Jimmy Buffett - 76

[Toga]

RIP

 

[CarolinaCuse]

I happened to have a long weekend in Key West one time and came back from a sunset cruise to find Jimmy Buffett playing a free show in Mallory Square. I ended up seeing him a couple more times over the years. RIP, Jimmy. Thanks for providing a good life vibe.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

RIP

Terrible news to wake up to. I was a huge fan. He was a great singer, songwriter and businessman. He led the life that most people could only dream about, but shared his life through his music. Sad day for Parrotheads around the world.

'Margaritaville' singer Jimmy Buffett, who turned beach-bum life into an empire, dies at 76

“Margaritaville” singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett has died at age 76. A statement on Buffett's official website and social media pages says the singer died Friday “surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs."

apnews.com

 

[OburgOrange]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Hope he's enjoying a cheeseburger in paradise right now.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[MikeSU02]

Saw him five times. 3x at Jones Beach and twice at the garden.

This one’s tough for me. Really became a fan in college and just never stopped.

Terrible news. RIP.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Saw him five times. 3x at Jones Beach and twice at the garden.

This one’s tough for me. Really became a fan in college and just never stopped.

Terrible news. RIP.

It's very sad but fortunately he has left an incredible legacy. Gone, but never forgotten.

 

[donniesyracuse]

One of my all-time favorite songs.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I’m quite certain he squeezed the lime of life for every drop it had, but 76 is too damn young. Should have had more time with his family.

 

[Cowtown]

Got into his music back in the 70's, Great Filling Station Hold Up, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, etc. We knew all the words and sang along when no one else even knew him. RIP, Jimmy.

 

[KellySyracuse]

Terrible news, I wish I'd been able to get to one of his shows, it had always been on my must do before I die list. RIP Jimmy, you were a tremendous gift to this world.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

1946-2023 | Jimmy Buffett

The life of legendary singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett

www.jimmybuffett.com

The beloved singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett passed away at his home in Sag Harbor, Long Island on Friday September 1, 2023 surrounded by family and friends. Buffett, 76, had been fighting Merkel Cell Skin Cancer for four years. He continued to perform during treatment, playing his last show, a surprise appearance in Rhode Island, in early July.

With a recording career that spanned more than fifty years and included hits such as “Margaritaville,” “Come Monday,” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” Buffett was one of the most successful performers in popular music. He filled arenas with fans who called themselves “Parrot Heads,” and popularized a signature blend of folk, country and Caribbean music with lyrics that often reflected Buffett’s world travels. A pilot and a sailor, Buffett wrote songs about his plane being shot at by Jamaican police (“Jamaica Mistaica”), getting lost in the Sahara Desert (“Buffet Hotel”) and smugglers he had known around the Florida Gulf Coast (“A Pirate Looks at 40”).

Although he was best known for upbeat party songs (others include “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and “Fins”) Buffett first achieved notoriety for thoughtful ballads that showed the influence of Texas songwriters such as Jerry Jeff Walker and Canadian Gordon Lightfoot.

Bob Dylan praised lesser-known Buffett compositions “He Went to Paris” and “Death of an Unpopular Poet” - songs that reflected the observational, storytelling skills Buffett developed in his early career as a journalist for Billboard magazine.

Buffett had a second career as a successful author. He was one of a handful of writers who had number one best-sellers on both the fiction and non-fiction lists of the New York Times Book Review.

He had a third career as an entrepreneur, building a diversified lifestyle brand business, including Margaritaville hotels, restaurants, and retirement communities, along with sidelines such as Land Shark beer. Buffett’s branding and business acumen made him one of the most financially successful musicians of all time.

James William Buffett was born on Christmas, 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi and grew up in Alabama. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1969. He credited early years playing and singing in the streets and bars of New Orleans with shaping his dedication to connecting with his audience and giving the customers a good show. Buffett had little patience with performers who took themselves too seriously. He liked to say that the job of singing for a living was descended from the profession of court jester.

