Margaritaville To Paris

He has legions of fans. He’s a proud product of the US Gulf Coast. A pilot, a novelist, a sailor, a businessman. And one heck of a songwriter.

Yes, Parrotheads, you guessed right - it’s Mr. Jimmy Buffett.

If all you’ve ever known or heard about Jimmy Buffett has been drunken covers of “Margaritaville” or “Cheeseburger In Paradise” played in local bars, I encourage you to do a little more exploring of the Buffett repertoire. It’s freakin’ amazing.

Jimmy is a poet in flip-flops. His lyrics can be hilarious, whimsical, cutting, and achingly beautiful. And the songs come across with such ease that you don’t even have to try hard to get their drift. They cut through the bull and go straight for your emotional center. 

For example, here’s a song that is definitely not one of his chart-toppers, but has lyrics so simple and so compelling that it leaves the listener mesmerized. This is "He Went To Paris". 

If you’re a songwriter knowledgeable about the concept of prosody, you’ll note that this quiet piece is very “stable”. A series of balanced six-line verses, considerable (and clever!) perfect rhymes, like “impressive” and “aggressive”, a progression through time (the character ages through the song), and a simple and predictable melody and chord progression: Jimmy is telling us a poignant story. No need for theatrics here.

But it is indeed the story (based on a real-life veteran-musician, BTW) that grips us. “He went to Paris looking for answers” is the opening line (ah, that tricky opening line - songwriters, you know how important it is to get that right!), and yet for the rest of the song, the “questions” are never revealed. We only know the man started out as a young adventurer and ends up fishing in the islands every day in his final years, amazingly content and resigned to his fate, despite his earlier traumas.

So, yeah, musically the song is stable, but that just lets the emotionality of the lyrics stand out in contrast.

OMG. Such poetry. (Tears).

So go pour yourself an adult beverage (if you so choose) and crank up “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes”, “Come Monday” or some other Jimmy Buffett hit… and when you’re done, chill to some of his lesser known tunes. You won’t regret it.