Additional Album Artwork:
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Disc One
Disc Two
Liner Notes:Where Is Margaritaville? It’s in the tropics somewhere between the Port of Indecision and Southwest of Disorder, but no parallels of latitude or longitude mark the spot exactly. You don’t have to be a navigator to get there. Palm trees provide the camouflage. Ocean breezes bring the seaplanes and sailboats, tourists and travelers. Passports are not required. Island music rules. No waiting lines for anything. There is a beach and a thatched roof bar perched on the edge of the turquoise sea where you can always find a barstool. There are lots of lies and loads of stories. Where is Margaritaville? Follow this album into your player and you’ll be transported there. A New Coat Of Paint On Some Old Favorites I arrived in Key West yesterday afternoon from a week in Panama to begin tracking for this album. The band came in later from Nashville and New York. It is good to be working again in Key West at Shrimpboat Sound. The neighborhood has become a little more upscale but the funk is still in the ‘boat.
In The Shelter
Savannah Jane actually came up with the idea to do this old song with a reggae arrangement. Nice call, Savvy J!
Son of a Son of a Sailor
Well, time to visit an old friend. This song first appeared back in ‘78 on the album of the same name. The thing I remember the most about doing that album was doing the cover. That was back when covers had budgets like albums, and we of course didn’t care that they charged the whole goddamn expense of the session back to me. Fortunately, I got a little smarter after that. My daughter shot some of the photographs for this package with her digital camera. We took the money we saved from not having to do a fancy photo session and bought some fancy wine. See how smart you get when you get older. P.S. This is still one of my favorite songs. In approaching this type of collection, it is a unique thing to find yourself re-doing your own material. Joseph Campbell said that a good myth is like an old car that was built to last. It just needs a good coat of paint every coupe of years. We have been playing this song live for a good number of years and after a few passes, I think it was Ralph who suggested that we “let it breathe”. It worked. As I sang the song for the ten thousandth time (I am not complaining), it was like singing a new song, and I found myself able to not just sing, but to tell the story. This song is about family and a seafaring heritage that I was lucky enough to be born into. I recently visited the family cemetery in Pascagoula when my aunt died. I hadn’t been there since my grandfather’s death over thirty years ago. The first thing that I noticed was that there were a lot more dead Buffetts in the plot than when I was last there. It was a more than sutble reminder that life is not a rehearsal. We only get to do this once. I think this song has held up because it is a story about real people who I knew very well – my grandfather and my father. I have been lucky enough to sail a few boats across numerous oceans and I think it is wonderful to be back in Key West singing sailing songs again. For me, that is what re-doing these songs is all about. Putting that fresh coat of paint on a good old legend.
Saxophones
I have always wanted to re-cut this song. When it was originally done, I didn’t even have a band, much less a horn section; and on the original recording, the arrangement that I wrote for the song featured the most predictable spot for a baritone solo, which came after the line “big baritones…,” etc, etc. For some reason, my producer at the time filled the hole with a bass solo. It never really worked for me, so now, thirty years later, we did our horn solo as God intended it. We decided to re-work this arrangement and take it to New Orleans where it should have been all along. What a fun new groove! I added a little old Stratocaster rhythm direct into the amp like the old days. Hell, we all want to be Keith Richards every once and awhile.
Sail on Sailor
I always liked the Holland album and especially this song. Maybe it was because it was partially written by a fellow Mississippian – Van Dyke Parks. It has lived like a lot of songs in my subconscious for a long time. Then the other day, I am in buying some wax from Rick Wentley at the Boys Club Surf Shop in Palm Beach and he says “You ought to cut “Sail On Sailor,” and he lends me his vinyl copy of the album. I took it to my surf shack, put it on my record player (yes, a real record player), and sat back and listened. Next step was to download the chords and the lyrics from some Brian Wilson internet site. Now that is how you mix technology. Recording is a team effort just like a sport, and there are levels of performance. I am blessed to be working with real pros. Everybody in this band is capable of producing a record and playing way beyond what is required of this material, yet the magic lies in collaboration and innovation. I remember standing in this studio a couple of years ago and watching in amazement as Brian Wilson recorded his vocal tracks for a song we wrote together called “South American”. I will not reveal the secret of that Beach Boys’ sound that I was lucky enough to witness, but I can tell you that it was innovative when they first did it and it still works today. So here we are trying to do another Beach Boys song.
Everybody’s Talkin’
This has always been one of my favorite songs by one of my heroes, Fred Neil. “Goin’ where the weather suits my cloths” to me is one of the best song lines ever written. However, as we start to run it down, we take it a little more to a Bossa Nova feel. I have always done this song straight-forward, the way I heard Fred do it and how Jerry Jeff Walker taught it to me, but this fresh coat of Brazilian paint feels pretty good.
He Went To Paris
I never get tired of hearing Mac McAnally play acoustic guitar, and I wanted to try this song much simpler than it was originally recorded, and with Jim Mayer playing acoustic bass. Don’t tell anybody, but we are a folk trio for this tune. This is our Kingston Trio version of “He Went To Paris”.
Knees of My Heart
This song is about Lent and confession. It seems, more often than not in my life, I have been looking for a little forgiveness.
The Captain and the Kid
This came out amazing. I was singing this song of family for my dad, who isn’t doing too well these days. I got quite emotional. We did it with just a piano and bass. It seems to be a worthy tribute to my old man.
Post Script
Heading home as the sun was setting, I thought to myself that there really isn’t any reason to make a record anywhere else. Shrimpboat Sound is cranking again and hopefully the music will never stop. Key West floats on the horizon and the flying fish are leading the way home. Ain’t life grand? If there is one thing, it’s that I have a few more stories to tell and a few more trips to the coastal confessional in my future. – Jimmy Buffett. Key West, Florida. January 2003 |
