Buffett, Jimmy

JIMMY BUFFETT

Born: Pascagoula, Mississippi, 25 December 1946

Genre: Country, Folk, Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads (1992)

Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett specializes in relaxed, country-influenced musical tales with a humorous twist. He has set himself apart from hoards of similar artists by parlaying his image—as a pleasure-seeking tropical-beach slacker—into tremendous commercial success. No artist has profited as much from one song as Buffett has from his 1977 hit, "Margaritaville," which spawned an entire entrepreneurial empire and made him one of music's wealthiest performers. Buffett also enjoys a successful second career as a writer.

Buffett grew up along the Gulf of Mexico near Mobile, Alabama, and his roots in the sea extend many generations back. His father was a naval architect and his grandfather a sailor. He chronicled his maritime heritage and attitude in the title song of his release Son of Son of a Sailor (1978). Buffett traveled to the eastern edge of Alabama to study journalism at Auburn University, where he began writing his own songs and performing in coffeehouses and clubs. As many country and folk singer/songwriters at that time did, Buffett traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to begin a music career. However, instead of toiling in menial occupations while waiting for a break, as is the common practice, Buffett used his journalism experience to land a job with Billboard magazine. He rose to assistant editor at the publication while continuing to push his own songwriting and performing career. It turned out to be the only nine-to-five job Buffett ever worked.

Although he had two previous releases, Buffett's first major album success arrived after he began living on his own boat, soaking up and writing songs about the sights, sounds, characters, and lifestyle of Key West, Florida. His third album, A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (1973), was a charm and started a sequence of successful albums that brought Buffett into prominence. "Come Monday" from Living and Dying in 3/4 Time (1974) received extensive airplay, and other songs such as "Cheeseburger in Paradise," "Why Don't We Get Drunk," and "My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink and I Don't Love Jesus" became infamous, especially in rowdy college circles. However, "Margaritaville," his first and only major hit, defined Buffett. The song is about a happy-go-lucky beachcomber who sorts through the harebrained details of an alcohol-blurred summer to reach the gradual realization that his relationship problems are his own fault. While the three-chord song's subject matter is the stuff of country music tragedy, "Margaritaville" comes across as an appealing calamity, and it jump-started the phenomenon of Buffett's fans wearing tropical gear and perching stuffed parrots on their shoulders at his concerts. Consequently, Buffett's fans earned the label Parrotheads. The album containing "Margaritaville," Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (1977), went platinum, and Buffett became a major star. Soon after, he used the Margaritaville branding for a series of stores that sell song-related items, a chain of Margaritaville Cafes, an on-line radio station called Margaritaville Radio, and even a fictional paradise in his first book, Tales from Margaritaville (1989). Within Buffett's laid-back beach dude persona rests a cunning businessman.

Like many contemporary songwriters possessing humor and substance, Buffett suffered a career slump in the 1980s. He abated this by arranging a concert sponsorship with Corona Beer, which hiked popularity for both entities. Buffett's live release, Feeding Frenzy (1990), went platinum, and he maintained his strong album sales without scoring major hits. Almost all of his work has a tropical theme, and the comical and catchy wordplay of his song and album titles sets the mood even before one hears the music. In the 1980s he released albums titled Last Mango in Paris (1985) and Off to See the Lizard (1989). The platinum-selling Banana Wind (1996) contained "Jamaica Mistaica," "Mental Floss," and "Happily Ever After (Now and Then)." Beach House on the Moon (1999) featured a song about pregnancy in "Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling" and the title, "Altered Boy," from Far Side of the World (2002), may have reflected Buffett's Catholic school upbringing.

In concert Buffett usually accompanies himself on guitar and his folksy, midrange voice is more that of a storyteller or song interpreter than that of a classic country singer. He is a master showman, and few performers handle a live audience more deftly than Buffett. In 2003 he released a thirty-eight-song compilation album, Meet Me in Margaritaville (2003), which chronicled thirty years and thirty-three albums of work. The album's accompanying information sheds light on Buffett's life, which incorporates a concert and recording schedule, business responsibilities, the championing of environmental causes, world travel via his yacht or seaplanes (which he pilots), a passion for family responsibilities, and a career as a best-selling author.

Spot Light: Buffett as Author

Despite his many-faceted life, Jimmy Buffett somehow finds time to write books. His first, Tales from Margaritaville: Fictional Facts and Factual Fictions (1989), a collection of fictional and autobiographical short stories, remained on the New York Times best-seller list for seven months. He scored another New York Times best-seller with his first novel, Where Is Joe Merchant? (1992). Buffett's highly acclaimed memoir, A Pirate Looks at Fifty (1998), also earned best-seller status and in its second week hit the number one spot in the nonfiction genre. Buffett became one of only six writers in history to have reached number one on both the fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists of The New York Times. Additionally, he collaborated with his daughter, Savannah Jane, to pen two children's books, The Jolly Mon (1998) and Trouble Dolls (1991).

Few musical artists manage to combine Buffett's balance of leisure and commercial success. Yet, while many herald his entrepreneurial accomplishments, it is the sincerity and wisdom found in his massive volume of songs that earn him a rank of distinction among American songwriters of the past quarter century.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Down to Earth (Barnaby, 1970); A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (Dunhill, 1973); Living and Dying in 3/4 Time (Dunhill, 1974); Havana Daydreamin' (ABC, 1976); Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (ABC, 1977); You Had to Be There: Jimmy Buffett In Concert (MCA, 1978); Son of a Son of a Sailor (ABC, 1978); Volcano (MCA, 1979); Coconut Telegraph (MCA, 1981); Riddles in the Sand (MCA, 1984); Last Mango in Paris (MCA, 1985); Floridays (MCA, 1986); Hot Water (MCA, 1988); Off to See the Lizard (MCA, 1989); Fruitcakes (Margaritaville/MCA, 1994); Barometer Soup (Margaritaville/MCA, 1995); Banana Wind (Margaritaville/MCA, 1996); Christmas Island (Margaritaville/MCA, 1997); Don't Stop the Carnival (Margaritaville/Island, 1998); Beach House on the Moon (Margaritaville/Island, 1999); Far Side of the World (Mailboat, 2002); Meet Me in Margaritaville (Mailboat/MCA, 2003).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

J. Buffett, Tales from Margaritaville: Fictional Facts and Factual Fictions (San Diego, 1989): J. Buffett, Where Is Joe Merchant? (San Diego, 1992); J. Buffett, Daybreak on the Equator (New York, 1997); J. Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty (New York, 1998); S. Eng, Jimmy Buffett: The Man from Margaritaville Revealed, (New York, 1997); M. Uscher, Jimmy Buffett (Kansas City, 2001).

donald lowe