
Changes in latitude changes and attitude. One of the reasons I know I'm right about Havana Daydreaming is that Buffett also thought some changes were in store were in order producer changes from Don Gant to Norbert Putnam. Putnam had a lot of success working with some similar artists from that Texas scene. And so he has some ideas about how to. How to work with Buffett songs. I think you see an additional use of string arrangements in songs starting with Changes in Latitude, this particular album, which clearly served the songs well. And you also have these. Like I said, it's recalibration, but it works. The album goes to 12, and you have two top 40 singles off this record, Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude, and a little song called Margaritaville, which dented the top 10, hit number eight. And this, yes, this is where he actually has some significant chart success with an album. And it's fairly well deserved. I think this record sounds better than Havana Daydreaming. It's got a little more kick, a little more energy in places. And again, when you talk about lyrics and the songwriting, it's hard to think of two songs that are more quoted or have again, these lines that. That just remain in your brain for years and years. Marguerite deville and Changes in Attitude. Changes in Latitude. Latitude, Attitude. I flipped them. But I mean, think about just that particular song, you know, if it suddenly ended tomorrow you can finish all these lines Reading departure signs in some big airport. If we couldn't laugh we'd all go insane Yesterday's over my shoulder like all these little lines and snapshots from the song live very vividly in people's minds, and that's a testament to his songwriting. It's a good album.
- [87:38]
Scott Bertram
And I know that I just can't go wrong with these. Changes in latitudes Changes in and attitudes Nothing remains quite the same with all of my running and all of my cunning if I couldn't laugh I just would go insane we couldn't laugh we just would go insane we weren't all crazy we would go insane.
- [88:15]
Guest Speaker
I love the song Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. Maybe it's because I'm someone who's often in airports. I love the line I think about Paris When I'm high on red wine I wish I could jump on a plane again I'm struck that Paris is coming up again in the pantheon of places that you might not expect from a guy who normally talks about the islands, and yet he's making it his own. There's two songs on this album, Wonder why We Ever Go Home and Missy so Beautiful Badly that I didn't, I didn't Love When I heard them the first time, and then I heard them on the live album, which is forthcoming soon. And I really like the live versions better than I like the Better than I like the studio versions. I think this is a really strong album from start to finish. And of course, wait, is this. Oh, and Landfall as well. I think the live version of Landfall actually rocks a lot more than the studio album of Landfill. Landfall. And. And I like it for that reason.
- [89:28]
Scott Bertram
What could they do if I made no Landfall? Oh, what could they do if I polluted? What would I do if I met Lucille Ball? I'm trying to make a little sense of it all. Just trying to make a little sense of it all.
- [89:49]
Guest Speaker
Margaritaville is just, you know, they say that you work hard and make your own luck. And to me, this is just. Jimmy Buffett has the kind of lyrical chops to write a song like this. He has the musical chops to write a song like this. But this is just everything coming together, together. And it's a simple little story that is, you know, he cuts his heel walking out of a bar one night, and he just manages to capture it in a way that is wistful and relatable. And, you know, I don't know, the reason I stayed here all season. Maybe there's something in everyone's life that they can relate that to. I don't know what I'm doing, and maybe it's someone else's fault, but actually, probably, probably it's my fault.
- [90:37]
Connor Friedersdorf
There's so little self pity among the narrators of Jimmy Buffett's songs. And I think if the more time you spend listening to him, the more it kind of like it's why you can understand why people fall in love with the vibe and the ethos. I mean, it's never better summarized than in the course of that song. Some people say there's a woman to blame, but I know it's my own fault. Am I at their own damn fault?
- [91:01]
Guest Speaker
I have this vivid memory of sitting in the Margaritaville restaurant in Las Vegas where friend of the podcast Molly Ball, who I think was on your Radiohead episode, was showing me around Las Vegas because we were both in town for journalistic things and she'd been a newspaper reporter there. And we're standing in Margaritaville and we're having a margarita and we're arguing about whether the margarita at Margaritaville is Jimmy Buffett failing by selling the public subpar margarita, or if it's just spot on commercialization. This is, of course, what Jimmy Buffett's gonna do. And I was on the fancy coastal elite. We should have a better margarit Rita side of that argument, I'm sorry to say. But when I think back on that argument, I realized that Molly Ball was right, as he so often is, that if you listen to the lyrics of this song, the booze and the blunder that was sitting there when he got back from cutting his heel that would render the frozen concoction that would help him hang on. This was Cuervo tequila at best. And if it was fresh lime juice, he was lucky. And I think that that the Margaritaville chain is even true to the spirit of the song. In the end.
- [92:44]
Scott Bertram
I blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top, cut my heel, had to cruise on back home, but there's booze in the blender and soon it will render that frozen concoction that helps me hang on.
- [93:11]
Connor Friedersdorf
I mean, the thing about the album that I'm going to really give it credit for is that he, he nails the. Again, I think of it as a writerly approach, an ethos. You hear it in Margaret Readerville. But you know what I think is even better as a writing accomplishment has probably got to be banana replacement Publix, which is just a wonderful depiction of a certain kind of person living a certain kind of lifestyle. Again, I, I, I can't help but think of a guy like Tom Waits again, looking for the down and outers in society. And so who is Jimmy Buffett writing about? These people who are fleeing from the irs, from the cops. They go to Cuba, they go to like Guatemala, they go to Nicaragua, they go to some place where nobody's going to find me. And they hang out in the bars by the coast and they look for anybody who knows even five words of English. They, they try to pick, pick up as much Spanish as they can. They get drunk and they live lives of sort of questioning despair. What did I do to get myself here? What lies have I had to tell myself? You can't trust me because I'll probably tell you those exact same lies. There's a lot of observational intelligence in a song like that that is just flies under the radar, I think because it has such a nice sort of a gentle, wistful sound to it.
- [94:28]
Scott Bertram
Custom soon word of Spanish or two, you know that you cannot trust them. They know they can't trust you. Expatriated American feeling. So all along telling. Telling themselves the same lies that they told themselves back home.
- [95:21]
Connor Friedersdorf
Yeah. The other one like that would be like, wonder why we ever go home. This one Actually came from the Rancho Deluxe album. And then he finally, like, finished it and recorded this version. It's just a beautiful song, though. It's a beautiful, happy bow. Kind of almost makes me think of crowded houses. Better be home soon in a strange way, as an answer is like, why we ever go home? Why? Well, this. This place is the greatest place to grow up and live. And then, you know, we've spent very little time, I think, focusing on the music, the actual music of Jimmy Buffett, because we talk about the lyric. That's really, you know, the lifestyle it's depicting that comes across to us. But I want to just point out that, like, if I finally heard on the radio Tampico Trauma, I'd be really happy. That is a rocking little tune. It's like a really, really. Kind of like a powerful, like. Obviously there's some big mess that's happened. We've. We've been run from the Federales. You know, there's. There's. There's a huge mashup. Smash up with the Law. This one almost reminds me of, like, again, we're getting into Z. Von territory with this sort of. Of a story, and I really enjoy that kind of territory.
- [96:45]
Scott Bertram
Yesterday, see, I was drinking double causing lots of trouble when the man looked in the window, the bar gr and said if you come back we just may not be your friend I don't want to see you around here again.
- [97:16]
Jeff Blair
I think kind of wrapping what Jeff points out there. This is the album and sort of recalibration that I talked about, but this is the album where the vibe is so important. I think Jeff actually used that word a bit ago, too. But this. This album is where the songs have the right vibe. Like, wonder why we ever go home that vibe is right.
- [97:37]
Connor Friedersdorf
Right.
- [97:38]
Jeff Blair
Miss you so badly. That vibe is right. Biloxi, which I don't think anyone's mentioned. I really like that song. Another Jesse Winchester, and he's done well with a few of his songs. I think he really nails that toward the end of this record. But. And I think the producer change helps here with Norbert Putnam to help create that vibe. But it's that vibe that he creates on Changes in Latitude that makes a lot of it so successful and makes it hold together very well from start to finish.
- [98:09]
Scott Bertram
We are walking down beside the ocean we are splashing naked in the water and the skies red from up to New Orleans and the skies red from to New Orleans.
- [99:03]
Connor Friedersdorf
All right, well, you know what? Here's to our. Our legacies. Here's also to Carnivorous habit, you know, habits in paradise. What do we do about this one? I think I'll probably gonna make the end. End of the show top two for me. I think this is the one where most people who know anything about Jimmy Buffett probably think of son of a son of a son Sailor. And I would like to be the contrarian, but I'm too new to this game to even bother. I'll admit it, this is a great album. This. Everything here works. There are, like, little lost moments on this one that I want to talk about that I don't think anybody else who's even a fan of Buffett's care about. But of course, it all begins with the title track and with something I've made it a point to do every time I'm there is Cheeseburgers in paradise.
- [99:54]
Scott Bertram
Tried to amend my carnivorous habits made in nearly 70 days losing weight without speed Eating sunflower seeds Drinking lots of carrot juice and soaking herberries but at night I'd have these wonderful dreams Some kind of sensuous treat not zucchini feta, Jesus love you But a big warm bun and a huge hug of meat Cheeseburger in paradise not too particular, not too precise I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise.
- [100:41]
Guest Speaker
I love the song Cheeseburgers in Paradise. I think it's such an American song, it's impossible to think of someone from any other country ever writing it. And I, you know, I have gone back to this tiny Greek island where I have found a house that's pretty inexpensive and close to a beach where I go and I write sometimes. And on this island, there is a fantastic cheeseburger that I crave after I'm gone from the country for some amount of time. Time. And every time I see a new little yacht or sailing boat pulling into the harbor and the people disembarking, I sometimes see them walk up the street and they go to this cheeseburger stand that is well known around these Greek islands. And I think of Jimmy Buffett. I don't know if Jimmy Buffett ever went to the Greek islands or if he just listened to Joni Mitchell singing about them, but they are ineffably a Jimmy Buffett kind of place.
