 Biography
 History of 12 minutes of music
 Songs, Lyrics and listening
guide for 12 min. of chosen
music
BIOGRAPHY
Jimmy Buffet was born in Pascagoula
Mississippi to Mary Loraine Peets and
James Delaney “J.D.” Buffet Jr. on
December 25, 1964.
He spent part of his childhood in Mobile
Alabama, where his father moved the family
after serving as a flight mechanic in the
Pacific with the Army during World War II, so
he could work for Alabama Dry Dock and
shipbuilding Company.
He attended St. Ignatius
Parish where he was a
Boy Scout, Altar boy and
played the Trombone in
the school band. He
graduated from McGill
Institute an all – male
college preparatory
school in 1964, and
headed to Auburn
University. where he
entered as a freshman in
1965.
Jimmy entered Auburn University as
a freshman in 1965. He pledged the
social fraternity Sigma Pi, and learned
to play the guitar from another pledge
Jonny Youngblood who seemed to
have a lot of success in meeting
women because he played guitar.
Being unable to balance this new
interest for music and women with his
college classes Jimmy failed out of
Auburn University 1966.
He then enrolled at Pearl River Junior College in
Poplarville Mississippi to avoid the draft during the
Vietnam War.
Jimmy used his musical talents to pay his
college expenses, he first worked as a street
singer on weekends in New Orleans and then
at events along the Gulf Coast with his
friends in a band called the Upstairs Alliance.
Jimmy maintained his grades and transferred
to the University of Southern Mississippi, in
Hattiesburg where he completed a
bachelor’s degree in history in 1969.
Anticipating the draft Jimmy applied for
Officer Candidate School, but was given a
medical exception when a physical
diagnosed him with a peptic ulcer
Barnaby Records signed Jimmy Buffet to a two album
contract forcing him to quit his job at Billboard Magazine,
after his 1970 album Down to Earth came out.
Unfortunately the record sold less than 400 copies. Bravely
Jimmy went back into the studio to record his second
album, only to find out that Barnaby Records “lost” the
master tapes for his album High Cumberland Jubilee.
Along with these financial obstacles and not being able to
book shows in Nashville, Jimmy’s marriage was stressed. In
1971 Jimmy and Margie divorced and he headed to Key
West, Florida.
The childhood experiences as a child growing up in Alabama’s
Gulf Coast helped in shaping Jimmy Buffets world views and his
the interests he possessed as a young adult in fishing, boating,
swimming and surfing are passions he would maintain as an
adult and that had influence in many of his artistic adventures.
In Key West Jimmy worked on a fishing boat while seeking out
his solo career and developing his beach bum persona for which
he is known. In 1972 Jimmy met Jane Slagsvol in Key West
through a mutual friend and in August 1977 they were married.
They have two daughters, Savannah Jane and Sarah Delaney,
and a son Cameron Marley Buffet.
Key West proved to be the biggest
influence on Jimmy Buffet’s musical
career, and is a town that continues to
play a large role in his life. In 1973 A
White Sports Coat and A Pink Crustacean
was recorded and released as his second
debut album. In 1974 the album with
“Come Monday” his first hit single, was
released. Because his songs could not
easily be categorized, Jimmy struggled to
find his slot in the music industry.
The Coral Reefer Band was formed in 1974 and went on the road.
Between 1974 and 1982 they did nothing but focus on their
music, especially in the seventies. In 1977 Irving Azoff arranged
for Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefers to open for The Eagles, at
the time this was the most well-known group, which gave Jimmy
his first opportunity for exposure, enabling him to become a
headliner. That same year the album Changes in Latitude was
came out and featured his most popular song “Margaritaville”
which hit #8 on the Billboard Pop Charts and became the defining
Jimmy Buffet song. This was also his first platinum album selling
over one million copies. Jimmy’s second million selling album was
Son of a Son of a Sailor and it came out in 1978.
Jimmy Buffet in the 80’s made more money from his tours than his albums and
became known as a popular concert draw. Jimmy was quoted in an interview with
Frederick Burger from the Miami Herald as saying “I'm as successful as I want to be.
