I first saw Jimmy Buffet in 1973. His Corral Reefer Band was one guitar player. It was right before his 3rd album was released, A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. A year later he’d release “Living and Dying in 3/4 Time” – the album containing his biggest hit (to that date), “Come Monday.” He sang that song the first time I heard him. Between 1973 and 1976 I saw him at least 8 time live – one of the hazards of living in a gulf coast state at the time.
We called it “progressive country.” It was Jerry Jeff Walker, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jimmy Buffett, Steve Goodman, Pure Prairie Leauge and others. I was steeped into that genre probably as much as I’d been into any genre – ever. Admittedly, by the time “Cheeseburger In Paradise” arrived, my Buffett ship had sailed to different oceans. I was never a big fan of Jimmy’s work once he left the gulf shores and headed to the mountains. He returned to Florida, but somehow I never really found my way back to him.
It’s been well over 30 years since I first heard him. I still listen to his early stuff – and I’m still enamored with the man’s ability to craft lyrics that put me in a different time, at another place. Unlike most Buffett fans (now called Parrotheads), drinking alcohol and living a party life were never part of my lifestyle. Still I was an enormous fan – still am, at least of the old stuff. So, I’m posting this. Just because.
Comments on this entry are closed.