- [101:38]
Connor Friedersdorf
Place.
- [101:38]
Guest Speaker
And the image of the American who is sailing around but just can't wait to get a port. Not for Havanas or bananas or daiquiris, but they just want a cheeseburger American.
- [101:48]
Connor Friedersdorf
Creation on which I feed.
- [101:49]
Guest Speaker
Yes. And I just can, you know, I don't know exactly when Jimmy Buffett was sailing around and decided he wanted a cheeseburger. I don't know the backstory to this particular song, but I can just imagine it from the lifestyle that he was living and how it authentically happened and how he made made it into this wonderful, ridiculous song. And so I, I'm for it. And I, I love Stupidest thing about.
- [102:13]
Connor Friedersdorf
That song is I can't even read the lyrics without getting hungry.
- [102:15]
Jeff Blair
I, I, I literally.
- [102:17]
Connor Friedersdorf
Medium rare with muenster. Oh, man, now I'm in the mood for lunch.
- [102:21]
Scott Bertram
I like mine with lettuce and tomato pies 57 and French fried potatoes. Big kosher F and a cold raft. Farewell. Good God Almighty, which way do I steer for my cheeseburger in paradise? Making the best of every virtue and vice Worth every damn bit of sacrifice to get a cheeseburger in paradise Cheeseburger in paradise I missed a cheeseburger in.
- [102:53]
Guest Speaker
Paradise Just the, the kind of, you know, it, it's. It's in some ways, of course, a gimmicky song. And yet I tried to amend my carnivorous habit. I made it nearly 70 days. Just an elegant little beginning to a.
- [103:06]
Connor Friedersdorf
Little story about how I was going to try to live the island ways and sort of, you know, pretend to, you know, go native when in Rome, do what the Romans do. But now, screw it, I need a cheeseburger right now. That, that's the American way.
- [103:19]
Guest Speaker
And then, of course, Son of a Son of a Sailor is just core Buffett mythos building it's returning to the story's mind with his grandfather and the captain and the kid and, you know, great lyrics and live. This is a great song because it's always a great female vocalist who kind of comes in and sings the part about the lady chehales from Trinidad island of the spices. So evocative in its lyrics and just makes you want to climb aboard a boat and start sailing. So what's not to like? I think this is a great album.
- [103:54]
Scott Bertram
Start to finish now, way in the near future, Southeast of disorder you can shake the hand of the mango man as he greets you at the border and the letter she hails from TR the spices Salt for your meat and cinnamon Sweet and the rum is for all your goodbyes Haul the sheet in as we ride on the wind that our forefathers harness before us Hear the bells ring as the tide rigging sings it's the son of a Gun of a chorus.
- [104:45]
Connor Friedersdorf
Foreign.
- [104:47]
Jeff Blair
It's a solid record and I think more than anything, Son of a Son of a Sailor plays to Buffett's strengths in a number of ways. I try to try to outline a couple of these. Jeff had just mentioned how we haven't talked as much as perhaps we should about the music and Son of a Son of a Sailor. There's two things I want to mention. One is this is surprisingly a really, really strong bass record. Listen to the bass line on Son of a Son of a Sailor. Listen to the bass line on Cheeseburger in Paradise. Some of these songs just have that little kick in their step, right? That engine. They have more go because of how strong the bass lines are in some of these songs. And the other instrument that we haven't mentioned. But man, listening back to, back to, back to all this buff. But you better like the harmonica an awful lot.
- [105:40]
Connor Friedersdorf
A harmonica, a lot of harmonica and Jimmy Buffett. That's something you never. I've never been able to tell you, but prior to doing this show, that how heavily he leans on it.
- [105:49]
Jeff Blair
I love it. Yep. And the harmonica player whose name I've got it written down, if it escapes me. He writes a few songs, helps co write songs. And there aren't guitar solos in a lot of these things. There are, there are harp solos, there are harmonica solos. So you better like the harmonica. So that's really strong. Of course, the song about the sea, Son of a Son of a Sailor is absolutely one of his all time best songs. His power of observation. Guys, cowboy in the jungle. Sitting back and watching these tourists come to Key west or wherever he is at this point. Trying to solve life's problems in three days. Like the plot of City Slickers, right? Trying to cram, I think the line, trying to cram your lost years into five or six, six days. And watching them, watching all these tourists come down and do that. You know, he watches this. He translates this over to Cowboy in the Jungle.
- [106:43]
Scott Bertram
As this love goes rum drinks down Discussing who caught wood and who sat on his butt. But it's the only show in town they're trying to drink all the punches they all may lose their lunches Trying to cram lost years in five or six days Seems that blind ambition Erase their intuition Plowing straight ahead, come what may I don't wanna live on that kind of island.
- [107:37]
Jeff Blair
And then a song like Manana, which I think is a real try on fitting in all these pop culture references of the time. The relatability of Buffett shines through in a song like that. Talks about Steve Martin and let's Get Small and Kiss concerts and at the end, hope Anita Bryant doesn't cover my songs. Right. Mignana is a really good song.
- [107:59]
Connor Friedersdorf
Made Stronger than that is my favorite song on the record, actually, that people.
- [108:02]
Jeff Blair
Can really relate to what he's talking about and sort of place themselves inside his lyrics. So. Oh, the last thing, the last strength is trusting outside writers to give him great material. And on this album, it's Keith Sykes. And I don't know if you guys know Keith Sykes at all, but I've been a Keith Sykes fan for a long time. Comes from that same sort of Jerry Jeff Walker, Texas songwriter bloodline. And Keith Sykes gives him two excellent songs for Son of a Son of a Sailor that he. That Buffet performs really well, especially the last line. Really love the last line. And that chorus, it's come from behind. Now's the time for the last line. That's a really great little toe tapper of a song. So I, Son of a Son of a Sailor, again, takes all these great strengths of Buffett and just lines them up one by one. And so you're going to get a great, great record.
- [108:53]
Connor Friedersdorf
That's a really fun album. And that's the thing. Like, you know, again, I. I say I'm. I am a Chicagoan and I was formerly a Washington, D.C. maryland guy. I got nothing, nothing on sailing. I would know the first thing about it. This is just good music. It's well written music. It's well written lyrics, it's well sequenced as a record. And. And the one thing there, there are. There are moments here that actually primarily memorable only for their music. So Costa My Marseille, It's a great little song, but it's really about that string arrangement and the melody, and it's not really about the lyrics in that case. But it's still a good song. It's Manana, though, where everything kind of pulls together. You guys talked about this. Scott, you mentioned Manana. I love that opening line. She says it's, you know, immigration problems, but in reverse. She doesn't want to have to go back to the United States. I can't go back to America soon. It's so goddamn cold. It's going to snow until June they're freezing up in Buffalo Stuck in their cars and I'm lying here neath the sun and the stars but the custom man tells her she's got to leave she's got a plan hidden up her sleeve Talk about, you know, in a modern era where politics has intervened so much on these things, a completely different look at the world where you're like, I do not want to return to the rat race. It's no wonder this almost became an aspirational lifestyle kind of a thing for a certain genre of people who have been slaving their. Their butts off just like Jimmy Buffett was slaving his butt off throughout his career. Career. Just the thought of being able to just maybe go. Go somewhere south where people don't remember who you are and lose yourself.
- [110:28]
Scott Bertram
She said, I can't go back to America. So goddamn cold. It's kind of snow until Junior, they're freezing up in Buffalo stuck in their cars and I'm lying here need the sun and customs man tells her that she's got a leaf she's got a plan hidden up her shrewd sleeve Wants to find her a captain a man of strong mind and any direction he blows will be fired so please don't save any if you don't mean it I have heard those words for so very long don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it don't ever forget that you just may wind up being wrong.
- [111:36]
Connor Friedersdorf
Manana is probably best song on this album, but this is. I would argue this is his best album of all. Now I'm curious to see whether anybody has anything to say about the only live album. We've already talked many times. Connor's mentioned how Jimmy Buffett really, if you were there, boy, it was a live experience. But there's really only one of these canonical live albums that I feel we have to address, and that would be the one that comes next. You had to Be There. It was recorded on the Son of a Sailor to tour, or rather, it was called the Cheeseburger in Paradise tour, although they didn't include that song on the record. Scott, you hate live albums. You hate talkie live albums. This must have been your nightmare and a half, even if you bothered to listen to it. I kind of enjoy it because, you know me, I love live records. Connor, do you have any thoughts on you had to Be There?
- [112:26]
Guest Speaker
You know, as someone who started going to Buffett shows in the 90s and have gone to a whole lot of them, I really enjoyed hearing. Hearing what the live shows were like when he was on the rise. There was kind of a bit more talking back then.
- [112:39]
Connor Friedersdorf
I liked it. Yeah, absolutely.
- [112:41]
Guest Speaker
And, yeah, no, I mean, and I already mentioned, I think that a song like Landfall really shines on the live album where it's just. It rocks a little bit harder. I enjoy the little riff on, you know, we're staying in a Holiday Inn full of coneheads instead of a Holiday Inn full of surgeons I, yeah, I, I really, to me, it does capture what it is like when you were there. As well as any live album of any band that I've gone to see in concert. There's. I think it gives you a little sense of the way that Jimmy Buffett could charm a crowd. And yeah, I think a lot of his songs are better. Lucky.
- [113:28]
Scott Bertram
What would they do if I just sailed away? Who the hell really compelled me to leave today? Riding long stories of what made in a ball what would they do if we made the landfall? I live half my Life in an 8 by 5 room cruising to the sound of the big diesel boom it's not as good as it would be Make a snap it's just dealing with the daily unadult.