I've taken my career and a band and built them around my songwriting, to the
point where I can be very successful financially and very gratified artistically and do
what I do best, which is write songs and play on stage...I'd love to have a No. 1
album, but I don't conceive of it. I'd have to be a Fleetwood Mac or an Eagles, but I
don't want to be them. I'd have to change my style, and I'm not going to do
anything -- other than what I do -- to get it."
Throughout it all, with little or no radio exposure, literally millions of albums are
being sold, due to word of mouth advertising by the increasing number of Jimmy
Buffet fans. In 1985 Fall issue of Country Hits described it best “All of the reviews
written about Jimmy Buffett over the past several years have seemed to have a
couple of things in common: first, the reviewers enjoy and admire Buffett and his
music; and second, these same writers are at their wits end trying to come up with
a nice pat label to pin on the man.” In short what it means is that it is a whole lot
easier to listen to his music than it is to try and describe it. Jimmy Buffet began
calling his music “Drunken Caribbean Rock’n Roll.” Later, people used the term gulf
and western to describe his style. The name came from earlier influences in his
music from country and western, folk music and lyrical themes from the gulf coast.
A music critic described Buffett's music as “ a combination of "tropical languor with
country funkiness into what some have called the Key West sound, or Gulf-andwestern
In 2003 he and Alan Jackson paired up for the song “It’s Five
O’clock Somewhere” which became a number 1 hit on the
country music charts. This song won the 2003 Country Music
Association Award for Vocal Event of the Year and was Jimmy
Buffet’s first award of any kind for his music in his 30 year career.
The album License to Chill sold 238,600 copies in its first
week of release in July 2004. In his three-decade long
career this was the first time he topped the U.S. Pop
Albums Chart. Jimmy has released 46 albums with the
most recent album to be released Songs from St.
Somewhere in August of 2013.
Jimmy Buffet is not only a singer/songwriter but he is also a
businessman and author. In 1985 Jimmy chose to take on a new
venture and opened the first of many Margaritaville Stores in Key West,
FL in doing so he not only discovered an outlet for his own adventurous
spirit but for those of his “Parrot Head” followers. In 1989 with Actor
and comedian Bill Murray, Jimmy invested yet again in something new,
he invested in the Ft. Myers Miracles, a minor league baseball team.
In 1993, Margaritaville Records, was launched with distribution
through MCA Records and in the fall of 1999 his current recording label
Mailboat Records was started to release live albums. RCA Records
partnered with Jimmy for distribution of the two studio albums License
to Chill and Take the Weather with You in 2005 and 2006.
Jimmy Buffet has launched many products under the Margaritville
Label, he has produced his own beer called Land Shark Lager and he
has also licensed Margaritaville Tequila, there is Margaritaville
footwear, and foods including: Salsa, Chips, Shrimp, Guacamole,
Chicken and more. These are just a few of his business ventures that
have proved to be quite worthy.
Jimmy Buffet is a writer as well, he has
written three No. 1 Best Sellers, and he cowrote two children’s books with his oldest
daughter Savannah Jane Buffet. With his
autobiographical A Pirate Looks at Fifty (1998)
release topping the New York Times nonfiction list right after being released, he
became one of eight authors in this list's
history to have reached number one in both
the fiction and non-fiction categories. Jimmy
Buffet has made several cameo appearances,
and written theme songs for several movies
and television shows. He wrote the
soundtrack and co-produced the 2006 film
Hoot
Jimmy Buffet is one of several
popular “philosophers” whose
quotations appear on the road
signs of Project HIMANK in the
Ladakh region of Northern India.
His quote says “Without Geography
You’re Nowhere.”
