Flags across Margaritaville are at half-staff this month. I thought it was most Jimmy thing he could have done to pass on Labor Day Weekend. Check out the lyrics to “Come Monday” if you don’t understand what I mean. The man was a consummate storyteller and musician, and he lived a life most could have only dreamed of. Singer. Songwriter. Author. Pilot. Sailor. Actor. Father. Simply amazing.
Jimmy’s NY Times obituary called him a “roguish bard,” an apt description, I think. President Biden called him a “poet of paradise.”
My college roommate introduced me to Jimmy in the fall of 1983, playing You Had To Be There a bunch of times. We worked our way through his 1970s catalog after that, usually accompanied by more than a little alcohol, which likely isn’t a surprise. Jimmy made a stop at Miami University in December of 1983, on what I think would have been the One Particular Harbor tour. PJ and I found out about it the week of the show, ran to the box office, and scored 13th-row center tickets. It was a terrific show, that much I remember. Specifics are really hazy though. That’s a combination of age and the alcohol I’m sure we consumed. Yeah, it was a Monday of finals week, but this was Buffett!
Hard to believe that was forty years ago.
I saw Jimmy again on the Banana Wind tour at Buckeye Lake Amphitheater in 1996. My friends and I made the mistake of leaving before the final encore, “The Night I Painted the Sky” but I remember we paused on our walk through the parking lot each time the fireworks burst.
Oldest Son became a big Buffett fan, possibly because I played Banana Wind and Barometer Soup and other albums so often around him. One of my great regrets is that we never got to experience a Buffett concert together.
I hope his family goes ahead with the release of Equal Strain on All Parts. I don’t think he’d want to have spent all that time working on it just to leave it in the can.
So drink it up, Jimmy. This one’s for you. It’s been a lovely cruise.
—
Previously Published on Bob Mueller Writer
This image is a work of a sailor or employee of the U.S. Navy, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain in the United States.
Public Domain image on Wikimedia