- [114:08]
Connor Friedersdorf
I think it's a lot of fun, but because I know Scott Lo's live albums, I just wanted to know if he had any thoughts about what it felt like to be trapped under the volcano.
- [114:18]
Jeff Blair
Oh, the volcano, yes. Thanks for transitioning away. That's the next album that comes after the live one, which I did listen to and as you might imagine, didn't necessarily enjoy. So it's better to move forward. Although. Although Jeff had mentioned earlier a one A being a step down in his mind. In my mind, Volcano is a step down from where we have been recently with his work.
- [114:45]
Connor Friedersdorf
So I'm clearly out on an island myself because I think this is actually a really great record. Perhaps not a step up because you're not going to top what came before, but this is still great. All right.
- [114:54]
Jeff Blair
You've got three big songs, Fins and Volcano, and actually survive as well. I just think that some of the album material is weaker than it has been and something that began two records ago becomes a bit more prevalent here, which is the sound of the record sounds a little more like late 70s soft rock, yacht rock than it does sort of the vibe he had going previously. Now that's not. That's not terrible because I think Finn, like Finn's is the most commercial sounding, the most pop track he might have ever done. It's so catchy. I love Finns. He's also not solely writing about himself anymore. Finns is clearly sort of, you know, putting himself in the. The shoes of a female. Right. Who's among the sharks who are coming to get her. The nails who are coming to get her. And so that's a different sort of aspect to his writing as well.
- [116:10]
Scott Bertram
But the money's good in the season helps to lighten up her load boys keep her high as the months go by she's getting postcards on the road can't you feel em closing in? Honey? Can't you feel em spooling around? You got fence to the left, fence to the right and you're the opposite.
- [116:39]
Jeff Blair
But like, treat her like a lady. Dave Loggins co writes that one James Taylor sings, which gives you an indication about what it's going to sound like. That's really edging close to the soft rock of this era. And if you have Jimmy Buffett just sort of sounding like James Taylor or Christopher Cross, like, okay, what's the differentiating factor there that's going to make me say I want that and not something else else? I think it.
- [117:02]
Connor Friedersdorf
I mean, what was the point of James Taylor and Christopher Cross in the first place? So. Exactly. You're coming. You're. Maybe there are other people who are fans, but you're butting up against some problems there. I agree.
- [117:14]
Jeff Blair
And the other song I want to mention very quickly before I pass along is Survive, because I've actually always liked Survive, but listening to it more now, and I'll take some flack for this, is that this has the strings that have been there previously, but strings on top of like this very, again, late 70s soft rock sort of production. Survive I like, but it works for the same reason. It works for the same reason that Babe and the Best of Times worked for Styx, because you had this very slow piano and like very over emotive vocals and this huge soaring chorus. It's a little formulaic. I do buy it. I like it. But it's something different than what we've been accustomed to from Buffett. So Volcano to me is a little wobble from a trajectory that's for sure.
- [118:13]
Scott Bertram
Been a while since I've seen chilling. So thrilling, so good to be back. Feels nice to be home for a while let's sip champagne till we break empty smile we'll go dancing Romancing. Cause you're the reason I survive Survive Stay alive through the thin.
- [119:05]
Guest Speaker
I don't have a lot to add. I think that Fins and Volcano and Boat Drinks are the standouts here. I do enjoy that. Boat Drinks, a song that could have started to to be a gimmicky song of the kind that will come much later in his career. I don't think it is gimmicky. He still is talking about it's 20 degrees and the hockey game's on. It's not, in fact, just a song about boat drinks. It's a song that is rooted in his own experience and that other people are going to be able to relate to. And I think he continues to pull that off. But I do think that Volcano is a step down from the last albums that preceded it.
- [120:07]
Scott Bertram
This morning I shot six holes in my freezer. I think I can Got cavity fever. Somebody sound the alarm I'd like to go where the pace of life slow. Could you pick me somewhere, Mr. Sky? Any old place here on Earth or in space. You pick the century and I pick the spot.
- [120:40]
Connor Friedersdorf
So you have to obviously point out that the 80s ification. Is that a word? I don't know. How do you put that? 80s ification. How do you say it? He's falling prey to. He's falling prey to the production trends of the era very clearly. And you can tell it here, right? As you said, Finn sounds like, you know, it's Jimmy Buffett, but it's also the early 80s in sound like it has that sonic profile to it. And yet the curious thing is, I'll say it's like these are. There are a lot of very well written songs on this record. I. I love Finns. We mentioned that. There's one that you're going to laugh at me for mentioning, but there's a Chanson pour Les Petit. It's. It's his children's song. He wrote it basically for his kid. Right. But musically, it's one of the most beautiful little. It sounds a little bit like a children's song, but it's beautiful. Melodically, it's gorgeous. The mix melody is so innocent and free. It kind of like, if I can appreciate When They Might Be Giants goes into writing children's tunes, which I can. I can appreciate this too. And of course, the irony is, like, I'm going to make this point, you know, like later on in Jimmy Buffett's career, you know, as we find fewer and fewer things to appreciate on the albums, it's going to be ironic. I find myself, regarding the ones that are titled in foreign languages to be some of the best of them all. Like, when Jimmy Buffett writes a song with a French title, it actually is going to maybe be good. It's like, yeah, I don't know French, but I think a beautiful melody speaks for itself.
- [122:13]
Scott Bertram
So young Mr. Moon flew away in the night with his best friend Magnus still right by his side the sun was just rising they'd be home by noon Humming the words to this man magical tune.
- [123:08]
Connor Friedersdorf
Then one other one I want to mention on this record is one that I. I just sort of Noticed when I heard it for the first time, it stood. It stuck out because it seems strange. It's called Dream Dreamsicle. This is a pretty interesting musical song, but there's something about the lyric that makes me think that he's actually talking about himself. The Let me tell you now he sips, he quips he dreams a lot about sailing ships he wants to throw it all away and have it all back someday. I think he's talking about himself there in a way that a lot of the rest of this album isn't. A lot of the rest of this record. He's doing sort of third person, sort of non autobiographical material. But when he says, I've got house pets, I got Lear jets, I'm trying to learn about bassinets, you know, Miss Piggy, dance with me, let me take you out to the sea. He's talking about how he is living the life that he always hoped he would live. And yet, and yet, and yet something still feels naggingly empty within him. And the only moment lyrically on the album that really jumps out of me for that reason, but still pretty good. And yes, the the 80s ification of Jimmy Buffett at this point is becoming apparent.
- [124:15]
Scott Bertram
Dream sick make still pickle High school honey sure worth fickle al the dam country hand takes me back to Alabama Won't you tell my story Paint glory, guess my occupation Free and easy Warm and breezy Overnight sensation Let me tell you now he sips, he quits. Dreams a lot about sailing ships out the dam country hand takes me back to Alabama.
- [125:11]
Jeff Blair
Yeah, it's 1979, but those, those production styles I know.
- [125:15]
Connor Friedersdorf
Isn't that funny? Like, the one way that he was truly a path breaker on the cutting edge is in this because he was going for the professional sounds.
- [125:24]
Jeff Blair
Yes, yes. Two years off for Buffett, which is unusual, and returns in 1981 with Coconut Telegraph. And this time I'll be the one to say I think this is a fine return to form. This is a really strong album in my mind. It features the last single to hit the Hot 100 for 20 years. For Buffett, commercially, he would. Well, he turned country very soon, which means he wasn't aiming for the pop charts, but also wasn't hitting the pop charts anyway. It's My job was number 57. Nothing else would hit the hot 100 for 20 years. Years after this, the album itself went to number 30. There are some really, really strong tracks on Coconut Telegraph, including one that I think is one of his best songs of his whole career. And I Can tell you now or I can tell you later. You want to go first, Connor?
- [126:19]
Guest Speaker
Well, I, I hate to preempt you, but I'm gonna go ahead. I don't know if Incommunicado is a song you, you were going to mention.
- [126:25]
Jeff Blair
Not in particular, but it is really something strong. Go ahead.
- [126:28]
Guest Speaker
I love this. I love this line. Now. On the day that John Wayne died I found myself on the continental divide. Tell me where do I go from here? I think I'll ride into Leadville and have a few beers. I think of Red river or Liberty Valance. Can't believe the old man's gone. It's just, you know, Jimmy Buffett was spending time in Aspen. He's, he's successful enough that he's hanging out with Hunter S. Thompson and, and, and palling around with celebrity celebrities, but he's still mining some lyrics and he's, he's making Colorado another one of his places. And I just think that that's a elegant little bit of storytelling that also plumbs his kind of nostalgia for old times in the same way as a pencil thin mustache.
- [127:10]
Scott Bertram
Now on the day that John Wayne died I found myself on the continental divide Tell me where, where do I go from here? Think I ride into Leadville and have a few beers Think a red river her liberty violence can't believe the old man's gone but now he's in communication Leaving such a hole in a world that believe that in life with such bravado.
- [127:55]
Guest Speaker
It's, it's a, a deep cut favorite of mine. I also like to weather it here. I wish you were beautiful. Wish you were beautiful.
- [128:02]
Connor Friedersdorf
Oh, that's my favorite Jimmy Buffett title of all by far.
- [128:05]
Guest Speaker
It is, it is a great title and it's. And it's a well executed song. And so those are, those are two standouts. And I will just say coconut. At Telegraph, having again spent time on this Greek island. It is sociologically true the way that news moves around a small island and gossip. It is a funny thing. And I would love to hear the backstory of what particular island made him think of that if it was Key west or somewhere else.
