It’s the middle of winter here in the Midwest – a fact I’d
\nappreciate my Australian writers not rubbing in my face – and I
\nneed a warm-up that isn’t as fattening as hot chocolate. Faster
\nthan you can say “parrothead,” into the Pierce Archive and out I
\ncame with a slab of Jimmy Buffett – today’s selection is his 1974
\nrelease
\nA1A<\/i>. And while it would still be three years until he
\nreached mainstream success, his mixture of country and laid-back
\nfolk is quite enjoyable.<\/p>\n
Though he was only pushing 30 when
\nA1A<\/i> came out, songs like “A Pirate Looks At Forty” had
\nBuffett taking a look back at life, part in wonder, part in awe…
\npart in disillusionment. The track is quite pretty, and was
\ndeservedly placed on his eventual “greatest hits” compilation.<\/p>\n
But this is not the sole great performance on this album. In the
\nspan of about forty minutes, Buffett goes from eschewing “selling
\nout” in favor of satisfying himself first in his music (“Makin’
\nMusic For Me”) to a quiet love song with a country flavor to it
\n(“Stories We Could Tell”) to an antidote to the traditional
\nbroken-heart cry-in-your-beer country numbers (“Migration”).<\/p>\n
But it is when Buffett tries to be the next Ray Stevens that he
\nnearly capsizes the whole boat. While “Door Number Three” has
\noccasional moments of humor, it eventually becomes overbearing and
\nunbearable. (Never mind the fact that newly-christened Parrot-Heads
\nmight not understand the “Let’s Make A Deal” references
\nherein.)<\/p>\n
For the most part, though, Buffett is content creating a
\nportrait of the laid-back life of a beach cowboy who has had one
\ntoo many tropical drinks. With a crack band behind him, Buffett is
\ncreating the mood that has been the magic of his music for the
\nbetter part of twenty years – on this, just his third effort for
\nMCA (then known as ABC Dunhill) Records, he’s almost got it licked.
\n(And can someone confirm for me if the Steve Goodman credited with
\nacoustic lead guitar is the same Goodman who wrote “City Of New
\nOrleans”? E-mail me, please.)<\/p>\n
The one weakness of Buffett is his style of music will throw you
\nfor a loop the first time you hear it – and it might be a more
\ndifficult one if you aren’t a big country music fan, as the country
\novertones are quite evident. Still, within just a few numbers,
\nBuffett has you swaying along with the tunes, sipping – aww, who am
\nI kidding, guzzling – mai tais in the living room. (Memo to my
\nboss: I won’t be in today – aaahhh, sore throat. Yeah, that’ll
\ndo.)<\/p>\n
Buffett didn’t seem to care if he hit the big time on
\nA1A<\/i>; the music herein represents more of a love for the tune
\nthan the success. It is for this reason that Buffett succeeds – and
\nleaves people wondering why he’s only had one top 10 hit in his
\nentire career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5930],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35883","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jimmy-buffett","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35883"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35883"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}