Jimmy Buffett dies, aged 76

[long green]

Wow, this took me by surprise. RIP. Dying on Labor Day Weekend, too. He had all the corners nailed down, didn’t he?

[PeteRasche]

Whoa. He'd been still touring... I had no idea.

Along with my home town being one of his biggest fan bases, I have so many Jimmy Buffet-related things from my time in New Orleans, I can't even begin to list them here. Oof, this hurts.

Few artists succeeded like him in cashing in on "escapism". But he was also a brilliant storyteller, even if you think his style was cheesy. He could paint a picture with the best of them.

RIP to a man who gave millions of people a mental break from the stress of life, even if only for a few hours here and there.

[long green]

I saw him live once, not counting his Jazz Fest appearances. That was at the Gulf Coast Coliseum, a year out of high school. We stayed at the beach and had a fun weekend. It was before the explosion of the Parrothead stuff. There were fans dressed up and acting along with the songs but it had a Rocky Horror Picture Show vibe to it.

Working at a bar with a lot of his early stuff on the jukebox gave me an appreciation for his songwriting.

[AO Sig]

I was converted into a "Parrothead" on a rainy Saturday afternoon spent with friends from TUCP; Patty Souchak Lynn Kraus and several others exposed me to music from a couple of his albums, showed me choreography for "Fins" long before the large concerts were doing it. Took my mom to see him in Knoxville shortly after my son was born; he and my daughter got to see him in concert in Atlanta and Nashville

The thing that amazed me about his concerts was the incredibly diverse crowds, in terms of ages. Three and four generations of families were in attendance. He was also a brilliant businessman; his branching into restaurants, then hotels, resorts and more recently retirement villages, will certainly be a legacy that will last.

I remember a fraternity brother whose parents were in for a visit to NOLA; they were staying at the Ponchartrain hotel. While having a drink in the lobby bar the pianist started playing "Cheeseburger in Paradise;" my bro looked up when the singer sounded "just like Jimmy Buffett." It actually was, and he ended up playing for well over an hour.

At the concert in Nashville (which was the first of the "Songs from Saint Somewhere" tour he told about the experience he had in downtown Nashville, when he was not permitted to participate in a Karyoke performance he had waited to do for over an hour because he was "too drunk;" he was not recognized, but he ended up writing the song "Too drunk to Karyoke" about it.

Like the song "The Wino and I know" says, he was "living his life like a song." RIP Jimmy

[WaveProf]

I saw Jimmy many times but the one I'll remember was on our honeymoon in Paris. It was his first Paris show, not advertised, and we weren't even sure it was really going to be him. Small jazz cafe, maybe 100 people. He was alone on stage and spoke mostly French.

His early 70s music was highly underappreciated/underrated. He sold out hard, and early, but most artists eventually do, and he was smart enough to figure out how to make sure *he* was the one making hte profit on the selling out instead of the corporations. A man well ahead of his time in that regard.

He'll be missed.




PS: To Pete's point, he was technically touring, but he had to cancel over half of his 2022 concert tour for unspecified health reasons, took the first four months of 2023 off, did a concert or two, and then canceled (for health reasons) a highly anticipated/advertised/personal-to-him show in Charleston, a city that was very close to his heart but he'd never played much. It was scheduled as the end of the tour and felt like it might be a goodbye location, and the fact he had to cancel even THAT was a red flag IMO

[waverider]

One of the most enjoyable things about the Margaritaville Resort is that they play a lot of his music. A friend at work was a big fan. He even named his daughter Savanna Jane.

I had noticed most his concerts being canceled recently.

[PeteRasche]

Like the song "The Wino and I know" says, he was "living his life like a song."

I was in high school when I became aware of his popularity here, which had been growing for years (the term "Parrothead" was supposedly coined here). I mostly only knew his greatest hits CD and a few others. But when I was at Tulane he released his box set and my immediate favorite became this song. Not just for the overall lyrical feel but also the New Orleans references...
"The coffee is strong at the Cafe du Monde
Doughnuts are too hot to touch
But just like a fool, when those sweet goodies cool,
I eat til I eat way too much..."

I actually saw one of the major news outlet stories on his death this morning (AP?) said "he lived his life like a song" and I had to smile at that reference since only his real fans would know that one.

[Kingbird87]

Freshman year, 1975, I walked by a rusty red school bus with the name "Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band" written in chalk. It was parked on the gravel lane by the Air Force and Army ROTC buildings. I fell in love with his very early music, having grown up in Cocoa Beach at the beginning of the Space Age, the shoe, or flip flop just fit. He lived an incredible life, yet always endearingly touched the hearts and souls of his fans. He is so intertwined with the fabric of many Tulanian's lives, that I feel a great loss this morning. He has always been there for me, though I can't remember the last time I ever listened to his music. He was just there. Like a bookend. Like the LP's I have squirreled away, I could never get rid of. Jimmy Buffett and Jerry Jeff Walker spoke to me in my youth lyrical words important to me. They always will be.