- [128:30]
Jeff Blair
Well, let me, let me jump in quickly because, yeah, Coconut Telegraph is really a fun song. It's one of my favorites on the record. Yeah. The way that new rumors and news spreads and it's a really fun. Sing along. La la la la la la la. Okay, so like where did it come from? So I don't know if he was inspired by this, knew about this, but there's a song called the Coconut Wireless by the. The Ray Charles Singers did it. It was written by a couple of guys I forgot.
- [129:17]
Scott Bertram
On the coconut wireless. On the coconut wireless you can tap out the noose Tap out the noose.
- [129:25]
Jeff Blair
All day long but it's from 1962, and it's exactly the same theme, the same sensibility. And I had always assumed, until looking specifically at it here, that he had to share songwriting credit because it's so close. But it's a Buffet original solo songwriting credit. And I guess it's not. Musically, it's not, but thematically it's almost exactly the same. Coconut Wireless is tapping out the news on coconuts on the islands. And it's this fun early 60s sort of. Well, that's the Ray Charles Singers. I'm going to put a clip of it here because I like it so much, but it's one that I always figured had to inspire. Coconut tonight. Telegraph in some way, shape or form as well. That's the leadoff track, and it's a really fun one here on the record.
- [130:11]
Scott Bertram
Now, I'm not one to kneel in gossip, but was he that big a fool to do a belly buster high dive and missed the entire pool? And what became a sweeper, Lissa. And therefore nobody knew this Ricardo and Finder. I swear it's just between me and you, but you can hear it on the coconut telegraph. By now everybody knows you can hear it on the coconut telegraph.
- [130:46]
Guest Speaker
Just do.
- [130:47]
Scott Bertram
Comes and goes, comes and goes, comes and goes.
- [130:59]
Connor Friedersdorf
You guys have actually talked about most of the ones I'd want to mention here. Coconut Telegraph, the title track actually is. Is great for all the reasons you've already said. And of course, Connor stole what I still to this day believe is the greatest Jimmy Buffett title of all time. The Weather Is Here, Wish youh Were Beautiful. And it is just like the lyrics are what he's best at, which is painting a picture of a person. You. You see these people. You almost see them like in the opening credits to a. A film. He worked all. He worked hard all year. He just wanted a few weeks alone. But his old lady's into modeling. She can't stay away from the phone. Besides, she bitches about the mosquitoes. She says, down here, there's nothing to do. Her goddamn phone never stops ringing. He'll try the service in a day, maybe or two. She, the guy, the narrator, is. Is calling a friend to say, I'm down here in paradise with my beautiful model girlfriend. But it isn't what it's Cracked up to be She' vapid and focused on whatever it is she's doing. I'm having no fun at all the weather's here I wish you were beautiful. It's a strange song. It's almost like. It's almost insulting to everybody the narrator is talking to in its own way.
- [132:12]
Scott Bertram
Meanwhile, back in the city, certain people are starting to cringe. His liars are calling his parents, his girlfriend of. He doesn't know what to think. His partners are studying their options. He's just singing in harder and drinks. The weather is here I wish you were beautiful the skies are too clear Life so easy today the beer is too cold the daiquiri's too fruitful no place like home when you're this far away I don't care what they say.
- [132:55]
Connor Friedersdorf
But it's brilliant precisely because of that. It's fearless. It almost. It feels like a lyric that, ironically enough, could have been written by a guy he did a co writing credit with on this album that I don't much care for, called the Good Fight. JD Souther. It sounds like a JD Souther lyric. And they work together on that song, which is not one of my favorites. I don't. I don't think it actually comes across. It doesn't really say much. Anything. Anything. But, yeah, that one is the one that really stands out to me. And then this one as an album is pretty fascinating because, like, you know, things start to get a little strange for Jimmy Buffett over the 80s. I guess his poses, they got different. They're a little bit odd for everyone during the 80s. What do we want to make about the one that comes up next somewhere not in Miami? You know, he's not in the Florida Keys. He's not even in Colorado. What do we do about When Jimmy Buffett somewhere over China.
- [133:43]
Jeff Blair
I gotta. I gotta reverse you for a second because I didn't talk about the song that I had teased on Coconut Telegraph, which I think, yeah, all right. I. I had left that out. So I think one of the reasons I really like the record is it closes so strong. I think Stars fell in Alabama. Jazz Standard is a wonderful recording. Island's a good song to trying to reach this isolated woman or friend who's not sort of receptive to you. But. But the way this ends with Little Miss Magic, that's the song. That's the one. This, I think, is one of the very greatest songs Buffet ever wrote for his daughter, his first daughter, Savannah. And it's very simple vocal, acoustic, and harmonica. But its simplicity is its Strength. Because it is so direct in its appeal.
- [134:33]
Guest Speaker
Appeal.
- [134:34]
Jeff Blair
He's singing about watching his little daughter constantly amazed by the blades of the fan of the ceiling. So you know how young she is at this point, right? That's a. That's a baby thing to do. But, man, I see a little more of me every day. I catch a little more mustache turning gray. Your mother is the only other woman for me. Little Miss Magic, what you gonna be? Looking at his daughter and wondering how's she gonna turn out? Someday she'll learn to make up her own rhyme. Someday she's gonna learn how to fly. Fly.
- [135:03]
Connor Friedersdorf
It's just. Sorry, do you have a son or a daughter? The reason I don't identify as is I have a son.
- [135:08]
Jeff Blair
I have both. I have a.
- [135:09]
Connor Friedersdorf
It is really, really a pretty song. But I was like, well, I mean, I just thought this about my boy. I would have made him a superhero and an astronaut. It's a little different, I suppose, but.
- [135:20]
Jeff Blair
Yeah, this one where you can see him sort of in the corner watching his daughter as he composes the song. I think, you know, musically, it's really on point. And lyrics. Lyrically, it's sharp. I think it's one of the very best things Buffett ever wrote in his career.
- [135:35]
Scott Bertram
Constantly amazed by the blades of the fan on the ceiling. Those clever little look she gives just can't help but be appealing. I know someday she'll learn to make up her own right. One day she's gonna learn how to fly that I won't deny. I see a little more of me every day. I feel a little more mustache turning gray. Your mother's still the only other woman for me. Little Miss Magic, what you gonna be? Little Miss Magic, what you gonna be, Little miss.
- [136:28]
Connor Friedersdorf
All right, all right. Now, unless Connor has anything else to add, do we want to either take an airplane or catch the slow boat to China?
- [136:36]
Jeff Blair
Oh, boy. Somewhere over China. I think it's the first real, real, real misstep. This is not a good Buffett record. And I'll tell you why very quickly, and I think directly, which is, there is no vibe to this record whatsoever anywhere.
- [136:55]
Connor Friedersdorf
There's some good songs on it, I'd argue, but you write Nova.
- [136:58]
Jeff Blair
Nova. And it's everything he works so hard to. To put together on. On the past records and again just a year earlier on Coconut Telegraph. I think it's one of the reasons I love it is because it's such a great amalgam of all these different styles and themes and things he had been. Been doing over the years and this. It just, it. It falls apart. There's no vibe to these, these songs. It's Midnight and I'm Not Famous yet. Plays like a Rick Springfield track from the, from the same era.
- [137:26]
Connor Friedersdorf
It's almost like the album cover predicted it, right? He's standing on Africa and it's Asia that like, he's like on a map. Okay, so I just like. But, but, but why is Jimmy Buffett nowhere near Florida or anywhere in the United States?
- [137:41]
Guest Speaker
I will buy a lot of places. It's a Jimmy Buffett place. Of course the South Texas. Of course the Islands. I'll buy Paris. I will buy Colorado. I will not buy China. This is not a Jimmy Buffet place. This is a misstep.
- [138:04]
Scott Bertram
Melting your heart of stone Honey, I love to get you on a slow but to China all by myself.
- [138:28]
Jeff Blair
By.
- [138:29]
Connor Friedersdorf
The way, people who, like, are wondering. There's not a lot of Chinese sounding music on this record. Not in the slightest. But it's just like it has no location, it has no sense of place. Not in the slightest. Although I will say this, there's one song on the record I really like. Might even make my top five at the end. It's called Lip Service. It's a little bit more. It's not what you would expect from Jimmy Buffett. Maybe one of the reasons it stood out, that it was like, you know, out of step off key. But it's a really nice pop song.
- [139:24]
Scott Bertram
You just turn blue but you never really tell me what you're gonna do Seem to keep it all locked up inside I can't help but start thinking you got something to hide why the pain? What's your game? You're driving this boy insane.
- [139:54]
Connor Friedersdorf
And it's just like everything else here. Doesn't quite work. It seems like this man was looking. Looking for a place to dock the boat. Maybe he was looking for one particular harbor. And. And I guess this brings us to the first, or rather the last album before he makes this sort of big, protracted country move. What do we think about one particular harbor? 1983.
- [140:16]
Jeff Blair
Yeah, this is where there's one song.
- [140:20]
Connor Friedersdorf
In here I do like. And although he didn't write it, this.
- [140:23]
Jeff Blair
Is where we discuss sort of cutting off, for the most part, the in depth discussion of his records. I think the end of an era. Though there are a few songs here that will make his set list for years, including the title track, which is why we wanted to go through this part. But, but, but this starts on such a wrong foot. Take that back. Stars in the Water. Is fine, but the songs after that. I used to have money one time, like, what is that? And then living it up with this heavy, heavy synth.
- [140:58]
Connor Friedersdorf
Yeah.
- [140:58]
Jeff Blair
You don't like.
- [140:59]
Connor Friedersdorf
You don't like techno?
- [140:59]
Guest Speaker
Jimmy.
- [141:00]
Scott Bertram
I love.
- [141:00]
Connor Friedersdorf
I love. I love disco. Jimmy.
- [141:02]
Jeff Blair
Goodness gracious. It's a very strange start.
- [141:06]
Scott Bertram
He took one last look Tossed out a transfer his odyssey has begun no time to see sight Ran all the red lights Burned all his bridges now it's love on the run.
