Jimmy Buffett
b. 25 December 1946, Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA, but raised in Mobile, Alabama. Country-rock singer Buffett describes his songs as ‘90 per cent autobiographical’, a statement attested to by his narratives of wine, women and song, alongside a prediliction for nautical matters. He is ‘the son of the son of a sailor’, and he describes his grandfather's life in The Captain And The Kid. His father was a naval architect, who often took Buffett on sailing trips. Buffett studied journalism at the University of Southern California, and described those years, and his urge to perform, in Migration. Working as the Nashville correspondent for Billboard magazine, he built up the contacts which led to his first albums on Barnaby Records. The albums were not well produced and the best song was one he re-recorded, In The Shelter. On a train journey, he and Jerry Jeff Walker wrote the poignant Railroad Lady, which has been recorded by Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard. Buffett settled in Key West and although initially involved in smuggling, he changed his ways when offered $25,000 to make an album for ABC Records. He went to Nashville, recorded A WHITE SPORT COAT & A PINK CRUSTACEAN for $10,000 and bought a boat with the remainder. The album included several story-songs about misdemeanours (The Great Filling Station Holdup, Peanut Butter Conspiracy), together with the lazy feel of He Went To Paris, which was recorded by Waylon Jennings. His humorous Why Don't We Get Drunk And Screw? was written under the pseudonym of Marvin Gardens, who made imaginary appearances on Buffett's one-man concerts. Buffett's LIVING AND DYING IN 3/4 TIME, included his US Top 30 hit, Come Monday. Its ban in the UK by the BBC because of a reference to Hush Puppies shoes led to a shrewd Jonathan King cover, referring to tennis shoes instead. Buffett's 1974 album, A-I-A, was named after the access road to the beach in Florida and he commented, ‘I never planned to make a whole series of albums about Key West. It was a natural process.’ Buffett wrote the music for a film about cattle rustlers, Rancho Deluxe, scripted by Buffett's brother-in-law Tom McGuane. McGuane described Buffett's music as lying ‘at the curious hinterland where Hank Williams and Xavier Cugat meet’, and Buffett was the first person to consistently bring Caribbean rhythms to Nashville. ( David Allan Coe, who recorded an attack on him called Jimmy Buffett, nevertheless copied his style.) 
In 1975, Buffett formed the Coral Reefer Band and their first album together, HAVANA DAYDREAMIN', included a song about the boredom of touring, This Hotel Room. Another title My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink And I Don't Love Jesus, was described by Record World as an album having ‘something to offend everyone’. His next album, arguably his best, CHANGES IN LATITUDES, CHANGES IN ATTITUDES, included the million-selling single, Margaritaville. A bitter verse about ‘old men in tank tops’ was initially omitted, but was included on Buffett's irrepressible concert album, YOU HAD TO BE THERE. Buffett made the US Top 10 albums with SON OF A SON OF A SAILOR, which included the US pop hit, Cheeseburger In Paradise, a US pop hit, and Livingston Saturday Night, which was featured in the film FM. Buffett continued to record prolifically, moving over to contemporary rock sounds, but his songs began to lack sparkle. The best tracks on two of his albums were remakes of standards, Stars Fell On Alabama and On A Slow Boat To China. His HOT WATER album included guest appearances by Rita Coolidge, the Neville Brothers, James Taylor and Steve Winwood, but it failed to restore him to the charts. In the UK, Buffett remains relatively unknown, perhaps through a reluctance to tour, but in the US he remains one of the ten biggest concert draws in the music industry. His songs continue to reflect his Key West lifestyle and to quote He Went To Paris, ‘Some of it's tragic and some of it's magic, but I had a good life all the way.’