Buffett is survived by his wife of 46 years, Jane (Slagsvol) Buffett, his daughters Savannah Jane (Joshua) and Sarah Delaney, his son Cameron Marley (Lara), his grandson Marley Ray and devoted pack of dogs Lola, Kingston, Pepper, Rosie, Ajax and Kody. Also survived by his Montana sister, Laurie Buffett McGuane (Tom), their children Heather Hume, Anne Buffett McGuane, Maggie McGuane and Thomas McGuane IV; his Alabama sister, Lucy Buffett and daughters Mara Delaney Buffett O’Dwyer and Melanie Leigh Buffett; and many more wonderful cousins, nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Jimmy Buffett’s Foundation Singing for Change, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute or MD Anderson Cancer Center.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Read somewhere that it was skin cancer. Life in the sun caught up to him in the end,

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Got into his music back in the 70's, Great Filling Station Hold Up, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, etc. We knew all the words and sang along when no one else even knew him. RIP, Jimmy.

I am a frequent listener to Margaritaville Radio on Sirius XM and this weekend they are dusting some real random songs that I've never heard them play before. Not well known ones you've mentioned above, but some that might never have seen the light of day.

 

[KellySyracuse]

Read somewhere that it was skin cancer. Life in the sun caught up to him in the end,

four year battle with it

MSN

www.msn.com

"SAG HARBOR, N.Y. (AP) — Jimmy Buffett, whose sun-drenched songs celebrated life by the shore, died of a rare, aggressive skin cancer, according to a statement on his website.

Buffett, 76, had Merkel cell cancer, according to the statement, which was posted after initial news of his death emerged Saturday. The statement also disclosed where the “Margaritaville” singer died: at his home in Sag Harbor, New York, near the Hamptons."

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I really ‘discovered’ Jimmy after I transferred to ESF for my junior year. My now wife and I spent the summer between junior and senior year in Newport RI and got into jimmy down there. The sailing and island vibe is strong in Newport. Certainly made senior year, especially the winter, much easier to tolerate when I got to listen to his music.

Fast forward a few years and we’re living and working in Boston, Fenway technically. My wife was working for a huge ad agency and one of her friends won two tickets to see Buffett at Great Woods just outside of town. My girl convinces her coworker to sell us the tickets for $100. This was probably 97 or 98. Tickets were inside, very close to the stage, and included valet parking. The woman probably could have gotten 4-5 times what we paid. Awesome night, great music, and Bill Weld, the governor of Mass was sitting two rows behind us.

 

[Cowtown]

He was quite a collector of unique guitars ...


“I was living in Aspen, Colorado, for the summer at that time,” Buffett recounts, “and the only guy I knew who had a Gibson Everly Brothers Flattop model was my pal J.D. Souther. But man, I really wanted one of my own. I just loved the look and sound of that guitar. I was finally able to find a 1962 Everly Brothers through a guy at a shop in Florida. A little bit later, J.D. came to Aspen to play a show, and we had a party for him. When he got there, I said, ‘C’mon over here, man, I want to show you something’ I got out my 1962 Everly Brothers and started playing it, jamming with J.D., and it was going great. Then J.D. stops and says, ‘Jimmy, I’ve got to talk to you for a minute. I didn’t tell you this, but my Everly Brothers got stolen about two months ago. And you’ve been playing it for the last ten minutes!’

“Well, I gave that guitar right back to J.D. on the spot,” Buffett continues. “And I contacted the guy in Florida that sold it to me—he sold Moroccan rugs, guitars, and hash pipes, as I recall—and I said, ‘I don’t know where you got that guitar you sold me, but it was stolen, and it belonged to a friend of mine, so I gave it back to him. So, unless you want to see federal investigators coming down here, you’d better have something for me of equal value that I can trace the numbers on to make sure it’s not stolen. And you’d better have it quick.’ Sure enough, he showed up a few days later with that 1962 Gibson J-100.”

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]