Jimmy Buffet has also been involved in many charity efforts. In
1981 he founded the Save the Manatee Club with former
Florida governor Bob Graham. In 1995 the proceeds from his
concert tour funded the “Singing for Change” foundation
which provides grants in three main areas to local charities:
children and family causes, environmental causes and causes
for disenfranchised groups. On November 23, 2004, Jimmy
held a “Surviving the Storm” Hurricane Relief Concert in
Orlando, Florida to provide relief for hurricane victims in
Florida, Alabama and the Caribbean affected by the four major
hurricanes that year, he raised substantial money at this
concert. He performed in Hong Kong on January 18, 2008 for
the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Charity Fund raising $63,000
US. This was his first concert in Hong Kong and it sold out
within weeks. Jimmy not only paid for the concert goers’
tequila and beer but played for those who could not afford to
buy a seat for free. On July 22, 2010 Jimmy Buffet, put on a
free concert on the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Giving
away 35, 000 tickets in order to get people back to the beach
was his way of responding to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf.
Jimmy played several popular songs where some of the lyrics
were changed to directly relate to the current crisis.
When Jimmy Buffet was asked, After all your
success, what's left?
He responded with: “When it is all said and done, I
am going to teach. There comes a point where you
want to share your wisdom if you get to do the
things I've done. Of course, if you want to see me
teach, I don't think I will be at Fargo in February. You
might have to find me at the University of Hawaii.”
REFERENCES
MUSIC LISTENING GUIDE
Margaritaville
Blue Guitar
ALOT TO DRINK ABOUT
MARGARITAVILLE
Jimmy Buffett
0:00 Introduction. Here you hear the steel drums
0:11 Verse 1 begins, this verse shows the singers life for the previous season.
Nibblin' on sponge cake,
watchin' the sun bake;
All of those tourists covered with oil.
Strummin' my six string on my front porch swing.
Smell those shrimp-They're beginnin' to boil.
0:41 First Chorus begins
Wasted away again in Margaritaville,
Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt.
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame,
But I know it's nobody's fault.
1:12 Verse 2 begins, this verse shows a singer laid-back lives in a drunken haze in a beach community.
Don't know the reason,
Stayed here all season
With nothing to show but this brand new tattoo.
But it's a real beauty,
A Mexican cutie, how it got here
I haven't a clue.
http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/jimmy-buffett/album/songs-you-know-by-heart
1:42 Second chorus begins.
Wasted away again in Margaritaville,
Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt.
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame,
Now I think, -- hell it could be my fault.
2:16 Interlude here you hear the steel guitars, a harmonica, percussion, keyboards, etc.
2:45 Verse 3 is played. This verse and the last verse illustrate best the “Margaritaville” state of mind, where the singer
goes for a walk cuts his heel and comes home and has an alcoholic beverage to ease his pain.
I blew out my flip flop,
Stepped on a pop top;
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.
But there's booze in the blender,
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on.
3:14 Verse 4 or Coda. This verse the singer is drowning his sorrows over a failed relationship and his friends are telling
him that it’s not his fault. However the last line shows that over the song he has come to terms that it really is his own
fault.
Wasted away again in Margaritaville
Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt.
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame,
But I know, it's my own damn fault.
Yes, and some people claim that there's a woman to blame,
And I know it's my own damn fault
The form of this song is riff-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-interlude-verse-chorus-refrain-riff.
Blue Guitar
Roger Guth, Peter Mayer
0:00 Homo-rhythmic voice introduction begins.
0:12 Guitar and steel drums begin and you can hear the rattle
0:33 Verse 1 begins and the percussions and regular drums start.
Once I knew a man
Showed me the slight of hand
Blink of an eye, he danced across the strings
0:44 Verse 2 begins.
