Jimmy Buffett, R.I.P.
He’s got his Hush Puppies on, and never was meant for glitter rock ‘n roll.
Jimmy Buffett passed away overnight at age 76, his family announced:
Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st, surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs.
He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.
That was the thing about him, he embodied a carefree beach lifestyle whose songs allowed people a mental escape. He’s best known for his song Margaritaville.
I never was part of the Margaritaville drinking culture, so to me it was just a song. I could however relate to Cheeseburgers in Paradise:
When he joined Alan Jackson on stage for the hit It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, it was more of an anthem to Jimmy Buffett world than a song:
The Buffett song I always loved the most was Come Monday, which was on my regular YouTube playlist. That song touched on an awkwardness a lot of us felt in younger years, maybe still, being the guy in the Hush Puppies in a world of glitter:
Headin’ out to San Francisco
For the Labor Day weekend show
I got my Hush Puppies on
I guess I never was meant for glitter rock ‘n’ roll
It also was an amazing love song:
And honey, I didn’t know that I’d be missin’ you so
Come Monday, it’ll be alright
Come Monday, I’ll be holdin’ you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A haze
And I just want you back by my side
Rest in Peace.
— Jimmy Buffett (@jimmybuffett) September 2, 2023
RIP Jimmy Buffett who had .25 seconds of screen time in Jurassic World and knew exactly how to use it. pic.twitter.com/5IKYsRPMkl
— Katie (@KatiePZim) September 2, 2023
RIP Jimmy Buffett pic.twitter.com/tBY9pKBC9J
— YDK_Marshall (@YDKMarshall_) September 2, 2023
I read Jimmy Buffett’s memoir, Pirate Looks At 50, when I was in middle school – at that age when you start to get interested in the grown up world.
In it, I found a Tao.
Rest easy, Jimmy. You did this sonofabitch called life very very right. pic.twitter.com/wPt8N5atfw
— brandon wenerd (@brandonwenerd) September 2, 2023
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Comments
RIP Jimmy. Not that old either.
76 gets younger everyday
Skin Cancer. If you are out in the sun–wear sun screen. If you see some change, get it checked out.
I’ve not seen anywhere the cause of death. Where did you find that he died of skin cancer?
I’ve done a bit of smugglin’
I’ve run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami
But I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to last
I still have a lump in my throat. Sail on.. Jimmy.
South Park clip cracked me up. Never been a Buffet or Deadhead fan.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pic%20of%20lost%20shaker%20of%20salt&FORM=IQFRBA&id=8175A8584053D990890260620B2AE917E7B85020
Hopefully, the link works.
RIP
Rest in Peace. Never got to see him live but loved all of his music. I always thought of him as The Bard of the Beach, he and his music just had something magical, that could make you smile and carry you away.
Thank you for the music and the memories, Jimmy.
I finally stopped visiting the Caribbean islands because I couldn’t get out of earshot of some hotel, bar or street band endlessly performing that song about his favorite alcoholic drink. It was enough to drive me to drink.
Everyone who has ever been on a cruise knows what this is..
Salt! Salt! Where’s the damn salt!
Good times.. sweet memories..
“Ask your doctor if a twice-daily cup of Lithium is right for you.”
Lighten up a little. you will live longer
Who’s that coming to knock on the door? Why it’s the IRS of course. After all in life the only certainties are death and taxes.
He made tens of millions out of his songs and lifestyle , deserved every penny.
People love his music, his laid back way of life, and his residential communities near the beaches in Florida.
He sold a lifestyle that he loved and lived very well
Makes me very sad, his passing, but what a life.
With family surrounding him I believe they must of known of his imminent
passing.
I don’t know that I heard he was ill.
I heard that he had been in the hospital for a while, but not why.
Have a cheeseburger while you are in paradise, my man!
In a way, I can’t help but to feel that this is my own damn fault…
Buffet was about a quarter century my Senior but his music still appealed to folks my age in HS, College and beyond. If I had to choose I would say A Pirate looks at Forty was my favorite Buffet song. Lot’s of wisdom in that song.