- [141:43]
Jeff Blair
The back half of the record does pick up and sort of redeems it in a way. Again, the title track is a good song. It's one that's. That's remained played for years. I think his cover of Brown Eyed Girl is pretty good. A little bouncy island tinged version of the Van Morrison track. It's not as good as the original, but it's not bad at all. Distantly in Love. That's a good song. California Promises is okay. There's still enough of sort of that classic sound to make one particular harbor worth discussing. But it's not on the level of past triumphs, that's for sure.
- [142:14]
Scott Bertram
I can't be, I can't be the one to fill your times in all your places I can't be the one to fill your blanks and empty spaces. I heard it from a friend of ours I saw in Timber Bay you had a new lover who have stolen you away that could be the reason that I never got in touch me present slight problems if he loves you half as much as I who can't help but be ruled by my antiquities not unique justice be in love.
- [143:10]
Connor Friedersdorf
All right, Connor, do you want us to add something before I add my. My one minor defense of this otherwise silly record?
- [143:17]
Guest Speaker
The title track is a great song. It's a nostalgic favorite for most Jimmy Buffett fans. And Brown Eyed Girl is a good cover, a good crowd pleasing cover for Jimmy Buffett to pick that he would play in concerts for years. He was good at picking which songs to cover. So Southern Cross was another one that he always did in concert. But that's about all I have to say about this album.
- [143:38]
Scott Bertram
But now I think about the good times down in the Caribbean sunshine. In my younger days I was so bad laughing about all the fun. We had seen enough to feel the world spin Mixing different oceans eating cousins Listen to the drummers and the night sound Listen to the singers make the world around.
- [144:05]
Connor Friedersdorf
You know what I have. I am realizing now in my. My dotage that I might have an ear for early 80s pop slop. Because I sing why you want to hurt my Heart? The. The Neville Brothers song that opens side two of this record. I almost feel like, A, I had heard it before I known that song. And B, yeah, I kind of like that. I like that kind of silly slop. It's funny because Brown Eyed Girl offended me. I was like, no, no, why are we doing this? There's person who can sing this song, and it is not you. Jimmy Buffett has a voice that has some character with it, but he's not Van. He's not Van Morrison. Now, Jimmy Buffett's going to do some interesting covers in an album a little bit down the road that I'd like to talk about, but this was. This was not a highlight for me.
- [144:56]
Scott Bertram
I go, you my brown eye girl. Do you remember when we used to sing sh.
- [145:18]
Connor Friedersdorf
And I guess that brings us to what do we do with, like, the sort of the country turn? I think the most important surprising thing to me about Riddles in the sand, which is his. What has been sold sort of like, is him sort of leaning hard into the country scene as opposed to trying to make a thing out of his own sort of Gulf coast idea. This doesn't actually sound that much different to the previous album. Unless you had told me in advance that, oh, yes, this is where Buffett sort of, you know, abandons rock and pop and the mainstream charts and just sort of leans hard in the country. I wouldn't. And known it from what I had heard right before this.
- [145:58]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, I think Rag Talk Day is a. Is a fun little song that could have appeared on a lot of his previous albums. And, you know, who's the blonde Stranger kind of has that certain kind of country narrative arc to it. You anticipated what I would have said about La Vida. It's true. When Buffett. It is. It is. It's a good sign. When there's a French. When there's a French title that's why.
- [146:26]
Scott Bertram
I wonder and follow La Vie Dawson on the night when that takes me Just where I want that's all I want Lovey Dawson why don't you wander and follow Lovey Dawson on the night when that takes you Just where you want that's all you want.
- [147:05]
Connor Friedersdorf
Okay, so I guess Connor and I are on the same page here because La Vie Dal song is the final song on the record. It's really the only one that I feel the need to say much more about. Even though this. This apparently had a little bit of country success, this is, of course, the one he goes back To France. For some reason, this man's heart somehow is always still residing in Paris. It's just a beautiful little tune, last thing you'd expect from, you know, Mr. Bar's boats, beer and ballads, but a beautiful little thing.
- [147:32]
Jeff Blair
Scott, I don't have a lot to say about Riddles in the sand other than he ends up writing a bunch of songs here with Will Jennings. Will Jennings, the guy who wrote Tears in Heaven. Clapton and Mike also showed up in.
- [147:44]
Connor Friedersdorf
Our Steve Winwood episod.
- [147:45]
Jeff Blair
That's right. And Wynwood would play with Buffett in a couple of years. The next album, Last Mango in Paris, I don't love, but there are some tracks here that from this era. One of my favorites is if the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me, which again, sounds like a country song should be. Right. And that's a good track I like. If the phone doesn't ring, it's Me.
- [148:12]
Scott Bertram
Problems Open your eyes, you might see if our lives were that simple we'd live in the past if the phone doesn't ring, it's me if the phone doesn't ring, you'll know that it's me I'll be out in the eye of the star if the phone doesn't ring, you know that I'll be where someone.
- [148:45]
Jeff Blair
There are a couple other ones that ended up being semi popular. Jolly Mon song is one that was in the live set for a while. Gypsies in the palace is one that Glenn Frey co wrote that people kind of liked. This did decently, actually on the country charts. Didn't do anything on the pop charts whatsoever. But there's something else that happened around this time that we should at least. Least mention, which is gonna be the.
- [149:08]
Connor Friedersdorf
Thing I was gonna say. What is it?
- [149:10]
Jeff Blair
Well, the same year that Last Mango in Paris comes out is the year that the greatest hits album comes out.
- [149:15]
Connor Friedersdorf
Yes. So we know by heart.
- [149:17]
Jeff Blair
We've got a pause here and talk about songs you know by heart, which is 1985. And it's kind of. It's kind of a joke because in terms of pop chart success, you know, most people aren't going to know those songs.
- [149:29]
Connor Friedersdorf
But he literally subtitles it on the record. Jimmy Buffett's greatest hit.
- [149:32]
Jeff Blair
Right.
- [149:33]
Connor Friedersdorf
The essay with a little parenthesis that has S afterwards, like because it's only Margaritaville for most people. Right.
- [149:40]
Jeff Blair
But the thing is, this album did so well and sold so many copies. I think it's Gone diamond, which is 10 million copies sold, that almost everyone with any kind of musical knowledge knows now every song on this record, I'm just going to read them very quickly. So these are the songs on songs you know by heart. Cheeseburger in Paradise He Went to Paris Finns Son of a Son of a Sailor Pirate looks at 40 Margaritaville come Monday Changes in Latitude why don't we get drunk Pencil Thin Mustache, Grapefruit, Juicy Fruit Boat Drinks and Volcano. I mean they weren't hits at the time, guys, but at this point, again, if you like music, you know virtually every song on that list, many of them at this point. By Heart Now I, I don't know.
- [150:28]
Scott Bertram
I don't know I don't know where I'm gonna go when the volcano blow Let me say it now I don't know I don't know I don't know where I'm gonna go.
- [150:47]
Connor Friedersdorf
The best thing about the record is that he had the arrogance and or foresight to title it Songs Un Know By Heart. And my greatest hit before he Ever did it, before these became songs that we all knew by heart. You got to tip your cap to him. It's also, it just. I'll say this, it's a well assembled album. And this of course comes back to this, the sort of thing that, that Scott mentioned right at the front of the episode where he's like. He wanted to explore whether Jimmy Buffett is an album artist or whether you can get like the greatest hits or box sets. And I have like maybe three different ways I'll answer our top two albums, top five, five songs, you know, thing at the end of the episode because of that, because you could answer that question. It's like, hey, just buy the box set. That's actually a pretty good way to do it. Is that a cheat? Why don't you buy Greatest Hits volumes one and two? Is that a cheat? All right, well, here are the albums and here are five songs because, yeah, this is actually an unusually well assembled record where you don't find yourself thinking, oh man, they left out that one great hit that I was hoping to find here. Now the most important thing to mention, in fact, about songs you know by Heart is that although it was released in late 1985, there weren't any inclusions on that album that came after 1979.
- [152:02]
Jeff Blair
Right.
- [152:03]
Connor Friedersdorf
Which suggests maybe what he thought about how he had maybe lost the plot in the meantime.
- [152:09]
Guest Speaker
Well, I would, I would say also that although. Although it became a self fulfilling prophecy among the wider public, Jimmy Buffett had a great advantage in doing a great job of putting this album together, which is again that he was such a touring act, that he is going around the country, and all he had to do was pay attention to the songs that people were calling out and look out into the audience at the songs that the Parrotheads were singing along to. Or wander around the parking lot. Or probably send a staff member to wander around the parking lot.
- [152:42]
Connor Friedersdorf
Too famous to wander himself. Right.
- [152:44]
Guest Speaker
And listen to what the people are playing in the parking lot before the shows. And, you know, it wouldn't have been any surprise to put this song together. You didn't need to be a genius assembler of greatest hits albums. You just had to know what the people had told you, that they liked the song, that they got mad if you didn't play at the concert. And this is what that is.
- [153:07]
Connor Friedersdorf
All right, then. Well, what do we want to say about the late career of Jimmy Buffett? And, you know, there are actually a surprising number of interesting notes to hit here.
- [153:16]
Jeff Blair
Yep.
- [153:16]
Connor Friedersdorf
You'd be shocked at the box set, which is a phenomenon all its own. But I think, Scott, maybe you're probably the best person to set this up for us.
- [153:24]
Jeff Blair
Well, I gave these late 80s records a spin this week, so you didn't have to. Because we have some thoughts about an album in 94 which would return him to commercial success. But I'll say a few things. If you want to stop me, feel free. Floridaze in 1986 gets away from the country tinge of the past couple records. This is pop rock with island flavor. The one thing of note from Florida's is the first track is a co write with Carrie Fisher. Yes, that Carrie Fisher.