[PeteRasche]

He is so intertwined with the fabric of many Tulanian's lives, that I feel a great loss this morning. He has always been there for me, though I can't remember the last time I ever listened to his music. He was just there.

All of this (except I randomly just listened to my Buffett playlist at work last week).

[Kingbird87]

All of this (except I randomly just listened to my Buffett playlist at work last week).
[/quote]

I am listening right now in my head to the words of "A Pirate Looks at Forty" Pete!

[OGSB]

I had no idea

https://twitter.com/MarlowNYC/status/16 ... d-n2386804

[PeteRasche]

I had no idea

https://twitter.com/MarlowNYC/status/16 ... d-n2386804

Heh, I actually spotted that the first time watching the movie (thought it looked a lot like him) and the fact he was drinking margaritas made me even more suspicious. Looked it up online after the movie and confirmed it was indeed him!

[WaveProf]

They picked the absolute oddest time in the world to play Margaritaville tonight, but it was still cool to watch the whole stadium come alive and the USA fans waving back and forth with the Tulane student section with flashlights on iphones

Also funny to watch the entire Tulane student section ROCK OUT to Journey's Don't Stop Believing, a song that I don't think most 20 year olds would barely know, yet with Tulane's demographic it might as well be the national anthem

[PeteRasche]

Dude, EVERYONE knows Don't Stop Believin. "Glee" brought it to the younger generation and it's been in lots of other stuff since then. Plus lots of stadiums play it now.

[Roller]

My brother became a HUGE Buffett fan very early on (pre-pencil thin moustache), so when I saw "A1A" at the record shop (that's where we bought music back then, boys and girls), I just HAD to buy it. Got it home, played it, bam!--instant fan.
Three times I went to concerts where he was the warm-up, and each time, the crowd walked out early on the "main" act.
The first time, he was warming the crowd for Pure Prairie League while their hit, "Amy" was still high on the charts. JB got a rousing reception, but halfway through PPL's second song a mass exodus began. A year or so later, He appeared with Tom Waits, and the same thing happened. Then, about a year after that, I witnessed it again when the crowds walked out on New Riders of the Purple Sage. That was just a week or two before "Havana Daydreamin'" dropped and may have been the last time he got on stage as the "warm-up act."

Later on, my uncle was a yacht-broker down in Tampa, where he sold JB several boats and the airplane that appeared on cover liner of one of his albums.

RIP

[WaveProf]

I actually saw one of the major news outlet stories on his death this morning (AP?) said "he lived his life like a song" and I had to smile at that reference since only his real fans would know that one.

FWIW that line was used in his two (short) paragraph death announcement on social media, so I'm guessing the AP got it from there, and you are likely far ahead of any of the writers writing obits

[AO Sig]

I actually saw one of the major news outlet stories on his death this morning (AP?) said "he lived his life like a song" and I had to smile at that reference since only his real fans would know that one.

FWIW that line was used in his two (short) paragraph death announcement on social media, so I'm guessing the AP got it from there, and you are likely far ahead of any of the writers writing obits

Actually, media lifted it from the announcement at the "Margaritaville" website of his passing; I would guess that he or his family might have chosen that line for the announcement. Interesting choice, and a bit more upbeat than some other options such as ones from "He Went to Paris" or "Death of an Unpopular Poet" or "The Captain and the Kid."

[WaveProf]

Actually, media lifted it from the announcement at the "Margaritaville" website of his passing; I would guess that he or his family might have chosen that line for the announcement. Interesting choice, and a bit more upbeat than some other options such as ones from "He Went to Paris" or "Death of an Unpopular Poet" or "The Captain and the Kid."

I'd be willing to bet that the Margaritaville.com and Jimmy Buffett twitter announcements were written by the same people and released at the same time. Not that it matters.

[WaveProf]

His job was Beach.


OK, I'll show myself to the door.

[PeteRasche]

His job was Beach.

OK, I'll show myself to the door.

After you apologize for plagiarizing from all the professional music writers who had that in their eulogy columns two weeks ago?

[WaveProf]

His job was Beach.

OK, I'll show myself to the door.

After you apologize for plagiarizing from all the professional music writers who had that in their eulogy columns two weeks ago?

I read Buffett's official press release of the death, then I stopped. So yup, a little late to the party apparently. I'm surprised they went there week one, would have worried about a "too soon!"

