![]() ![]() Jimmy’s music contains a cornucopia of these small epiphanies of the glory of creation-from the familiar comfort of “One Particular Harbor” to a fleeting encounter with an “African Friend,” to a game of pong in “Livingston Saturday Night.” As Jimmy says in one of my favorite songs, “The Wino and I Know,” “I’m living on things that excite me, Be they pastry or lobster or love.” ![]() For example, the words, “I like the smell of fresh snapper fried light” in “Landfall” resonate with me, for I have spent many nights on the Gulf of Mexico catching snapper, and frying those fillets smells incredible. They are at their core a celebration of the goodness and beauty of the world which matches the listener’s experience. While some of his music suggests an anti-Catholic sentiment-and Jimmy himself left the faith after attending Catholic school in his youth-most of his songs actually reflect a Catholic consciousness. As he says in “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” “Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinkin’ all night.” The “bottle of rum” and the “drinkin’ all night” do not mean anything without the “chum” that you first run into! While my lack of maturity prevented me from fully receiving Jimmy’s music in my high school years, I was drawn to this sense of camaraderie that it promotes and celebrates. For while some of Jimmy’s tunes have hedonistic overtones, his music is almost always ordered toward the building of genuine fellowship among friends. ![]() This party attitude, present at every Jimmy Buffett concert, encapsulates what many people perceive to be the central impulse of Jimmy’s music.Īs I learned in the ensuing years, it is not so. I recall that on concert Fridays my friends and I never attended class, but instead prepared ourselves for the shows by hanging out at a pool all day. I attended my first Jimmy Buffett concert in Lakeland, Florida in the waning days of the 1970s-and two concerts there in the early 1980s-when I was a high school student in Winter Haven. Jimmy’s music evokes and complements all of these realities. For me, that meant cast-netting mullet with my Uncle Howard, catching lobster in the Florida Keys, drifting across the chain-of-lakes in my hometown of Winter Haven, and enjoying sunsets with my extended family on Anna Maria. His music, now as then, caught the mood and atmosphere of old Florida. Listening to Jimmy on fishing trips and beach excursions was as natural as hearing the tide come in. As a teenager, I made frequent trips to Anna Maria Island with my relatives and friends. Growing up in Florida during the 1970s, Jimmy’s music was always in the background. As a convert to Catholicism, I am filled with gratitude for how Jimmy’s music has enriched my life By my reckoning, the 2020s is my sixth decade during which I have heard Jimmy perform. This past December, I had the opportunity to see Jimmy Buffett in concert in Orlando, Florida. He is also a successful businessman, with two restaurant chains named after his best-known songs."To become enamored with the radical goodness of life-which Jimmy’s music hallows-was for me the first step in becoming Catholic." He has produced a number of musicals including ‘Escape to Margaritaville.’ He collaborated with novelist Herman Wouk and produced a musical based on Wouk's novel ‘Don't Stop the Carnival’. He has made several cameo appearances in films like ‘Repo Man’, ‘Hook’, ‘Cobb’, ‘Hoot’, ‘Congo’, and ‘From the Earth to the Moon’. The multi-talented Buffett is also an actor. With his daughter Savannah Jane Buffett, he also co-wrote two children's books-‘The Jolly Mon’ and ‘Trouble Dolls’. An accomplished writer as well, Buffett has written three best-sellers-‘Tales from Margaritaville’, ‘Where Is Joe Merchant?’ and ‘A Pirate Looks at Fifty’. In 2003, he bagged his first Country Music Award for his song ‘It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere’. ![]() He has released over 30 albums, of which many have been certified gold or platinum. He formed the touring and recording band of singers and songwriters called Coral Reefer Band. His unique music combines elements of the country, rock, and pop genres of music with coastal and tropical lyrical themes. He started his musical career as a country artiste in the 1960s, and released his first album, ‘Down to Earth’ in 1970. James William Buffett, popularly known as Jimmy Buffett, is an American musician and songwriter best known for his hit songs ‘Margaritaville’ and ‘Come Monday’. ![]()
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