- [153:55]
Connor Friedersdorf
Yes, that Carrie Fisher.
- [153:56]
Jeff Blair
I love the now, which is fine. It's okay. Hot water. In 1988, this, to my ears, was another shot to return to radio, to return to the charts. It didn't really work. There's one track on here I would actually say is of interest, which is a song called My Book, Barracuda, co written by Steve Cropper. He plays on it, Duck Dunn plays on it, the Memphis Horns play on it, and Steve Winwood plays on it. So there's a nice pedal.
- [154:24]
Connor Friedersdorf
Too much talent to fail, right?
- [154:25]
Jeff Blair
It is. It's almost exactly what it is. There's too much talent for my Barracuda to fail around what was not a great Buffett album.
- [154:32]
Scott Bertram
She used to work in the circus, a real high wire act. He was a lion tamer up until the attack. He came without instructions. Then he came unglue. And now he's just a monster in a human suit. She called him Barracuda My barracuda. She's still can't figure out what she's doing down there. And she don't know if he loves her or not. He may be a barracuda, but he's the only lover she's got.
- [155:25]
Jeff Blair
And then in 89, there's one called off to See the Lizards To See the Lizard, which is not why.
- [155:31]
Connor Friedersdorf
It's, it's almost kind of like to me, a sort of like a Nader in terms of the puns. Buffett has always been famous for like these really great punny album song titles too, right? Hey, I mean, you know, the weather is here. Wish you were beautiful. Off to see the Lizard. Okay, now, now, now we're, we're hitting the bottom of the barrel.
- [155:48]
Jeff Blair
It's another, well, it's another example of him sort of taking on the, the, the current production trends. This is very loud, very synthy, very icy. It doesn't serve the music, music very well. And maybe he figured it out because he takes some time off here, five years off in fact, from recording, takes a break, writes a couple.
- [156:10]
Connor Friedersdorf
This is that box set in the meantime, which by the way, this is, this is the little note that I wanted to hit. It fascinates me. Okay, so when I was a kid growing up, this thing came out in 92, 93, it was called, was it boats, beaches, bars and ballads. I don't know the correct order there. It's actually a very well assembled box set. And, and the joke I was just, I was just making is like, or if you really want to get into Buffett, that's probably not a bad place to start. But what I learned this factoid, which made no sense to me until I thought about it, is that this is one of the best selling box sets in history. And you're like Jimmy Buffett. Not like, you know, the Beatles or like the Stones or like whatever, Jimmy Buffett's box set. Well, here's the thing. I remember when I was a young kid, this was the number one featured thing you would see walking into Borders Books. Now Borders Books, also known longer exists, but everybody remembers, if they were of a certain age, they remember walking into the box set rack. It was usually behind glass, behind the counter or whatever. And those were the special fruits, the ones that were too expensive for you in your 13, 14 year old youth to ever be able to hope to afford. And that was like, okay, boy, one day maybe I'll get that Roxy Music thing. And always, always every story had that Jimmy Buffett box set. And I Remember as a kid thinking, well, why? Who could ever care about this artist? Why would anybody want to buy that? What I only found out later is it's one of the best selling boxes of all time. Which should tell you something about the appeal that this man mined during the late 80s and the early 90s, long before he even became a chart success with his albums, which is what we're about to discuss next. He had built up this. This base of people that would really support him because they were into what it was he was talking about.
- [158:04]
Guest Speaker
He built up this base and he released songs, you know, by heart. And for the people who came to him through songs, you know, by heart, if they were sold on Jimmy Buffett and wanted more, the box set was just the obvious place to go.
- [158:19]
Connor Friedersdorf
Because I've seen so many bad box sets that though this one's legitimately good.
- [158:24]
Guest Speaker
Oh, yeah, no, I agree.
- [158:25]
Connor Friedersdorf
It doesn't cheat you in any way. It gives you exactly what you want.
- [158:29]
Guest Speaker
It's, it's, you know, to spend $17 on some of those albums, especially the ones in the 80s, you would, you, you would, you wouldn't have felt good when, when you got home with that. And I think when you. Starting with Last Mango in Paris and that stretch that Scott just talked about. Yeah, I think there are some songs where on the live album Feeding Frenzy, released In the early 90s, he does a better version than some of studio versions. But basically, if it's in that era, if it's a song that you need to hear, it's either on the box set or it's in one of the live albums, and you don't really need those albums. But, but I agree. I came to Jimmy Buffett after the concerts through the box set first as well. And it is just a very well put together. I, I think with very few exceptions, if you go through all the albums, there's not a lot there that's left out where you think, oh, this was an oversight.
- [159:29]
Scott Bertram
See me on the streets. So when you put my imitation name in life.
- [159:44]
Guest Speaker
To the top.
- [159:45]
Scott Bertram
Imitation.
- [159:57]
Connor Friedersdorf
Okay, so here we are in early 1994. Peak grunge. All right. Nirvana has just ended. Pearl Jam is still on the charts. Everybody's wearing their flannels. Everybody is feeling really dreary. So now we finally come to Jerry, Jimmy Buffett's first commercial breakthrough. That's right. What do you want to say about Fruitcakes?
- [160:19]
Guest Speaker
I want to point out, by the.
- [160:20]
Connor Friedersdorf
Way, 1994 albums still sold. This is not like going to number one, 20, 25 yes, this is going to. This is breaking through in 1994, which is peak CD, peak album. Yes, this is what happens when you build it up over time.
- [160:36]
Scott Bertram
Paradise lost and found Paradise, Paradise. Take a look around. I was out in California where I hear they have it all they got Ryan's fires and mudslides they got sushi in the mall water bars, brontosaurs, Chinese modern lust Shaking big life with the quick the secrets in the crust Fruitcakes in the kitchen fruitcakes on the street Struck naked through the crosswalk in the middle of the week Happy cookies in the oven half baked along the buzz There's a little bit of fruitcake left in every one of us. Big speaking of fruitcake.
- [161:32]
Guest Speaker
So Jimmy Buffett, before this album took a few years off and this is when he wrote a couple of novels and he was still touring and still, you know, the box set came out and the live album came out in these off years. But he was kind of refilling the well in a way. And I think that he benefited tremendously from this break of putting out an album every year because Fruitcake is so much stronger than anything that came out in the in the albums immediately preceding it. I think Everybody's Got a Cousin in Miami is a fun song both musically and lyrically and tells you a little bit more about his connection to Florida and the kind of history of migration there. I think that one of my favorites on this album is Quietly Making Noise. It's one of my favorite Buffett songs of all time. And it's again returning to his making Paris a city that is one of his kind of return cities that he writes about.
- [162:25]
Scott Bertram
Quietly Making Noise Making Noise starts with kindergarten toys not too soft, not too loud Just enough to draw a crowd Quietly, quietly, quietly making noise Followed the beat Here I found myself in this patois spot Outside a blizzard was blowing but inside the joint was hot soup songs Rubber thongs sing along the words flew right by my face.
- [163:15]
Guest Speaker
Apocalypsa was weirdly, I thought, the single that they released. It's not the one that I would have picked release, but it's the one that he performed on David Letterman's show. I remember staying up to watch it the year that this album came out. Delaney Talks to Statues Another sweet song written about his other daughter. And I think Delaney Talks to Statues and Little Miss Magic are both, you know, sweet songs. And I think Uncle John's Band is a great cover of a Dead song and another well chosen cover in my estimation. But I am curious to hear what you guys think of this album.
- [163:51]
Connor Friedersdorf
That's funny you mentioned that, Connor, because of course I'm the big deadhead on the show and I don't. It's the first time I heard it was this, you know, this run up and I don't love it. I don't think it's bad though. I was prepared to hate it. I was prepared to say, okay, late career, Jimmy Buffett. It's the 90s production aesthetic. What are they going to do to slaughter this song? They'd actually do a fine job with it. I just think it's kind of interesting to hear him sing it without the harmonies because to me Uncle John's Band has always been like a big three part harmony song. It's all about like what Phil Lesh does on the top register. He sings it just with the melody vocal and what it demonstrates first of all is how well written a song Uncle John's Band actually is. But it also, I. I miss like the Phil Lesh lines. It's funny. Actually. There's another cover on this album, another famous rock cover on this album that I'm shocked the works as well as it does. And that's Sunny Afternoon. Sunny Afternoon by the Kinks.
- [164:47]
Jeff Blair
I don't like that at all.
- [164:49]
Guest Speaker
You don't?
- [164:49]
Connor Friedersdorf
You don't like that? You don't like that weird rearrangement?
- [164:52]
Jeff Blair
No.
- [164:52]
Connor Friedersdorf
I was intrigued by the fact they were willing to give it a shot, like completely redoing it. I mean, I'm shocked that you hate it. So. So now I feel like I'm put onto the fence. I liked the reimagining of it because. Because remember what the original was about? It was about an aristocrat in England. Well, where's that guy going to be finding his yacht harbored at in America? Well, if it isn't the New York harbor, it's probably going to be somewhere in South Florida. And so it seemed like an appropriate transition for that. But yeah, you didn't like it. And now I'm going to. Just to admit I must not know anything.
- [165:28]
Scott Bertram
My girlfriend's run off with my car Gone back to her ma and PA telling tales of par heads and parties. And now I'm just sitting here sipping on this ice cold beer Blazing on a sunny afternoon in the summertime. Help me, help me, help me.
