Well, it’s been two weeks since Jimmy Buffett passed away. If you’ve been paying attention at all, you’ve seen announcements, tributes, heard his music played, and otherwise heard about his life. I’ve learned things I never knew (for instance, like me, he played the trombone!), and seen sides of him I hadn’t heard about.
I’ve talked about Jimmy in this blog; we’ve looked at the challenges of arranging his songs for handbells, and the recent “putting together a work band” set list contained several of the more popular Buffett songs (at my request).
But to really understand his impact on me, I need to take you back to the late 70s. My best friend Greg and I would sit around singing, playing guitars and other instruments, trying to come up with new things to perform at our church youth gatherings (!). Greg’s older brother Brett was a Jimmy Buffett fan, so he would sing those songs, I’d work up harmonies, and we would go through them over and over. A full decade before I would buy an “album” (actually cassette or CD) of Jimmy’s, I knew “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” I remember hearing “Come Monday” and “Margaritaville” on the radio, but we concentrated more on some of his sillier fare: “This Hotel Room,” “Peanut Butter Conspiracy,” and the like.
They were fun songs; and if you know anything about him at all, you know Jimmy liked to have fun. Going beyond his carefully cultivated hard partying persona, and the savvy business sense that made him a billionaire… he just loved playing, getting a crowd going, and his infectious smile could light up any room.
I know you should never meet your heroes, but I would have made an exception for him.
Fins up, Jimmy!