He played a song I'd never heard
Poignant and absurd
To this day it leaves me wondering
0:53 Verse 3 begins
How I wish tomorrow I were fishin'
Boy I got a mission
Shake it, rattle and roll
1:03 Verse 4 begins
Ah, now, just use your intuition
You'll get less competition
From the clock up on the wall
http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/jimmy-buffett/album/far-side-of-the-world/track/blue-guitar
1:13 First Chorus begins
You are what you are
You dream what you dream
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
Play me a serenade
A simple masquerade
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
1:36 Verse 5 begins
Was he real or make believe
Someone to deceive
Time is just a folly we can't see
1:46 Verse 6 begins – you hear the electric guitar being plucked
If you only know one song
Play it right or wrong
Cause the truth is always somewhere in between
1:57 Verse 7 begins and you hear the harmonic voices begin again in the back ground
You and I, we can't change the weather
We're all in this together
So let the strong winds blow
2:07 Verse 8 begins
Ah, now things will be much better
Don't become a prisoner
The reason you should know
2:15 Chorus begins
You are what you are
You dream what you dream
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
Play me a serenade
A lovers masquerade
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
2:36 Interlude – you hear the steel drums, bass guitar being plucked, regular drums, rattle
2:56 Verse 3 is repeated
How I wish tomorrow I were fishin'
Boy I got a mission
Shake it, rattle and roll
3:05 Verse 4 is repeated and the harmonic voices return
Ah, now, just use your intuition
You'll get less competition
From the clock up on the wall
3:16 Chorus
You are what you are
You dream what you dream
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
Play me a serenade
Red wine or lemonade
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
3:35 Final Chorus begins and the harmonic voices are heard again.
You are what you are
You dream what you dream
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
Play me a serenade
A lovers masquerade
Play on your Blue Guitar for me
3:56 Homorhythmic Coda begins and you hear the harmonic voices go into a diminuendo to end the song
A LOT TO DRINK ABOUT
0:00 Recitative Introduction begins with guitar accompaniment
Hey, have you noticed that the world has changed
That world is all bad
I think it’s time for a song about that.
0:19 Verse 1 begins.
Up on the East side of Manhattan,
They’re still dancing with the stars.
While over in subprime city,
It’s getting ugly in the local bars
Watching the news only gives me the blues
There’s too much going wrong.
It takes the likes of me to hit the reboot key
and write a high speed drinking song.
0:46 Verse 2 begins
Millionaires losin’ everything.
Hey, welcome to the other side of life!
There goes the yacht, there goes the Rolls,
But, you get to keep your wife!
And don’t forget the automakers
swimming upstream like a trout.
They let the shit the fan
and then they made a plan
We’ve got a- a lot to drink about.
http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/jimmy-buffett/album/buffet-hotel
1:10 Chorus begins
It’s the price of oil,
the war of the spoils.
Where’s your bucket for the big bailout?
Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,
We’ve got a lot to drink about.
1:30 Verse 3 begins.
Now, Madoff made off with all the money.
And his clients are down to skunk weed.
Repeat after me, it’s so easy to see
We’re only talking simple greed.
And those Somalian pirates are counting all their gold.
While Bush and Cheney ain’t around
and all the good lookers seem to be Russian hookers
from Key West to London town.
1:56 Chorus
It’s the price of oil,
war of the spoils.
Here’s your bucket for the big bailout?
Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,
We’ve got a lot to drink about.
2:10 Verse 4 begins
So pour me some Tennessee whiskey,
pour me a fine Jamaican rum.
That loud mouth soup
can get ya kind of looped
Tequila, of course I’ll have some!
2:23 Verse 5 begins
Well the family devalues
and little children count their net worth
and the truth wherever it’s hiding,
can’t be found on Google Earth.
Citibank’s buying jets with our money.
I wanna flog ‘em with a buggy whip.
Let’s hope Barack and Joe won’t let the volcano blow
and patch the hole in our sinking ship.
2:49 Chorus
There’s the price of oil,
the war of the spoils.
Here’s your bucket for the big bailout?
Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,
We’ve got a lot to drink about.
3:02 Verse 6 begins
Recession, Oppression, Depression good God
CNN keeps bummin’ me out.
I can’t take another doomsday minute.
Got a lot to drink, a lot to think,
a lot to drink about.
3:22 Coda- arpeggios
God bless America.
“InstInct taught me 20 years ago to pace a song or a
concert performance. That translates into pacing a story,
pleasing a reading audience.”
Jimmy Buffet