Apparently of skin cancer.
Next verse same as the first.
Good singer, though I can’t stand Margaritaville. I once had it as an earworm when I was trying to sleep. I never slept the whole night as Margaritaville went through my head.
Ironic way to die considering his image...
Glad that’s done.
Margaritaville is an example of a song played to death, overused.
If you were never amongst 10,000 people on the lawn at Merriweather Post Pavilion (Maryland), singing along to “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw,” you life is incomplete.
Well he did parlay what talent he had into a lucrative business empire. I was not a big fan and his music was pretty much what I call Bubble Gum stuff. He wasn’t what I would call a serious musician, but he did pretty well. He certainly did better than most and there were a lot that were one hit wonders and he did escape that.
But I agree some of his songs were just done to death.
He was too drunk and wasted away to get out of the sun
Give him his props. He had some serious business acumen.
My favorite tune was his duet with Martina McBride: “Trip Around the Sun”.
Underneath that laid back Key West attitude there must have been a shrewd businessman. He never really had any Number 1 hits but he toured constantly and always drew crowds. Living in Atlanta in the late 70s he was huge. Almost fifty years later he was still a draw. I was just in Margaritaville in Key West last January. RIP Jimmy B.
His first few albums were semi-country gems. When he transitioned to the sun-soaked, beachy, Florida/Caribbean drunken Yuppie/Parrothead nonsense...meh.
That said, RIP.
RIP Mr. Margaritaville.
Rest in Parrotdise, Jimmy
I hated his politics. I loved his music. He was a good man. Put him in the ground covered with coral or scatter his ashes on a Key West Coral Reef from his amphibian plane he once flew. He would like that.
Now great whales travel the rhumb lines
Dodging those deadly harpoons
Spawning their young, as their ancestors done
In the depths of her hidden lagoons
There are times I find myself with them
And times I feel as they do
We′re on a similar course, it’s just a different source
But I′m in danger of extinction too
“Treat Her Like A Lady,” Volcano, MCA, 1970
I thought the intent of Margaritaville was to convey the idea of finally coming clean about a failed relationship - not so much beach escapism. It seems to highlight humanity’s propensity to deny guilt and blame for the wrongs we do. Catchy tune or no, I think that’s part of its appeal. Just my 2 cents worth.
“””From humble beginnings as an admitted small-time marijuana smuggler in Key West, Buffett built a sprawling business empire based on his Caribbean-flavored soft rock that celebrated the Florida Keys, sunshine and nightlife.
His name became synonymous with a laid-back subtropical party vibe, and his legions of loyal fans, known as ParrotHeads, flocked to his restaurants, resorts and concerts. At his death, Buffet had a net worth of $1 billion, according to Forbes.”””
A lot of people don’t realize how much help in starting fortune building the untaxed cash from small-time drug dealing could give.
In the 60s and 70s guys with cash could buy low-end real estate, start little restaurants, buy a buddy’s bar and then other struggling bars and businesses, or start little companies like pool cleaning or roofing, and buy heavy equipment or trucks, boats, or whatever.
I remember a normal Joe with a beater car who had to get a job because he needed to have some excuse for why he could buy so many cheap rental houses which at that point was all he knew how to do, he had shoe boxes of cash that he hadn’t figured out how to invest since he was just a young stoner without a plan, the untaxed cash was just an abundant windfall from what was basically just the way he liked to get high and live.
A man with a boat and a business plan could have fun and become a billionaire without ever leaving the beach life as long as he made enough untaxed seed money in his youth to start off the permanent legit cash flow for his future growth.
A journalist once asked a chief accountant how much John D. Rockefeller left behind when he died.
The answer was, “All of it.”
Same answer for Jimmy Buffet.
I was in Margaritaville in Key West when a non-Buffett song came on the speakers. That was the Bat Signal that Jimmy was in the house. I looked over and he was eating on a 4 top in the corner. He didn’t like to listen to him doing his music. Later, we met him upstairs.
I found it ironic that despite his image as a laid-back beach bum in a sailboat, he was a workaholic.