T is THE WEATHER IS HERE I WISH YOU WERE BEAUTIFUL

Please note that the videos embedded with the songs were posted by some great Parrotheads on YouTube and not my creation.


"The Weather is Here I Wish You Were Beautiful" (1980) from the Coconut Telegraph CD has been one of my favorite songs for two reasons.

The first one is that of course, it has all the Jimmy Buffett elements, love of the palm tress, escaping a bitchy girlfriend, finding new love and finally deciding to kick it all over and move to the islands.  In the song, I am assuming he is from NYC and not sure where the flight attendant is from (Jimmy used the politically incorrect "Stewardess" in the song).

The other thing I love about this song is that at the time he recorded it Jimmy was a big "All My Children" fan; that's right the soap opera.  I watched it off and on when I was home with kids, but my friend called one day and said "Jimmy Buffett is going to be on 'All My Children' today!"  and he was.  He walked into a bar sat down, I don't remember if he had any lines, but the juke box was playing one of his songs.

THIS song comes into this all (ah, you were waiting for a point, right) because of the line "Billy Clyde wasn't insane".  Billy Clyde Tuggle was a "All My Children"  character, so I've always gotten a kick out of that and remember Jimmy's brief soap opera cameo every time I hear this song. .

S is for SON OF A SON OF A SAILOR

This song is the title song of one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett albums Son of a Son of a Sailor (1978).  As we know from following Jimmy's other songs, he actually is the son of a son of a sailor in that his grandfather was a sailing ship captain.

This song celebrates sailing and being on the water.  As Jimmy says, :The sea's in my veins, my tradition remains, I'm just glad I don't live in a trailer".  He has never been fond of the trailer parks scattered over Florida and especially hates them in the Keys.

This song more than many others speaks to how this guy became such a hit with many people.  He dreams the same dream, sings about them in song and then goes out and lives the dream, but shares it all with his fans like he's their best friend.  I have to admit that there are times in my life his songs have been my best friend.

Hey, this weekend go down to the ocean and listen to some Buffett!!!

O is for ONE PARTICULAR HARBOR

"One Particular Harbor" (1983) is from the album of the same name and is Mr. Buffett's ode to Tahiti.  He sings the first and last verses in Tahitian which obviously many of his fans have learned,  because they try anyway to sing it along with him at concerts.

This lovely song is about a beautiful place in Pacific (not Jimmy's usual stomping ground) and is soothing to listen to.  The CMT video that I've included is from a concert Jimmy did in Antuilla, not Tahiti.

The translation of the first Tahitian verse (according to Wikipedia) is:

"Nature lives (life to nature), Have pity for the Earth, (Love the Earth)"

And the translation of the final Tahitian verse is that plus:

 "Bounty of the land is exhausted, But there is still abundance on the sea"

Sounds like Jimmy for sure!