Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

Jimmy Buffett

https://variety.com/2023/music/obituaries-people-news/jimmy-buffett-dead-margaritaville-1235711632/

RIP guy whose music I've never heard and I always use as an example of an artist who seems to be an exclusively American phenomenon.

heard for the first time last year, don't think I can remember how it went though.

Curtis Fowlkes was cool. Buffett ... nah, but RIP.

When I interviewed Robert Forster, he said Buffett was an example of a great melodist.

Honest question, do you think Forster spent a lot of time with Buffett, or just knew the one song?

RIP Margaritadude. I never saw him in concert, but once years ago we were having dinner in a little Silver Spring seafood place. The owner came over and pointed out Buffett, saying she had known him in college and whenever he was in town he ate there.

Honest question, do you think Forster spent a lot of time with Buffett, or just knew the one song?

― Josh in Chicago

No idea. The admission came out of nowhere when I mentioned I was a Floridian.

I can't stand his two most famous songs, but a few years ago I belatedly found out that "Come Monday" was his. I had somehow misattributed it to Gordon Lightfoot.

"Come Monday" is not a bad song.

I was playing music in a bar last night and am glad this news had not yet reached the world.

Fortunately I am not playing out tonight, but I'll betcha tomorrow I am going to have to grit my teeth while some chucklehead does "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

RIP Gail Owens and Curtis Fowlkes.
Lounge Lizards forever!

*Gale

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/arts/jimmy-buffett-dead.html

didn’t like his music, but he seemed like a genuinely unique, affable dude and the world will miss him

In 1996 another of Mr. Buffett’s planes, Hemisphere Dancer, was shot at by the Jamaican police, who suspected the craft was being used to smuggle marijuana. Onboard the airplane, which sustained little damage, were Bono of U2; Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records; and Mr. Buffett’s wife and two daughters. The Jamaican authorities later admitted the incident was a case of mistaken identity, inspiring Mr. Buffett to write the song “Jamaica Mistaica,” a droll sendup of the affair.

It seems very much in character for him to have waited until the end of summer.

Keep on stepppin' on pop tops, my dude.

“Jamaica Mistaica”

omigod

It was a beautiful day, the kind you want to toast
We were tree top flyin' movin' west along the coast
Then we landed in the water, just about my favorite thrill
When some asshole started firing as we taxied to Negril
Just about to lose my temper as I endeavored to explain
We had only come for chicken we were not a ganja plane
Well, you should have seen their faces when they finally realized
We were not some coked up cowboy sporting guns and alibis

We're catchin' fire, and there wasn't even a spliff

This would make a good poll.

When I interviewed Robert Forster, he said Buffett was an example of a great melodist.

I know a bunch of songwriters who've grappled with the "Jimmy Buffett is actually a good songwriter, it's just that his image & his themes obscure the craft" position, and I'm one of them. I don't think he was like a secret Townes van Zandt, but the lane he lived in was absolutely a choice; he was a very VERY good storyteller, a guy who could write a melody you only had to hear once to hum it for the rest of your life. It is weird and bears a little unpacking that his craft, while immensely popular, never warranted much critical ink in an era when people talk a lot about the pop star as persona etc etc. He was an ascended master of the form, too good at it for the people who write about that sort of thing to notice.

Earlier this summer, after some Buffett-Dylan talk on another thread, I was really tempted to start a "Buffett In The '70s" listening thread over on ILM. Obviously that didn't happen.

If people find the persona odious, though, that's going to discourage them from pursuing the music.

...which you say, but relatively few people are so interested in songwriting craft that they'll study songs whose subjects have no appeal for them. Even more so when the songs are so dependant on writing/performing persona.

I've never done a deep dive, but wasn't he integrated or associated with that same 70s Nashville scene as someone like Jerry Jeff Walker?

RIP Jimmy

He had some nice songs - I even quite like Margaritaville as a song in and of itself. The associated margaritaverse, not so much lol

chaki otm

xps Lol yeah i had to look up "jamaica mistaica" after reading the story behind it on wikipedia. The lyrics are incredible throughout.

From the title it sounds like it should be "Dreadlock Holiday" dreadful.

I don't like Buffett (oh no)

lol

Xxxpost Yes, his earliest albums were very much in the progressive country style.

There once was a terrible movie called "Club Dread," where the running joke is that protagonist wrote a song called "Pina Coladaburg" before "Margaritaville," and it is a very sore point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPn33kAtdLU

I think it's in the film Rancho Deluxe (1975) where he pops up as a singer in a western-type bar, and it's interesting to see him in pre-Margaritaville days. I know he was good friends with novelist Thomas McGuane who wrote that film.

imdb says he starred in a 1973 documentary about tarpon fishing, alongside Richard Brautigan (!)

McGuane married Buffett's sister Laurie!

Right! And Peter Fonda was in the mix of that crowd, and he married McGuane's ex-wife

don't worry, his name will live on: https://scitechdaily.com/gnathia-jimmybuffetti-scientists-discover-new-isopod-species-in-the-florida-keys/

he has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in ‘repo man’

if they ever find a new species of coconut shrimp, they should also name it after him

Josefa sandwich of posts is 😳

former NM governor bill richardson, 75

To the best of my memory: he was the first big name (and longtime Clinton friend) to publically support Obama in 2008, and for a while was thought of as the likely VP pick.

lol thought that was still about Buffet for a sec

In 2019 it was revealed that Richardson was among those named in court documents from a civil suit between Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The documents were unsealed on August 9, 2019, a day before Epstein's suicide.[83][84] Giuffre alleges that she was sexually trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to several high-profile individuals, including Richardson, while she was underage in the early 2000s.[85][83] 2015 court documents that were unsealed in 2019 alleged Richardson's possible involvement with the Jeffrey Epstein child trafficking ring, which allegations he denied.[86] A spokesperson for Richardson also denied the claims, stating that he did not know Giuffre and had never seen Epstein in the presence of young or underage girls

I was talking about Buffett--did I miss something?

(Funny.)

God, I didn't know any of that about Richardson.

Buffett was the first big name to publicly support manatees

Oh, the huge manatee

Ha, just got it now!

Yeah jokes about the Hindenburg don't fly very well.

Kinda like the Hindenburg

Wow, this is the biggest tribute I've seen McCartney write for anyone

It seems that so many wonderful people are leaving this world, and now Jimmy Buffett is one of them. I’ve known Jimmy for some time and found him to be one of the kindest and most generous people. 

I remember once on holiday when I had forgotten to bring my guitar and was… pic.twitter.com/k5B6xgpAh7

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) September 2, 2023

That's very touching.