I did not see that coming and it’s a shock.
One of the best lines ever was “I made enough money to buy Miami but I pissed it away somehow.”
You’re right about “Come Monday”, Professor. Even if I thought for years it was Ricky Nelson.
I saw JB three times, once in Key West with a Jamican steel drum band, once in West Palm Beach at an auditorium, and third at a big field outside of Pittsburgh. I’m not his age, but dang do I feel old now and little sad for younger years. He was a great entertainer.
One Particular Harbor was a bit of an inspiration for my honeymoon on Tahiti.
” margaritaville ” and jt’s ” mexico ” always evoke memories of a couple of weeks we honeymooned in playacar–his music conveys a ” relax and enjoy this life ” feeling and sitting at a bar in xcaret, comprehended fully that was with the love of my life and nothing else really mattered–relax and enjoy this life–nearly thirty years now and that feeling is still with us
wherever you land jimmy, hope there’s booze in the blender
Mustang convertible, top down… on the Big Island….radio on…. “where will you go when the volcano blows?”
“Margaritaville” was a monster hit. On the way down to Australia years ago, we stopped to refuel in American Samoa. Everything fogged leaving the airplane from the warm humid air. I could see why the whalers of New England and sailors from Old England were drawn here from their tight regimented cold climes. Buffet gave us a world to escape to where the only concern was not over cooking the shrimp…. well…. there was something in the blender to salve that. Never a ParrotHead, but one of his CDs is in my player in the shed right now.
Double blow… Lahaina and now Buffet.
Margaritaville
Inspired in Austin of all
Places
Long time ago
The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning Buffett’s alleged desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion brand. He landed at No. 13 in Forbes’ America’s Richest Celebrities in 2016 with a net worth of $550 million.
This nice guy finished first
Doesn’t happen often in life…
he, and his style, often featured in tropical fiction.
https://www.tropicalauthors.com/
many good reads there.
A rumor I’m trying to start says he was going into classical music under the pseudonym James Buffé.
I enjoyed him during his Chinese Period.
Fins to the left and fins to the right.
Saw him at Meriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland circa 1990.
Found this in coment section of CTH
Very interesting, had a charmed life from the get go amd didn’t lose his focus on his own dreams…
DaPicayune
September 2, 2023 3:58 pm
Jimmy, The King of the Parrot Heads world wide, was my neighbor and friend when me, my brothers and Jimmy were just kids/young teenagers.
Unlike Elvis and so many others of fame that The Road Killed via drugs/alcohol and lose living, Mr. Buffet lived a very productive life aside from his troubadour music. He wrote several children’s books, developed a thriving restaurant chain and resorts business, “Margaritaville”, and continued to tour globally to delight his fans. His announced tour dates were Sold Out within days, world wide. Jimmy did enjoy a libation or two, but he earned them all.
His grand father, Captain Grant, was a retired tall ship captain that lived next door to my grandfather on Lake Yazoo in Pascagoula, MS.
Jimmy’s father rented a house from my grandfather across the street from our house and worked in my grandfather’s shipyard, Ingalls, before taking a job in a Mobile yard and moving there with Jimmy and his mother.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jimmy+Buffett%E2%80%99s+Childhood+Home/@30.3511488,-88.5576447,3a,77.7y/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipPVdLinVnJbii9TeCstRQnh3-wH4LuXhRBX0ZuV!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPVdLinVnJbii9TeCstRQnh3-wH4LuXhRBX0ZuV%3Dw203-h152-k-no!7i1024!8i768!4m18!1m8!3m7!1s0x889be8cb99d742ef:0xccc683cad411efb3!2sPascagoula,+MS!3b1!8m2!3d30.3657552!4d-88.5561272!16zL20vMHhnank!3m8!1s0x889befff02b47f47:0xb89b01d7a69d95f2!8m2!3d30.3511573!4d-88.5576613!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgAQ!16s%2Fg%2F11j4mtw56g?entry=ttu
This explains his song title, Son of a Son of a Sailor. We and jimmy, like our host, SD, grew up on the water, swimming, fishing and especially sailing in our several cat sailboats, sloops and wooden skiff moored on my grandfather’s front yard docks.
