Ya'll...I cannot believe it has been since 2016 since I've posted a blog...
Real life can sometimes really mess ya up.
So Jimmy Buffet passed away on Sept 1st. And it's taken me this long to figure out what I wanted to say about him/his music. I decided I had to write a little bit about his songs and what they mean to me just to get it out of my head. (and maybe make it so I didn't tear up everytime one of these came on.)
I am pretty sure that my first introduction to Jimmy was "Come Monday" because it was one his songs that played on the country stations when I was growing up. There was something about the optimism in that song that I just fell in love with. And there is a bit of irony in that it is off his 1974 album (which is the year I was born).
The next song that impacted my life significantly was "A Pirate Looks at Forty" - way back when, we had a pirate re-enactment group (and I was not forty...) - it kind of became our groups theme song. There was just something about that song that just fit with our band of ne'er-do-wells. One of my favorite memories is gathering at Stellarcon one year and singing "A Pirate Looks at Forty" at Klingon Karaoke. I can't even tell you how many years ago that was...and as time has passed I've definitely reached that over-forty victim stage.
Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late
The Book on Shelf is one of my favorites. As a writer I love the references to writing that all throughout the song but I also love the idea of an "all-star cast" of friends who are with you as well as the idea that part of being young is believing young and not being ready to "put the book on the shelf." As I am nearing the half-century mark, "moving and listening and amusing myself" has become something I'm more paying attention to than I did in my 20's. This one reminds me that it's worth doing thing and having those memories.
Ooh, I know these stories were
All lived before me
Still, I got a couple that
I'll keep to myself
I'm so damn lucky to have an all-star cast
Some lovely, some crazy
Who ever thought this would last?
You know if I hadn't lived it
I'd read it myself
Tellin' tall tales is still
Good for my health
Keep movin' and listenin' and amusin' myself
I'm not ready to put the book on the shelf
Without going too deep into it...a few other of my favorite lyrics:
Oh, yesterday's over my shoulder, so I can't look back for too long/There's just too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can't go wrong (Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes)
Most mysterious calling harbour
So far but yet so near
I can see the day when my hair's full gray
And I finally disappear - But Not Yet - as he would sing live (One Particular Harbor)
Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks
And I learned much from both of their styles (Son of a Son of a Sailor)
I want to be there
Want to go back down and lie beside the sea there
With a tin cup for a chalice, fill it up with good red wine
And I'm a chewin' on a honeysuckle vine (Tin Cup Chalice) - I have to admit this one took me a while but over time it's become one of my absolute favorites.
I'd like to go where the pace of life's slow
Could you beam me somewhere, Mister Scott?
Any old place here on Earth or in Space
You pick the century and I'll pick the spot (Boat Drinks) - Hello?? Star Trek Reference!!
Finally, we have "Coast of Carolina" off of License to Chill. It's probably not one of his most famous songs but it was one of the most meaningful to me.
From the bottom of my heart
Off the coast of Carolina
After one or two false starts
I believe we found our stride
And the walls that won't come down
We can decorate or climb or find some way to get around
Cause I'm still on your side
From the bottom of my heart
From the Come Monday's reference in the second verse to the chorus which speaks so much to my relationship with my husband, it is one of those songs that I identify with almost as much as Rush's ColdFire.
I was lucky enough to see Jimmy in concert one year (I have no idea what year.) in what had to have been one of the hottest days in memory. I still remember his coming out and saying "Now that it's cooled down to 99 degrees, let's get this party started" (Or something like that.) It was so hot we barely drank any alcohol (so no Margarita's or Boat Drinks!) and were downing water bottles like crazy. But I am really glad I got to see him once before he passed.
One of Jimmy's last songs is Bubbles Up. Now I'm not a scuba diver but there is definitely something about this song that speaks to the challenges we face in our daily lives and that fact that there is always joy and light if we look for it.
Bubbles up
They will point us towards home
No matter how deep or how far we roam
They will show you the surface
The plot and the purpose
So, when the journey gets long
Just know that you are loved
There is light up above
And joy, there's always enough
Bubbles up
So thanks Jimmy for all the music...Bubbles up.