- [166:03]
Jeff Blair
The title track here is fun Fruitcakes Buffett as Howard Beal is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. He doesn't like big vats of popcorn and giant movie drinks and wears his junior Mints and talks about how California's got big problems and there's government waste and religion and relationships. He says there's a little bit of fruitcake left in every one one of us. That's one that has always stuck with me. That title track from Fruitcakes, It's a good song. I'm not as over the top about that. I don't say over. I'm not as enthusiastic about this as as Connor is. But there is one song called Six String Music that I think is really outstanding. That's one that could have fit 20 years ago on a record that he put out in the midst of 70s. So six string music is one that I definitely take from Fruitcakes. Yeah, Everybody's Got a Cousin in Miami is very fun. This is CD era as Jeff mentioned. So being the worst thing, Buffy used.
- [167:05]
Connor Friedersdorf
To be actually famous for short albums.
- [167:06]
Jeff Blair
32 minutes. Great. This one gets long.
- [167:09]
Connor Friedersdorf
I mean, it's such a virtue. And now we're in the 60 something minutes.
- [167:12]
Jeff Blair
Yeah. But the album went to number five on the charts, which again at this point is really it's accomplishment. And the next two records, Barometer Soup and Banana Wind also are top 10 sellers by this point. The touring of the boomers, right? Well, yeah, the touring is ramping up. Parrot Head thing is ramping up. The Jimmy Buffett Inc. Becoming a business in and of himself is ramping up. But Connor wants to make an argument that this is actually outstanding music too. Or at least very good music too on Barometer Super Banana Wind.
- [167:46]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, I don't think that this is a low point. I think that what comes after it is bad and what came before this trio of albums isn't Jimmy Buffett's greatest. But to me, Banana Wind and Barometer Soup are actually fun. Musically they are Jimmy Buffet musically leaning a little bit more into the Caribbean rock and steel drums. And I like the sound of them.
- [168:12]
Scott Bertram
Come and follow in our way Break you not that much at stake for we have plowed the seas and smooth the troubled waters Come along, let's have some fun Seems our work is done we'll barrel roll into the sun Just.
- [168:37]
Guest Speaker
For.
- [168:41]
Scott Bertram
Sail the main course in a simple sturdy craft keeper well stocked with short stories and long laughs Fast enough to get there but slow enough to.
- [169:01]
Guest Speaker
Almost as much as I like the lyrics in some of the earlier albums, these are the kind of albums that I can happily put on. And maybe I'm, you know, out in.
- [169:10]
Connor Friedersdorf
The back conjuring a mood, right?
- [169:11]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Out in the backyard watering the plants. Or maybe I just have it on the background where I have some friends over to the pool or something like that. It's. Yeah, I don't know. There's something about the way that the band comes together and the Caribbean rock of it all that isn't yet a parody of itself, which I think does happen later on. But to me it's a kind of sweet spot musically in a way that I just find pleasant and interesting. And I think if I were to pick one track that kind of sums this up, Barometer Soup on the first one musically, and actually Banana win the instrumental on the second one, they're just kind of interesting, you know, if. If you set down your bags and your vacation spot on an island and threw on one of those albums as you unpack, it's going to be a nice vibe.
- [170:48]
Connor Friedersdorf
Well, you know, the funny thing is we haven't mentioned that the one real musical texture that Jimmy Buffett really introduced into his music that you don't find anywhere else in rock or pop is the steel drum. Boy, I've never heard more well deployed and more detailed use of steel drums or steel pans, I guess is what they called then I have heard in Jimmy Buffett's music. Unless we're doing like legit world beat, like, you know, there's Jimmy Buffett all also doing that.
- [171:20]
Jeff Blair
That's really this era though, right? I don't remember it being so much so in that first decade.
- [171:24]
Connor Friedersdorf
No, it's not the 70s. It's right here in the 70s. Yeah, it's here, right? Anyways, unless anybody has anything incredibly interesting to say about the. The first of Jimmy Buffett's Christmas albums, I'm not sure how we want to wrap this episode up. What do we do with the last 20 something years?
- [171:41]
Jeff Blair
You know, Connor can certainly chime in, although I know he's said that this is not his favorite era. I'm not sure there's. I hate to just call this fan service because it demeans it slightly. But at the same time, again, by this point, by 2000, these tours are massive moneymakers. There are restaurants opening up, there's Jimmy Buffett margarita mix. All this is happening. And part of that is continuing to release albums on a steady basis to continue sales and perhaps add a certain song or two into the repertoire. For the set list, we should say a little something about what happened toward the early aughts, just after the turn of the century, because at this point you have modern country, new country, the kind of guys that Jimmy Buffett was railing against. In the mid-70s, as we talked about previously. But those new country artists were getting big, and what were they using as that sort of talk touchstone? They were kind of turning and looking at Jimmy Buffett. I mean, a guy like Kenny Chesney is very much in that Jimmy Buffett role, that country, that golf and western mix. In 2003, Alan Jackson and Buffett duet on a song called It's Five o' Clock Somewhere, which you might have heard. Fairly massive song. And after that, Buffett decides to go country once again and releases a record in 2004, four, called License to Chill, which goes straight to number one. Who's here? Alan Jackson's here. Kenny Chesney's here. Toby Keith is here, Clint Black, George Strait, Martina McBride, and more and more and more. It is immaculately produced to hit country radio in its sweet, sweet spot. 11 of the 16 songs are covers. The next album after this also features almost exclusively covers.
- [173:40]
Connor Friedersdorf
16 songs, by the way. 1657 minutes.
- [173:44]
Jeff Blair
But what I'll say is I. I listen. It sounds good and full and energetic, and he's having fun. There's one track here I like. He, you know, Buffett's good. I mentioned this earlier with Keith Sykes and others, people who he's. People whose songs he's playing and covering. He's not afraid to sort of take other people's work and really weave it into his own tapestry, so to speak. Guy named Will Kimbrough has been around for a long time in those circles, and Kimbrough has a song he wrote on here called Piece of Work that is a Toby Keith and Buffett duet, and that's a really good song. Kimbrough would work even more close closely with Buffett on some future records as well. So he is sort of identifying some of the talent that could help him make the most of what he does. But I think in terms of License to Chill, it's this evidence that the country radio and the country music of that era, the mid-2000s, was exactly in Buffett's sweet spot. And those artists that were finding hits, and the ones in future years, too, like Zach Brown Band and others, were again, sort of using the Buffett playbook. And he was, as an entrepreneur, unafraid to take advantage of that sort of market capitalization.
- [175:02]
Scott Bertram
I'm a piece of work I'm an analyst I'm shy Right up there in your face I'm all dumbfounded Stubborn as an ass Sharp as an arrow in a pile of glass I'm a sweetheart genius Restless jerk Lord have mercy on me he's of a word well, the Lord met me on a long thin limb Made sure I'd remember him or her in the middle of a long dark night Creation crazy death she quite fe in the image of a lion shot clam I am who the hell I am Ever better, bad and worse down to the letter I'm a piece of work. Have a piece of work coming in.
- [175:55]
Jeff Blair
Yeah.
- [175:55]
Guest Speaker
For me, these late albums don't interest me a lot as a Buffett fan. It wasn't fan service for me. I did think that Don't Stop the Carnival was an interesting choice and adaptation. If Jimmy Buffett was going to do a Broadway thing, I don't know if that had to happen, but it did. And I don't hate some of the songs on that music that I think are kind of fan service in a fun way. But I will say for me, the last chapter of Jimmy Buffett is always going to be the last Jimmy Buffett show that I went to. Although it wasn't really a Jimmy Buffett show. It was a Jimmy Buffett tribute show. And so, you know, Jimmy Buffett dies somewhat unexpectedly, I think, to a lot of us, 2023, planning to see him on tour, you know, the next time he came around, which he was planning to do. And I get a call from one of those friends that I had gone to so many Buffett concerts with back in our high school and college days who said, oh, yeah, they're doing a Buffett tribute at the Hollywood Bowl. Do you want to go? I got a ticket. Yeah, of course. So I go to this fancy liquor store near my house and I load up on the tiny bottles of the best tequila that I could buy because that seemed like the best way to send Jimmy Bunny Buffet off.
- [177:12]
Connor Friedersdorf
And do they allow you to bring them in through security or do you have to tailgate? You have to just do it out?
- [177:18]
Guest Speaker
Well, I thought that I certainly tailgated and then I wanted to bring them in. I thought they might got taken. But because Jimmy Buffett is so commercialized at this point, there's a special entrance at the Hollywood bowl if you have an Amex and they don't search you there. And so I slipped in with my tequila. I'm sitting. I'm anticipating a show that is just going to be the Coral Reefer Band and maybe Mack McInally is going to sing or I don't know who it's going to be, but they're just going to do, you know, the songs you know by heart. And that's What I'm expecting, what I did not expect was what then happened, which was, among other things, Paul McCartney coming out and singing Let It Be, which he explained that he sang on Jimmy Buffett's deathbed after being invited there by Jimmy Buffett. I did not expect the kind of, you know, Jackson, Jackson Brown came. I'm trying to remember what song Jackson Brown sang. Sheryl Crow. There were a lot of stars there who were singing Jimmy Buffett songs. There were also a lot of celebrities, non musical celebrities. Harrison Ford, Judd Apatow, Woody Harrelson. There were a lot of strange things that happened at this concert. I think it's the only time that Jackson Brown and Snoop Doggy Dog and Sheryl Crow have all played at the same time in the same place. And you know, Snoop played Gin and Deuce. I can forgive him for not playing a Jimmy Buffett song. The Eagles did three songs all their own, not Jimmy Buffett songs. And this I hold against the Eagles.
- [178:47]
Connor Friedersdorf
Typical Eagles vanity, right?
