Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, August 2 2006, (9:30 PM – 11:30 PM) behind Big Al’s in Browstown MI.
“Our biggest turnout yet: Don, Laury, Greg, Greg 2.0, Mike, Mickey, Schmoe, and even Scott, discussing the new DVD and a classic album.”
Can you guys make out what Greg 2.0 is saying? The bar was noisy and he was sitting far from the mic, but if you listen closely you can make out “You know, during my travels, I, I, you know, listening to Sirius radio, looking–looking for something to listen to, I could find the Jimmy Buffett channel.
“…What the fuck?
“[To Nate] Sorry little Joe. I’ll watch my language.
“But uh…I never listened to it, but I saw it. And I immediately thought about you goofy bastards. And I’m driving down the middle of Missouri, laughing my ass off. ‘I bet these goofy bastards are sitting there listening to this crap right now.’”
Is it true there were more people on mic than subscribe to the show? We even had an audience, as Don and Nate (Schmoe’s son) listened off-mic. Well, actually, Nate slept through the whoe recording — which makes him pretty much your typical North Coast Cast subscriber. And apparently we’re going for the record on most gay jokes per minute (gjpm); but how else could we celebrate the return of the prodigal Scott?! He came back in time to discuss the new live DVD. And the “PC” Schmoe refers to (which really was our only light source outside) is actually Scott’s brand new 15″ MacBook. So much for Apple’s “Mac vs PC” marketing campaign. By the way, speaking of gjpm, I think I should’ve said “minced” instead of “flounced” during the show.
Thanks to listener Ed (who’s also present on our our Frappr map) I got word that Best Buy was selling Live at Wrigley Field ahead of its release date. The Best Buy near where I work did not have it, but this was hardly a surprise since they never seem to have anything — despite always having fully stocked shelves. I managed to snag the disc Friday morning at the Southgate Best Buy, and was able to revel in it all weekend long. I even got to watch it on a 50″ plasma screen, pleasantly surprised to find out the concert is 16×9 anamorphic. (Why do I have the feeling Jimmy must have bought a widescreen TV or two recently?) The daylight video reveals some compression problems, but the nighttime stuff looks great. And I have to admit, at the risk of sounding Scott-ish, that watching women thrust their upper frontals at the camera is actually kind of scary on a 50″ screen.
The benefit of being in charge of the show notes is even if I don’t speak up dring the show, I get to have the last word here. Despite liking the DVD, especially the unobtrusive and non-flashy editing, I have a problem with the concert itself. I really wish Jimmy would let go of Heather Perry and the on-stage choreography. I’m not denying Ms Perry looks great, but she is more of a distraction from the music and doesn’t add to the show. (Actually whenever she appears I keep thinking someone from the crowd got up on stage.) I really hate all this theatrical staging, with the props and skits and fire eaters and limbo contests. It reeks too much of those lame Carnival Cruise Line shows. When I go to a Buffett show (those rare years he deigns to visit us) I go fo the great songs, story telling, and banter — not lion tamers, costume changes, and trapeze artistes.
</rant>
Those were my DVD notes. Here are my Son of a Son of a Sailor notes. 1) When I was younger I cynically figured Jimmy made this the single just so it would sound like he was going to say “son of a bitch” on the radio. It was a long while later before I got to read the lyrics and see what a great song this really is.
2) I got my Eskatrol definition from the COB,O.org FAQ.
3) as with the title track, I cynically figured “The Last Line” was a veiled reference to cocaine. Reading the lyrics it looks like Keith Sykes might have been extremely depressed. Were there fearful outcries of retirement when Jimmy sang “Time has come to not make a sound” the way some people are now bewailing his writing a song called “Party at the End of the World”?
4) I like to think that I single-handedly got Jimmy to perform “Livingston Saturday Night” live. I couldn’t understand why year after year this song never made the setlist; it seemed like this would be such an exciting, energizing addition to a show. Whenever I wrote to the Margaritaville Store in Key West I would include this demand. And after four years of letters, Jimmy finally played it! I got to hear it three times at his three night stand at Pine Knob, and I would smile proudly knowing this was all because of me. Sadly, this was way back in 1993 and he’s hardly played it since.
