Flip Flop Farewell

September 2, 2023

By Larry Carlin

Last night I fell asleep in the recliner while watching a movie with an orange cat on my lap. I woke up around 2 a.m., picked up my iPhone, and I saw that there was an email from the NY Times (I subscribe online and get headlines from them throughout the day). It said, “Jimmy Buffett, Roguish Bard of Island Escapism, Is Dead at 76.” Needless to say, I was shocked and saddened by the news. And I still am, 12 hours later.

In 1974, after leaving home outside of Philly at age 20 and moving to State College, PA, to attend Penn State University, I posted a sign at the local record store looking for fellow musicians to jam with. I got a call from a guitar player named Jim “Pigman” Mortimer, and we talked on the phone for about half an hour. He spoke effusively about this singer that I had never heard of named Jimmy Buffett, and his oddly titled album A White Sport Coast and a Pink Crustacean. The songs that Jim really liked were “Railroad Lady,” “He Went to Paris,” and “Why Don’t We Get Drunk.” Not having yet met Jim/Pigman, just on his suggestion the next day I went down to Discount Records and bought a copy of the album, and this is how my friendship with both Jims began. The first one only lasted a few years, but the second one continued for 49 years, until the news arrived last night.

I became a fan from the very first song on the album, which is "The Great Filling Station Holdup.” And the Pig was right about the three songs he had told me about. And every other song was good, too. I was instantly hooked, and this was a few years before “Margaritaville” and the birth of Parrot Heads. It wasn’t long before I was singing songs like “Peanut Butter Conspiracy” and “Why Don’t We Get Drunk.” While playing a couple of years later in a band in town called Justin Case, the lead singer thought that “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” was too short, so he wrote an additional verse which I still recall today. That band also did versions of “Railroad Lady,” “Margaritaville,” “Changes in Latitudes,” and probably more that I am forgetting. In a later band called the Junkyard Dogs I sang “Livingston Saturday Night” and “Music for Money.” And occasionally as a solo performer I did “Come Monday” and “He Went to Paris.”

Over the next ten years I purchased the recordings Living and Dying in 3/4 Time, A1A, Havana Daydreamin', High Cumberland Jubilee, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,  Son of a Son of a Sailor, Volcano, Coconut Telegraph, Somewhere Over China, and One Particular Harbour, many of which I still have in my meager vinyl collection. Sometime in the late ‘80s I made my own cassette “mix-tape” of my favorite 25 JB songs from these LPs, and it still sits inside my van. Yes, my car is old (from 2007) and it has a cassette player. I need to digitize that tape ASAP.

While I have always enjoyed Jimmy’s songs from back in the day, I can hardly claim to be a Parrot Head. I only saw him perform three times. He played a solo show at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, PA, in 1974. I then saw him at New Orleans Jazz Fest in 1987. And then the last time was at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA, in 1994. While having sung about margaritas many times over the decades, I can honestly say that I have never drunk one, and rum is not on my short list of alcoholic beverages. As for cheeseburgers, since the late ‘70s I’ve only eaten the veggie variety. The only ocean vessels I have been on were cruise ships, I have never surfed, been to Key West or one of his restaurants, as a fair-skinned erstwhile redheaded Irish-American I never go to the beach, I don’t wear flip-flops, and aside from the albums, I don’t own one piece of merchandise with Jimmy’s name on it. But I do have many of his songs and stories in my heart and soul, and they will be there forever. As he once said, “Songwriters write songs, but they really belong to the listener.”

I have been a musician for the past 55 years, though I have never been much of a songwriter. But the few songs that I have written have definitely been influenced mostly by Jimmy. He had such a wonderful and often times witty way with words. He was such a great writer, poet and musician, having had the gift of being able to paint vivid pictures of people and places in just three and a half minutes in every one of his tunes. I only wish that I had a bit of his talent.

All day long today I have been watching YouTube videos and listening to his Margaritaville channel on SiriusXM. While Jimmy Buffett is now sadly “Incommunicado,” lucky for us, his songs and books will be around for generations to come. And maybe “Come Monday” things will be alright again. But right now, “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere,” and I can sure use a beer, or hey, maybe even some “Boat Drinks.”

In closing, here is a quote of note from his book A Pirate Looks at Fifty: “You know Death will get you in the end, but if you are smart and have a sense of humor, you can thumb your nose at it for awhile.” After 76 years of perpetual motion, Jimmy’s hopefully now enjoying a “Cheeseburger in Paradise” eternally, with an onion slice…