Jimmy Buffet in town today...>>

And apparently he walked right by my boat! To bad I wasn't there..
He must have been lured by his songs I was playing on the boat Tuesday while doing some maintenance!!
Washington, BTW is a tiny town in NC on the Pamlico...10K people. No one knows what brought him to town..

"Singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett surprised quite a few people today with a visit to Washington.

Buffett flew into Warren Field on his private jet, a Falcon 900B, this afternoon. While at the airport, he posed for a few pictures with airport staff.

Buffett stopped into Boss Hogs Backyard Barbeque around 1:30 p.m. for lunch and was seen walking along the Washington waterfront.

There is no official word on why Buffett was visiting Washington"

Here's the Washington NC Waterfront. My boat is behind the tree on the left...

Look up Baker on this forum. He and Jimmy Buffet grace his avatar.

CPseudonym said:

Look up Baker on this forum. He and Jimmy Buffet grace his avatar.

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Would have been fun to get a picture....
He arrived in this. Not too shabby..





Barbecue for lunch....This is NC afterall!

He was a regular at my West Palm store some years ago. I never met him but my people really liked him. They told me that he was in the store one time and one of his songs came on the radio. He started singing along!

Very cool!

Just caught his concert here in Tampa a week or so back.
Did all of his oldies, they way they were originally done!
Always a party

The exec is sweet, but given the option, I'd still prefer the Albatross

OD

I would love to meet Jimmy Buffet. I know a few people who knew him and they all said he is a good guy.

I dunno, I have a weird thing about Buffett. For many, many years of my life I absolutely loved his music and the culture surrounding it. As a multi generational Floridian who grew up in the late 70's early 80's he personified the lifestyle that most of the people I knew lived. Plus, no one outside of the SE US knew much about him and didn't listen to him, outside of maybe cheesburger in paradise. I've seen him close to 20 times live. His music was very influential for me.

Now though, not so much. Somewhere along the way for me he jumped the shark and though I still occasionally listen to his music it no longer personifies me. Now days when I see someone wearing a Buffett T they don't seem like a member of my tribe at all.

When I saw Maragaritaville chicken breasts in the frozen food section of my local grocery store I knew I'd bought my last Buffett album.

I doubt he cares what I think though, he has done quite well for himself!

Dougcole said:

When I saw Maragaritaville chicken breasts in the frozen food section of my local grocery store I knew I'd bought my last Buffett album.

I doubt he cares what I think though, he has done quite well for himself!

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Yeah, I understand. I think I read recently that he made $140 Million last year.
Commercial for sure...

I harken back a few years when we played his music a lot while sailing the Chesapeake...When my 5 yr old son looked at me and said " Hey Dad, I'm a son of a son of a sailor" (my dad brought me up sailing)....It all came home.
He's been influential in my life for sure, though those days are slipping away..

Yeah, I googled him a while back and saw that his estimated net worth was something like $650 million.

I've been listening to some other good people that were influenced by him though. I kind of think Todd Snider is what Buffett would have been if he had never gotten famous, minus the music about boats. I also like Kenny Chesney's coastal music, though not his nashville fare so much. I've grown to love some of the Texas guys as well, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark and Robert Earl Keen. Michael Franti is fun on the boat too.

I was really never "into" him very much. I guess it was the first time I saw "Parrot Heads" (over) drinking and acting like complete idiots that turned me off of his influence. And TBH, I feel the same way about the Grateful Dead and Phish. "Jumping the shark" is the perfect analogy. Although, I really like the Magaritaville brand of shoes he endorses.

Interesting he came to Washington, though. Maybe he was boat shopping.

Kinda feeling like dougcole. Not much appeal anymore. I still have Van Morrison, Bob Marley, JJ Walker and Roy Oberson on my playlist though.

Never bought into the parrot-head theme, but when his concert comes to town walking around the parking lot before hand is entertaining, one nut out doing another. Then we head back out to the boat and relax.

I never lived in that culture but I had friends who did. I enjoyed it vicariously. We referred to it as The Keys Disease.

Still, the music was great. The best place to see a Buffett concert has got to be the Marine Stadium in Miami. Jimmy on the barge, surrounded by people floating on air mattresses, who in turn are surrounded by anchored boats. Bioluminescence each time someone put their hand in the water. Everybody singing along at full blast. Boat horns blowing at the end of each song. Wonderful summer night.

Buffett is proof of what staying power can do. He had only one number one hit Come Monday He has never been one of the better singers. He was more of a story teller. When he introduced pans into the Coral Reefer band he created a sound that caught on. While he was never the best singer, he surrounded himself with great musicians and backup singers that were some of the best singers.

It's all about the aura and fantasy that gave people living everyday lives the ability to see themselves living that life. His audiences are multi-generational. I occasionally will play his music on the boat. One Particular Harbor is my favotire.

While Jimmy lives well, he is a business man. I don't think he lived the life he sings about all that long. Doug has probably heard Brent Burns. He's kinda local to the LA (Lower Alabama) area. He has a song I like. It is called Living the Life that Jimmy Buffett Only Wrote About

I had not heard that Don, but thanks for sending it, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed his music quite a bit when I moved to St Croix back in 1980. He used to sail those waters quite a bit back then. He would show up to some of the local bars unannounced and sing a few songs. Cruzan Rum at the local pueblo grocery store was .89 cents for a fifth...it was a good time to live in the islands.

