Margaritaville
A Reason To Smile
There was something quintessentially American about the singer/songwriter/entrepreneur Jimmy Buffett, who passed away yesterday at the age of 76. He was a showman, selling a laid-back vision of life: beaches, cocktails, sunbaked days, and parties after dark. The allure of letting loose and having fun has been a part of our national identity. But so have hard work and seizing opportunities to monetize an idea, which Buffett did with such skill that Forbes estimated his net worth this year at $1 billion.
Buffett’s life followed an arc that exemplified the American Dream. Originally a reporter working for Billboard, he struggled as a young musician to find his voice and make his mark. That changed when he moved to Key West, Florida. He would later say that there “I found a lifestyle, and I knew that whatever I did would have to work around my lifestyle.” And it was this lifestyle — a blend of love for the open sea and the camaraderie of a seaside bar, all infused with music — that drew legions of loyal fans over decades of success.
It’s worth noting that Buffett was not a hitmaker in the traditional sense. Only the song that made him famous, the 1977 “Margaritaville,” reached the pop Top 10. Rather, Buffett exemplified another American philosophy: that you can find your way to fame and even fortune by marching to the beat of your own drum, or if you are so lucky, your own band, the Coral Reefers.
His songs were often fun, full of wordplay (like “Last Mango In Paris”), and meant for singalongs, which his concerts invariably became. He turned the island vibe of his music into successful lines of restaurants, resorts, tequila, and clothing. Buffett was a bestselling author in fiction and nonfiction. He even had a hit Broadway show.
Though he left the hard partying to his youth, Buffett was able to call upon the joyful feeling of an endless summer that inspires the young, and the young at heart. But he also captured the complexities of life, love, and growing older. In a cynical world where the half-life of celebrity can be encompassed in nanosecond news cycles, Buffett endured. He knew who he was and what his fans wanted. They called themselves Parrotheads (a takeoff on the Deadhead fans of The Grateful Dead), and in his music and all that surrounded it, they found community, a vision of life well led, and a reason to smile.
Here’s an early performance of “Margaritaville”:
We also came across an appearance with David Letterman from 40 years ago, which includes an interview and a couple songs in a different style:
Finally, if you want to get a sense of what it was like to be among the Parrotheads, here’s Buffett with “Margaritaville” again at a benefit concert he did after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf in 2010. He was a committed environmentalist.
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RIP Jimmy Buffet. One of my favorites, “Come Monday” :
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
Back in my concert-going days, I saw Jimmy Buffett about a half-dozen times as a paying customer and another couple of times as a member of the stage crew. I could not be so down about anything that two hours with Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band couldn't cheer me up again (and in those years I was WAY down about a LOT of stuff -- my clinical depression wouldn't be diagnosed for years). The feeling I got from those shows would have been worth it at 10 times the price.
Everybody remembers his greatest hits, but one of his most meaningful songs to me was "Chancon pour les petites enfants, chancon pour tout le monde" ("Song for the children, song for the world"). Buffett wrote it for his daughter Savannah after she was born. About 20 years later, I sang it to my kids after they were born, by which time I was, myself, a pirate looking hard at 40.
Maya Angelou said that people won't always remember what you say to them, but they will always remember how you made them FEEL. That is what Buffett excelled at, and all of his well-deserved entrepreneurial success became possible because he had found a way through his music to make us all feel really good, even those of us who lived a thousand miles from the closest ocean. Fair winds and following seas, Jimmy, from one old pirate to another.