[ml wave]

His job was Beach.

OK, I'll show myself to the door.

After you apologize for plagiarizing from all the professional music writers who had that in their eulogy columns two weeks ago?

I read Buffett's official press release of the death, then I stopped. So yup, a little late to the party apparently. I'm surprised they went there week one, would have worried about a "too soon!"

Never too soon for something funny, imo.

[Wavefan]

After he made it but before he really built the parrot head thing up buffet built his family a nice home in montrose on the eastern shore of mobile bay. Not far away stood a drinking establishment named judge Roy bean’s. One night a week, think it may have been Monday, judge Roy bean would have a shucker selling raw oysters for ten cents each. Yeah, this was a long time ago. Me and my broke fraternity brothers would scrounge up five or ten bucks each and hop in a car and cross the bay for ten cent oysters and 90 cent longnecks. Truth be told if the crackers cork sucker sauce hadn’t been free we still probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

Once, I think in 1979, we made the journey and filled up on oysters and free crackers and moved into the yard behind the bar where there were picnic tables and a volleyball net and a hammock. We were nursing our longnecks and horsing around when up walked a fellow who looked exactly like buffet. Because he was buffet. I introduced myself and one of my brothers slipped off and got a guitar out of the trunk. We offered buffet a beer if he would play us a song. Well he paid for all of us and sat on a picnic table with my buddy’s guitar and proceeded to entertain us with his old stuff and even let me join him on god’s own drunk. He was one of a kind. Really lived and never put on airs.

[WaveProf]

After he made it but before he really built the parrot head thing up buffet built his family a nice home in montrose on the eastern shore of mobile bay. Not far away stood a drinking establishment named judge Roy bean’s. One night a week, think it may have been Monday, judge Roy bean would have a shucker selling raw oysters for ten cents each. Yeah, this was a long time ago. Me and my broke fraternity brothers would scrounge up five or ten bucks each and hop in a car and cross the bay for ten cent oysters and 90 cent longnecks. Truth be told if the crackers cork sucker sauce hadn’t been free we still probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

Once, I think in 1979, we made the journey and filled up on oysters and free crackers and moved into the yard behind the bar where there were picnic tables and a volleyball net and a hammock. We were nursing our longnecks and horsing around when up walked a fellow who looked exactly like buffet. Because he was buffet. I introduced myself and one of my brothers slipped off and got a guitar out of the trunk. We offered buffet a beer if he would play us a song. Well he paid for all of us and sat on a picnic table with my buddy’s guitar and proceeded to entertain us with his old stuff and even let me join him on god’s own drunk. He was one of a kind. Really lived and never put on airs.

BTW I didn't respond to this (and I'm guessing the same for others) because I felt the convo had run its course, but it just hit me you might take it as disinterest, and I wanted to say I LOVED reading this story and ended up talking about it at length with my wife and 11 yo son......which led my wife to remind me our first solo date (that we didn't think of as a date at the time) was technically to a Buffett concert. Anyway, thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading it and we all enjoyed talking about it.

[PeteRasche]

After he made it but before he really built the parrot head thing up buffet built his family a nice home in montrose on the eastern shore of mobile bay. Not far away stood a drinking establishment named judge Roy bean’s. One night a week, think it may have been Monday, judge Roy bean would have a shucker selling raw oysters for ten cents each. Yeah, this was a long time ago. Me and my broke fraternity brothers would scrounge up five or ten bucks each and hop in a car and cross the bay for ten cent oysters and 90 cent longnecks. Truth be told if the crackers cork sucker sauce hadn’t been free we still probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

Once, I think in 1979, we made the journey and filled up on oysters and free crackers and moved into the yard behind the bar where there were picnic tables and a volleyball net and a hammock. We were nursing our longnecks and horsing around when up walked a fellow who looked exactly like buffet. Because he was buffet. I introduced myself and one of my brothers slipped off and got a guitar out of the trunk. We offered buffet a beer if he would play us a song. Well he paid for all of us and sat on a picnic table with my buddy’s guitar and proceeded to entertain us with his old stuff and even let me join him on god’s own drunk. He was one of a kind. Really lived and never put on airs.

BTW I didn't respond to this (and I'm guessing the same for others) because I felt the convo had run its course, but it just hit me you might take it as disinterest, and I wanted to say I LOVED reading this story and ended up talking about it at length with my wife and 11 yo son......which led my wife to remind me our first solo date (that we didn't think of as a date at the time) was technically to a Buffett concert. Anyway, thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading it and we all enjoyed talking about it.

Same here, thanks Wavefan. Great story.