Moonstruck said:

Buffett is proof of what staying power can do. He had only one number one hit Come Monday He has never been one of the better singers. He was more of a story teller. When he introduced pans into the Coral Reefer band he created a sound that caught on. While he was never the best singer, he surrounded himself with great musicians and backup singers that were some of the best singers.

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Very true Don. Great songwriter; mediocre singer. When I saw him back in the day, the Little River Band opened for him and stole the show. Buffet had a fantastic harmonica player named "Fingers" Taylor, who filled out those songs amazingly. Sadly, I read he has Alzheimer's now.

But some of Buffet's songs still resonate for me. One memory I hope I never forget is sailing into the BVIs at dawn in a 76-ft Alden cutter-rigged ketch--our first sight of land after several days of often bad weather. An indescribably gorgeous morning, all sails pulling hard, making 12 knots and "A Pirate Looks at 40" blaring on the stereo. Close to perfection.

He's been influential in my life for sure, though those days are slipping away..

Heron, I saw what you did there...

Someone mentioned "Margaritaville" shoes. I was on the road and I had forgotten to pack my boat shoes. Went to a DSW and the only boat shoes were Margaritavilles, heavily discounted. I bought them and they are so much better than my TopSiders.

It has been a long time since I bought any of his music. The last CD I purchased had a song, "Bank of Bad Habits." Very catchy, fun song, but ruined by an over-long off the cuff discourse in the middle of the song. The kind of thing he would do in concert to stretch a song and delight the crowd. It was OK the first time, the second time I was tired of it, and I stopped listening to the song after a total of four listenings.

I don't begrudge his success. He took modest guitar skills, a decent voice, and strong lyrical skills and worked hard to become a success. Most people with similar skills, myself included, give up on the dream and get a "real job." For every Jimmy Buffet there are hundreds of people playing two-hour sets at local bars for chump change. Plus Buffet is a trillion times better than Kanye, Beyoncé, Eminem and the rest of the rap and pop crowd that can't play an instrument, sing without auto-tune or write a good song.

Buffet did start out doing two hour sets for chump change. The story is that he had come to Miami to play at a small coffee house called the Flick. The Flick was near the U of Miami so it had a college crowd. While at the Flick someone invited him to go down to the Keys and as they say, the rest is history.

Robster_in_edmonds said:

I don't begrudge his success. He took modest guitar skills, a decent voice, and strong lyrical skills and worked hard to become a success. Most people with similar skills, myself included, give up on the dream and get a "real job." For every Jimmy Buffet there are hundreds of people playing two-hour sets at local bars for chump change. Plus Buffet is a trillion times better than Kanye, Beyoncé, Eminem and the rest of the rap and pop crowd that can't play an instrument, sing without auto-tune or write a good song.

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I don't know how kids these days listen to that rap junk.

I took my youngest son to a "Jimmy" concert some 20 years ago, he still talks about that first Concert.

I guess the bottm line is how many other singers have done/sung the cruising lifestyle as much as he has?


Billy Joel started building some pretty interesting boats..but not much reflected in his music that I remember...

Yep, Jimmy has done quite well. Not too shabby for a good ole south Mississippi boy - In a former job I worked with his original drummer - from their band at Univ of Southern Miss.

https://youtu.be/amaTz2gtarE

Pretty cool interview, I believe circa 2014.
Comments on pretty much everything that's been said here.
Career, musical ability (or lack thereof), marketing and business sense, work ethic, and lifestyle.

According to the interview, as well as much of what I've read and heard about him other places, his songs are definitely influenced by segments of his life.

N4712 said:

I don't know how kids these days listen to that rap junk.

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Yup, the rap kids listen to today is crap. I miss the days of The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash. Rap was good then.

mahal said:

Yup, the rap kids listen to today is crap. I miss the days of The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash. Rap was good then.

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My kids listen to rap. Most of it sounds awful to me, but I'm trying to keep an open mind and not sound like the guy who says "that's not real music". Some if it I actually like...

cardude01 said:

My kids listen to rap. Most of it sounds awful to me, but I'm trying to keep an open mind and not sound like the guy who says "that's not real music". Some if it I actually like...

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I do the same for my kids. The beat of modern rap is fine but the foul language is a no-go for me. Like other families, our kids listen to different music than my wife and me. They don't like our 80's and 90's music and we're not crazy about their modern music, except Bruno Mars. But we all enjoy the music that my parents listen to - jazz and standards. I didn't appreciate it as a kid but enjoy it as an adult. Our kids enjoy it because they were in jazz band.

Well...Now we know why he was in town:

Jimmy Buffett Decides on New Sailboat | Cruising World

To be built by Pacific Seacraft, about a mile from my berth!

That's pretty sweet. Like the tailgate and all the cockpit space. I want one. ?

Crazy looking keel and rudder. Looks like they would break off when I hit stuff.