Jimmy Buffett

I wouldn't describe myself as a fan of Jimmy Buffett, who passed away on Friday, but I found myself watching videos of him last night after reading of his death. My parents listened to him and there's a fair bit of nostalgia associated with his sound. While I listen to a lot of '60s and '70s rock, Buffett seems uniquely connected to my parents' generation and so he sounds like my childhood. I do also have two vivid memories concerning him.

One of them was in a high school English class where, for reasons I can't remember, we students were tasked with sharing a favourite song or song for some reason meaningful to us. I remember one girl, whose name I didn't know then and don't know now, who was the type who'd be gregarious in her group of friends but giggling and shy when in front of an audience. She got up in front of the class, red faced and giggling, and promised us we were going to love the song she had to share. Despite her shyness, she seemed absolutely confident in this and from her giggling I could tell we were meant to find the song absolutely hysterical. She played for us Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise":

I remember the whole class listening stone-faced, even the teacher, as the girl continued to awkwardly giggle intermittently. I guess some of us might have been compelled to give her a courtesy laugh but I think everyone was busy trying to figure out what the punchline of the song was meant to be.

The other memory I have is from four or five years ago when I was volunteering at the San Diego Maritime Museum, which is a collection of antique and replica ships, the crown jewel of which is the Star of India, a barque constructed in 1863. One day, one of the supervisors told a group of us assembled volunteers about the time Jimmy Buffett made an impromptu visit to the Star of India. The supervisor said he'd invited Buffett to climb one of the shrouds. Buffett reluctantly climbed up a little ways and came back down. Mainly what I remember is the relish with which the supervisor told this uneventful tale, as though the fact that Buffett hadn't been willing to climb to the first trestletrees proved he was no true seaman. The guy probably had every Jimmy Buffett album but was so keen to squeeze his brief celebrity encounter for all it was worth that he was willing to talk shit about the man to a group of strangers.

Anyway. I watched some Jimmy Buffett videos last night. I enjoyed this appearance on Letterman:

X Sonnet #1734

Reflected staves again commence the match.
A gallant hand extends to greater blades.
Above the deck, a restless chicken hatched.
As tiny larvae fill the verdant glades.
With monkeys making checks, the bill was green.
For after growing spuds, the players ate.
A tricky game is Garden Ball we've seen.
The flowers stand for bees to swallow bait.
Abandoned trucks escort a timid light.
Responding pots of death arrive to pout.
Intensely angry clouds reject the kite.
Her shower takes a year for lack of drought.
The daily burgers dropped to only two.
A wasted drink has lost its merry hue.