5) it’s easy to enjoy a song about cheeseburgers…but then they had to ruin it by having a dancing cow on stage in 2001. Was that Heather Perry in there? 6) like I said in the show, I love the orchestration but the song is too slow for me. 7) I thought it was “cull the world’s rum”, Scott thought it was “crawl the world’s run”, Mike thought is was “Calderwood’s Rum”, Margaritaville.com says “Caldwood’s Rum”; but Google seems to suggest it’s “Callwood’s Rum” (cf. here and here — no matter how many e-mails Schmoe sends me!). And the other lyric debate obviously refers to the sleeves of Dwight Schrute. (Long ago I thought it might have something to do with “cheroot”.)
8) Wikipedia has some juicy quotes from Florida Citrus Commission spokeswoman Anita Bryant and her stand against Dade County’s 1977 anti-descrimination ordinance. I was going to include some here, but I almost feel we’ve done more than enough gay-bashing this week. After all, this show was supposed to be our submission reel for the 17th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. And I was wrong in saying Son of a Son of a Sailor came out that same year; it was released a year later.
And, 9) like I said, Jimmy needs to write more story-songs like this one, and he really needs to perform this one.
Want to read along with Schmoe? Download a PDF of the ABC Records memo.
P.S.: it didn’t make the final cut, but next week’s assignment is our top ten Buffett songs and our thoughts on Off to the See the Lizard. Feel free to share your own with us at podcast@northcoastcast.com.
> Download Episode 11
In the interest of documentation, and the fact we lost a bit of our purpose (I think) when reviewing the album, here are my thoughts:
I got into the music after China was released. Not because, but that was the time period – my senior year of high school, 1982. So this album arrives into my Buffett Mythos as I had gotten it in my head I was going to capture everything Buffett had recorded as soon as possible and started borrowing albums and recording them onto cassette. I immediately realized the only live performance I had seen was SOASOAS on SNL. I looked forward to listening to this. And it did not disappoint. I was particularly impressed by the album package. And now, in year 2006, I listened again on my turntable (a different stereo) and read the liner notes. I was stunned how fast the album completed. CD’s have tended to make albums longer than the LP days. I re-discovered lyrics from the lyric sheet I had long since abandoned since my CD copy is embarrassingly short on, well, anything substantial outside of the music. Not sure of the Gold disc.
1. I loved it the first time I heard it — on Saturday Night Live. So now, imagine my delight when I cued up someone else’s LP (Mike’s or Hud’s), recorded it the first time, and read the liner notes while it played. You cannot say enough about the writing and production on this cut. I became a Norbert Putnam fan immediately.
2. Never thought anything special about this at the time. Now, I listen and I see that Jimmy was trying to rock and still writing stories. Cool.
3. I swear to you, I loved this song the very first time it started up. Just like In the Shelter (but I am getting ahead of myself). Then I found it so depressing and wondered if my new music passion was going to hang them up. OK, written by Keith Sykes. Good. But hats off to Sykes — terrific country song.
4. I always liked this, but not as much as Mike. It was good, but the drive to get it played live became more about fulfilling our wishes than me really wishing it. But it is a fun song, no doubt.
5. I just could not believe this song. Then I went and saw Jimmy the first time in 1982 and he did not play it. Not sure if he even played the next time or two. I always found it strange it is a live staple now when it took me a while to hear it live. I assume he shied away from the fact that this was considered a novelty song.
6. I have to admit, although it has stellar production, and it is well written (I notice NOW), this is easily my least favorite (or maybe tied) song form the holy triumvirate. There, I said it. I should have said it while recording.
7. Wow. I was stunned by the song and took embarrassingly many listens in my car cassette player to understand how terrific this song is. Three stories. All tied together. I miss these songs.
8. Fun. Since I listened to it a few years after it was released, I noticed immediately how dated it was. Too bad. I just love the chorus. I will admit now I was always uncomfortable with the whole “Let’s reggae, Reefers!” part. Both the line and organ solo, which I notice was done by Fingers. And, as Mick was brave enough to mention, the Kiss thing is so lame.
9. Another one where multiple listens allowed me to realize I was hearing genius. This isn’t He Went to Paris. This was an original tale told with as little words as possible, with as much detail as a novel. OK, maybe I am getting carried away, but this is good stuff.