JIMMY BUFFETT
King of Margaritaville (1946–2023)
“I’D like to make a career out of being uncategorisable,” Jimmy Buffett told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2000. “I want people to say, ‘He did this and he did that, but what did he really do?’ That sort of fits me.”
Buffett certainly did his damnedest to achieve that goal. Whatever he turned his hand to – songwriter, musician, author, actor, sailor, entrepreneur – Buffett was invariably successful. He saw himself as an entertainer rather than a first-rate singer or guitar-player, popularising his own tropical rock genre (often referred to as ‘Gulf and Western’) that fused elements of country, folk and Caribbean music. A Top 10 hit in the US, 1977’s “Margaritaville” became his signature song, a beach-fronted celebration of the laidback lifestyle that he came to embody. Its title would later give rise to a restaurant chain, radio station, casino, apparel, furniture, packaged food and various beverages.
The son of a marine engineer and sailor, Buffett’s initial ambition was to be a country singer, a journey that took him from Alabama to New Orleans and on to Nashville, where he supported himself by working as a journalist at magazine. He, but shifting base to Key West changed his musical approach. 1973’s was a mixture of good-time songs and poetic observations, housing a couple of tunes – “He Went To Paris” and “Death Of An Unpopular Poet” – that would lead Bob Dylan to name Buffett among his six favourite songwriters. Dylan also covered “A Pirate Looks At Forty”.
