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 ( Jimmy Buffet)

and so 45 years after that song was released, on another Labor Day weekend; Jimmy Buffet has taken his leave at the age of "76"....some would say that 76 is good age to die......as long as your last few months are enjoyable...as long as you can walk to the corner to pickup a coffee, an egg sandwhich and the NY Post, as long as you can enjoy the great outdoors with a cold beer and a jumpin tune........as soon as those things are taken from me.....well i too will take my leave.

Jimmy was an admirable character.....true to his image and he never changed his stripes. He was born on Christmas Day 1946 in the shipbuilding town of Pacgagoula Mississippi on the gulf of Mexico. I was fortunate to call Pascagoula home for 6 months in the spring of 1989. I fondly recall drinking in a laundromat called SUDS & BREWS.....a long bar on one wall....and washers and dryers on the other wall.......we drank ice cold bottles of DIXIE beer for $1.75 ......washed our uniforms and civilian clothes, and we watched Chris Jackson and the LSU tigers take on the likes of Dwayne Schintzuis and the Fla Gators on BIG Monday SEC basketball on local redneck tv  before ESPN ruined the world.......perhaps i digress.

Jimmy Buffet was a profound drinker and he wrote songs to tell us all about it.....he had a happy vibe.....it was impossible to be angry if his music was in the vicinity.......imagine a movie where a serial killer goes around slaughtering people while listening to Margaritaville ? it just wouldn't work.

In the early 70's he was playing his "country" music in the bars of New Orleans and Nashville when fellow musician and friend Jerry Jeff Walker took him to Key West for the weekend.......well.....salt meet pepper......if ever there was a match made in heaven this was it.....for the next 50 years his painted a beautiful portrait of this paradise....it is impossible to think of Key West without thinking about a Jimmy song

he had a great talent, his writing could make you laugh or smile and also bring a tear to your eye...sometimes in the same song.....sometimes in the same verse....and even the same line. He leaves a legacy behind that will not go anywhere soon, i think his music and message transcends generations and has a core value that most human beings can connect with (except moslems who don't drink...because after all the one true God wants us to be miserable and kill goats)  I was lucky enough to see him live , and it was fun to see parents and adult children singing along to his music and enjoying a cocktail and a laugh. He will be missed , but if you live anywhere near the ocean, the memories of him are everywhere if you look for them....after all there's Booze in the Blender.....2+3=Beeer

Haul the sheet in as we ride on the wind
That our forefathers harnessed before us
Hear the bells ring as the tight rigging sings
It's a son of a gun of a chorus

Where it all ends I can't fathom my friends
If I knew I might toss out my anchor
So I cruise along always searchin' for songs
Not a lawyer a thief or a banker

I'm just a son of a son, son of a son
Son of a son of a sailor
The sea's in my veins, my tradition remains
I'm just glad I don't live in a trailer