- [178:49]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, but it was a fun night. And I distinctly remember before the tequila totally wiped out my memories, Paul McCartney standing on stage holding a margarita glass up and looking up to the sky and mouthing, here's to you, Jimmy Buffett, or something like that. Which is a moment that I did not expect. And I felt like the sendoff was a kind of, you know, musical giants paying respects to Jimmy Buffett. You know, Bob Dylan said something nice about him at some point, but he wasn't an artist that got a lot of respect. He was so likable that I think everyone couldn't help but like him and couldn't help be, be drawn in by the Jimmy Buffett of it all. And, you know, it's. I, I kind of think another artist that doesn't get respect who has a lot of fans is Billy Joel. I don't think Billy Joel is going to get a send off like this from other musical legends. I don't know, we'll see. But I, I thought it was a, a kind of great fan favorite Service Night and a great kind of last chapter to the weird Jimmy Buffett story.
- [179:55]
Jeff Blair
And I was invited up there to sing a couple of songs for Jimmy.
- [180:00]
Connor Friedersdorf
And he was in a pretty bad way, but he still had that twinkle in his eye. So I thought, I'll sing one of.
- [180:08]
Jeff Blair
Those songs that I sang to him tonight.
- [180:38]
Connor Friedersdorf
What Connor says there, I just want to end on this note, is when what fascinates me the most about Buffett, how he seems to have drawn together people from so many different places, walks of life. You think of the, you know, sort of, you know, middle class Republican yuppie guys who all wanted to buy a boat. Big Jimmy Buffett fans, Harrison Ford, actor, the Eagles, everyone, Cheryl Crow. You can come from any place in any time, for any reason. All you really ever needed to like Jimmy Buffett was a dream of something nice, a dream of something better, a dream of like, okay, here's a life where I have to do somewhat different things that are different from my rat race, and yet I still say I, I face the same consequences. I'm the same emotional person I am, but I'm away from what all of that was. Buffett sold that, but he only sold that because he lived it. And this is the part that I think we never even bothered to point out is that the reason Jimmy Buffett was so convincing that giving you this world, because that was his childhood, that was his adulthood. That's the life he led. And he wrote from what he knew. And it's just the case that what he knew was so appealing and so beguiling to so many people that he developed this kind of fan following throughout his career.
- [181:58]
Jeff Blair
That's a perfect place to end the political beats. Look at the music and career of Jimmy Buffett. We think our guest Connor Friedersdorf for joining us and in fact give him the opportunity to lead us off as we give you the two albums you should own the five songs you need to hear from Jimmy Buffett. Connor, floor is yours.
- [182:18]
Connor Friedersdorf
Complicated. Go for it.
- [182:20]
Guest Speaker
It is complicated. So the two albums, I think certainly you had to be there is one of my choices. Because as I've mentioned time and again, there's just something about a Jimmy Buffett concert, about touring that is central to his appeal and to his success all of those years when he hadn't yet had a hit, when he, you know, was barely getting another record deal. Part of what was pushing the machine along is just that he could charm a crowd and did so in so many places and gave people so many great nights and had such a winning on stage Persona. And I think you had to be their capture features that probably among the live albums, Feeding Frenzy is the next one. But so you had to be there. And then I would say the box set, if it's not cheating to say the box set.
- [183:14]
Connor Friedersdorf
Oh, no, absolutely not. In fact, boy, I'm gonna have my own thing when we get to it. Okay, go for it.
- [183:18]
Guest Speaker
And so, yeah, the box set will give you the best of the studio albums and it gives you the best of the studio albums. Actually the boats, beaches, bars and ballads organization of the box set itself is more coherent thematically than most if not all of the albums.
- [183:36]
Connor Friedersdorf
And so yeah, it really works.
- [183:39]
Guest Speaker
So I think it's. It's maybe the best put together box set that has ever been put together.
- [183:44]
Jeff Blair
And then your five songs.
- [183:46]
Guest Speaker
My five songs. So because I've given you the live album and the box sets from my picks, I'm going to do something. Some deep cut songs that. That aren't the songs you know by heart. I think the Wino and I Know is one of my favorite deep cut ballads that he did. Take It Back is a song that does appear in the box set, but it's this song that he wrote when the US Sailing team wanted to win back the Americas cup.
- [184:11]
Jeff Blair
The Australia Dennis Connor and company. Yes.
- [184:15]
Guest Speaker
And it's a fun little song that he wrote as like the inspirational theme song for this effort to Take it back and shows a little bit of his versatility. Versatility of kind of, you know, doing this special project, but really making this song his own. It's a. It's a fun, infectious song, very buffet core and quietly making noise, which I already talked about on the Fruitcakes album Pascagoula Run, which is in this stretch of albums that aren't my favorite, but I do think is kind of the last of the, like Jimmy Buffett the character. It's this song about how his uncle Billy comes in a red convertible and pulls up to the house and shouts, hey, want to come along and see the world? And drives him to Pascagoula where he goes to a bar where there's Cajun queens and men with knives and scars. And it's Jimmy Buffett's first little taste of getting out of his hometown. And then Barometer Soup, I already mentioned on the Brahmin Soup album, which gives you this kind of period before he became what I think of as kind of a caricature or just fan service. And I think it's kind of an example of the fullness of the kind of Caribbean rock sound and, and leaning into the. The steel drum and. And so those are my kind of deep cut picks. If, if you have the box set and you have the live album, those are kind of. If you want to go even deeper than that, those are my picks to do it.
- [185:41]
Jeff Blair
All right. My two albums, I'm going to A1A from 1974, which I think is the best of those early, earlier records. And then I don't know, maybe surprisingly, maybe not, I'm going to Say Coconut Telegraph, which at the end of that great run, is, as I said, a kind of a great amalgam of all these things Buffett had been doing for quite a while. Those the two albums, the songs will be a mix of a few deeper cuts and just a couple ones I think, that everyone's gotta hear. Look. Pirate looks at 40. Yes, you need to hear a pirate looks at 40. Son of a. Son of a Sailor. Yes, it's on the list. And then the three lesser known tracks. Ah. I think Nautical Wheelers is just a beautiful, beautiful song. I already talked about how much I love Little Miss Magic, so that's on the list. And the last one is one that's not a buff Buffett track or not. One that he wrote, I should say, but one that I think does a good job of encapsulating both his attitude and also is more of an uptempo track that's making music for money. That first track off a 1A does a great job with that song. Those are my five. Jeff, over to you.
- [186:54]
Connor Friedersdorf
All right, so for my top two albums, and of course this is because we've already discussed it's a really difficult proposition. There are three ways you could address it. I really do agree with what Connor said is like, forget the whole framework that we use. Top two albums. If you really want to understand Buffett, go get the box set. The box set is not only good, it includes really almost everything of his you'll need. And as Connor pointed out, the theming of it is effective. Instead of a chronological troll, it's themed, you know, bars, both speeches, ballads, and there's some rarities thrown in there. And the really amazing thing is it's not self self indulgent because they don't fill it all. Up to 80 minutes on each disc. And you don't ever actually find him outstaying his welcome. But since we're doing real albums, I'll say that white sport coat and a pink carnation.
- [187:44]
Jeff Blair
The real first Buffett album, Crustacean.
- [187:46]
Connor Friedersdorf
Crustacean or Carnation. Okay, because I'm going back to, you know, Don McLean singing American Pie, which of course, he was playing off of. Right. And so, yeah, I still hear Crustacean versus Carnation in my head. But, yeah, this is the beginning of singer songwriter Jimmy Buffett, and it has so many of his famous ballads on it. The other one I'd say is Son of a Son of a Sailor, just because it is probably the best produced Buffet album and it has just a collection of great songs. Now if we're going to go break down into the top five, this is becoming impossible. I guess I'd start with a pirate. Chronologically at least I'd start with a pirate. Looks at 40 off of Havana. Daydreaming. I love that song. Then I'd go to Changes in Latitudes and I'd say it's Tampico Trauma. Actually, it's not the title trauma track. It's not, you know, the famous song. It's the. The weird one about a strange drug ballad, a strange smash up with the police. Then under Volcano, it's the weird children's song. It's Chanson de les Petitions. And I'm no good at French, so you'll forgive me there. Then from Coconut Telegraph, I'd say it's the weather was here, wish you were beautiful. And then finally, actually from Fruitcakes, I'll actually agree with Connor. He stole my thunder here. I say quietly Making Noises is a really, really great song that you otherwise might not have known that Jimmy Buffett did. And since again, host Prerogative and I'm sitting here in Margaritaville, I have to end with a sixth pick and say, yeah, if you for some reason have listened to this show and aren't familiar with Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett, it'll probably explain what he's about better than anything else he's written does. And understand that it isn't just a novelty song. There's an ethos underlying it. And it's a pretty good one, too.
- [189:33]
Scott Bertram
Again in Margaritaville, searching for my Lord Shaker Salt. Some people claim that there's a wrong world to blame But I know it's my own damn fault Yes S Some people claim that there's a woman to blame and I know it's known fault.
- [190:21]
Jeff Blair
All right, there is the political beats. Look at the music and career career of Jimmy Buffett. We thank our guest for today's program. Staff writer over at the Atlantic, writing about politics and culture, Founding editor of the Best of journalism over at Substack. Find him on x onor64, Connor Friedersdorf. Thanks so much for joining us to talk Jimmy Buffett.
- [190:45]
Guest Speaker
Thank you.
- [190:46]
Jeff Blair
Appreciate you being here, Jeff. We've got our great American summer that'll kind of continue into a great American summer fall, I guess, because we've got.
- [190:57]
Connor Friedersdorf
I'm really looking forward to diving into.
- [190:59]
Jeff Blair
The heart of Saturday night that's coming soon. You can find Jeff on x@ esoteric CD. I'm there at Scott Bertram. Again. Find us at patreon to patreon.com Political beats support us. Help the show stay ad free. Different tiers. All the information's there. Also, find us over@national review.com subscribe for new episodes. We're on Facebook. Join the conversation on X politicalbeats. This is a presentation of National Review. This is Political Beats.