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It was Jimmy Buffett’s third album, “A White Sports Coat and a Pink Crustacean,” that served as his introduction to the pop music world.  The album was well received critically but made no dent on the charts.  This was baffling. “A White Sports …” was filled with songs that, to paraphrase Buffett, combined Caribbean Soul and Country.  Or as some call it, Gulf-Western. The playing by Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band, was thoughtful and energetic.  The songs had great stories of love, loss, hi jinks and sometimes bawdy circumstances.

But the lack of sales success did not stop Buffett.  He kept playing the small clubs, slowly but surely building a fan base, particularly along the eastern seaboard and west to Texas. His next album, “Living and Dying in 3/4 Time” was also strong and even yielded a hit single, “Come Monday.” In fact, the song first hit Atlanta airwaves a few weeks after he played 5 straight nights at Atlanta’s Great Southeast Music Hall.  On the first night, he opened for Billy Joel.  Perhaps there were 15 people in the audience that night, with maybe two or three of us actually paying to get in.

Billy Joel canceled the rest of his scheduled shows that week due to tonsillitis.  In a few weeks, he too would have his first hit, “Piano Man.”  Joel  would quickly move on to bigger rooms, The Electric Ballroom, Symphony Hall, and The Civic Center, while Buffett spent most of his frequent visits to Atlanta the next year or two at the Music Hall.  But the fan base was growing.  More than 15 people were showing up.  Buffett was packing the place and he was finally selling more than a handful of albums.

Early the following year Buffett released “A1A.”  Nothing wrong with that one either. In fact, it’s his best album.  Buffett had a formula and it was working splendidly.  “A1A” featured mostly Buffett originals, along with a few well chosen covers.  Each of the songs, be they zesty or low key, were all reflective of the human condition.  The Coral Reefer band was still on board.  Steve Goodman, who wrote “City of New Orleans,” provided terrific lead guitar.

One of the album’s originals, “Life is Just a Tire Swing,” takes a unique view on grinding through life.  The jaunty song describes an idyllic southern childhood. The boy’s life is filled with loving parents, good home cooked meals, and a tire swing out back to wile away the summer afternoons.  Life is simple if predictable.  Now and then there’s a family vacation but they never venture “west of New Orleans or east of Pensacola.” The boy’s only contact with the world beyond was a phonograph “where Elvis would sing” and conjure up visions of expensive cars and the adventurous life.

The adventurous life no doubt gives way to love, loss, hangovers and regrets.  In the song’s last verse, the boy, now grown, driving in Illinois one night, falls asleep at the wheel and crashes into “a Ma Bell telephone pole.”  Buffett provides yet another terrific setting, with a “bunch of Grant Wood faces screaming is he still alive?” as the song’s character is slumped on the wheel.  But then the character awakens, sees a tire swing from a near-by tree and knows all is fine.

This is a song that gave reason to celebrate Buffett’s special genius.  It also breaks the heart of some early Buffett fans; the ones who have noted the changes in his carrer.  In the next three years he recorded three more very good albums.  But soon the reflective Buffett seemed to give way to the hedonistic Buffett.  Apparently a very savvy business person, Buffet gave the people what they wanted.  They wanted to hear about the party and not the morning after.  Thus the Parrotheads and the frat house atmosphere at Buffett’s always packed concerts.

Jimmy Buffett is most convivial on the stage.  He remains in good voice and has taken better care of himself than the guy in “Margaritaville.” Despite any disappointments with his career long term, his body of work is most impressive.  This site will surely give further attention to Buffett’s better moments.

Note: Southern Song of the Day is an occasional feature.

1. Chris Wohlwend says:

   August 2, 2009 at 1:56 pm

   “White Sport Coat” was the album that really kicked off Buffet’s career, because of the jukebox play of one tune. Couldn’t get radio time, but “Let’s Get Drunk and Screw” was on all the boxes in Miami, where I was living at the time. And at the Pier 17 in Coral Gables, it was played almost constantly.

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2. Tim Oliver says:

   August 2, 2009 at 8:29 pm

   I’ve been a fan since “Havanna Daydreaming”, and I, quickly, went back and bought the meager ( at that time ) back catalog. There were no Parrotheads, back then, just fans who consumed alcohol and smuggled goods, and hung on his every note and lyric. That was a long time ago.
   I remember him coming to Savannah, Ga. in 1981, or so, and asking my dive instructor if he wanted me to get him tickets. He was a Nam vet, three tours of duty, Special Forces, spent lots of time in Key West in the very early 70’s training Navy Seals. He asked me “How much?”, and I told him “Fourteen dollars a pop,” and he snorted “Hay-ell no ! Not when I used to give that sorry sumbitch a quarter to play a Hank Williams song in 1971 in Captn. Tony’s !” I had to reflect that I too had paid much less, in 1978, to see him in the Carolina Coliseum, $7.50 a ticket for good seats. And, now, he’s getting hundred dollar pedicures, and farting through silk. I bet he doesn’t blow out flip-flops, anymore.

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3. Keith Graham says:

   August 3, 2009 at 8:06 pm

   I was living in the Northeast when the Great Southeast Music Hall was in its heyday, but everything I’ve heard about it makes me think it’s worth a good story on its own. Jimmy Buffett also played earlier at the old Bistro, which was about as close as Atlanta ever got to San Francisco’s hungry i. Here’s a brief history of that club: http://bistroatlanta.com/
   And, apparently, well before he even made it to Atlanta or Key West, Buffett played often at the Admiral Semmes Hotel in Mobile. My wife used to hear him there.

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4. jeff cochran says:

   August 3, 2009 at 8:09 pm

   The Bistro was a great place. Very homey. The Nighthawks played some great sets there back in the mid seventies.

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5. ed mcdonald says:

   August 6, 2009 at 7:56 am

   Jimmy opened for Marshall Tucker Band at the old Atlanta Omni, just a guy with a guitar and a bar stool singing about Cheese Burgers and Margaritville. Around the late 70’s

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