It was an idealistic childhood and we enjoyed every minute of it. Jimmy’s song, Life is Just a Tire Swing was about the 2″ rope tire swing on one of the giant oaks in my grand father’s water front yard. We had a ball, with several tree houses in the oaks.
Like all good artists, Jimmy wrote about his life’s experiences. His best (IMHO) and one my first wife loved is his song, Come Monday, which has the same theme as Lionel Richie/Alabama’s “Deep River Women” (“Lord I am coming Home to You!”) that reveals the loneliness of performing on the road and missing your loved ones so, just like In the Early Morning Rain, written by another beloved troubadour that we have recently lost, Gordon Lightfoot.
Jimmy was four years my senior, and he and my 2 older brothers would play mean tricks on this ‘younger kid brother’. Before leaving to go play in Dr. Mcllwain’s woods just behind Captain Grant’s house on Grant Street, these tricksters would tell me to run to the garage in our back yard to get something and when I returned, they had run off without me,… but I always found them later climing trees and playi ng in the woods,… lots to do there then for young boys up to mischief.
Once, we caught a baby alligator gar in the lake and put it in a big metal wash tub in the lot behind Jimmy’s house. Jimmy and my brothers would charge kids in the neighborhood a nickle to look at and pet the fish,… no fooling.
Jimmy went to U of Southern Miss with my older brothers , but dropped out to open his guitar case on the corner of Bourbon and Saint Louis streets in the French Quarter where tourists would donate to his diner after hearing him play in public, solo. Then he moved on up to Nashville, became friends with Willie and Waylon and like them, he left Nashville for FL when they went to Luckenbach, TX because they were tired of being told what to write and play by the industry execs.
The rest is History,…. thanks Nashville execs.
To me, his best impression that captures his spirit was the photo on his album cover where he wares a White Sport Coat and his holding up a Pink Crustation (cooked lobster) on the beech, a spoof on Pat Boone’s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation love song,…. that was totally Jimmy Buffet. He luved entertaining.
RIP, my old Musical childhood friend from so many years ago,… you with your talent and happy spirits have given the world great joy and happiness. It’ll always be 5 O’clock Somewhere,… so keep it between the beacons and buoys, Jimmy.
You’ve shared some very private memories..so personal and loving.
Thank you for sharing.
I too am 76 and as so many who were on board with Jimmy’s music at a time we were just beginning ‘adulting’, it’s warming to know how many of us are also feeling thankful for his bringing so much joy to the party that has been our lives. May in R.I.P.
JB was an American original — he trademarked to ability to sit in a bar with a buzz and pretend like you were in the Caribbean. And his concerts were wild…. No small things and part of the reason why I’m in AA the past 15 years!!
I don’t venerate him quite to the extent I see above. For me the music does not age particularly well although I’ll take a cheeseburger in paradise any time.
JB was an avid supporter of Hillary — interesting when you consider the fact that many of his fans were working folks — maybe even deplorables — looking for the aforementioned escape.
He’ll be missed.
“JB was an avid supporter of Hillary — interesting when you consider the fact that many of his fans were working folks — ”
Perhaps so., but, was he noisy about it/ Did he go into leftist screeds during his shows like the insufferable Garrison Keillor?
I had literally just crossed the continental divide a few days ago….
———
His music inspired me to play guitar and write music.
I enjoyed his novels too. My favorite is A Salty Piece Of Land.
A Bit of One of my favorites:
“Reading departure signs in some big airport
Reminds me of the places I’ve been
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure
Makes me want to go back again
If it suddenly ended tomorrow
I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son of a bitches
I’ve seen more than I can recall
These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane”
It’s been a helluva ride, Jimmy.