Last time on Buffett Buffet, I wrote about Jimmy Buffett’s debut album, and the unexpected depth of its songs and themes. This week’s “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean” has a song with the chorus
“Why don't we get drunk and screw
I just bought a waterbed filled up for me and you”
….and it absolutely rips. “Pink Crustacean” is the first real Buffett album, tackling real Buffett issues, like getting drunk and staying drunk and big sexy ladies who work on the railroad.
First off, this album has two all-timers, “He Went to Paris” and “Why Don’t We Get Drunk.” These two songs could not be more different from each other, and are also prime examples of the two great genres of Buffett tracks.
“He Went to Paris” is a slow, thoughtful ballad inspired by the life of Eddie Balchowski, a Chicago musician that Buffett met in his early days as a touring singer-songwriter. According to Wikipedia, Balchowski was a one-armed veteran of the Spanish Civil War. The song’s lyrics are heartbreaking, telling the story of a man full of curiosity and ambition who sets out to find the answers to life’s unanswerable questions. Our hero travels to England, where he falls in love and starts a family. Tragically, his young family is killed during the bombings of England in the second world war. Okay, it doesn’t really sound like “Margaritaville” yet, but it’s getting there. In his grief, our hero decides to leave his tragic life to spend the rest of his days as a beach bum.
“While the tears were a' fallin'
He was recallin'
The answers he never found
So he hopped on a freighter
Skidded the ocean
And left England without a sound
Now he lives in the islands
Fishes the pylons
And drinks his green label each day”
Most Buffet songs involve fishing and drinking cool, refreshing Landshark Lager(TM) in some capacity , but few are as moving as this one. Here, we see Buffett at his most earnest, and it is easily one of the most beautiful and touching moments of the entire Buffett catalogue. It is no surprise that this is Bob Dylan’s favorite Buffett song.
“Why Don’t We Get Drunk,” on the other hand, is a song about boinking. On this track, Buffett takes the “less is more” approach, and doesn’t let his intentions get lost in metaphor. He’s just a man merely suggesting that he and his companion get drunk and screw on a waterbed. Really there isn’t a whole lot more I can say about how great this song is, but my thoughts are best encapsulated by the following quote from the British TV series Gareth Marenghi’s Darkplace:
The rest of the album is filled out with songs that are very strong, although they did not quite have the staying power of these two Ultra-Bangers.
“Grapefruit-Juicy Fruit” is pretty much as Buffett as it gets, opening with the lyrics
“Grapefruit, a bathing suit
Chew a little Juicy Fruit
Wash away the night”
Notably, this song includes the very first mention of the Coral Reefer Band, Jimmy’s longtime touring ensemble, right before the instrumental section. We can look forward to taking a deeper dive into the Reefers in future content here on my really good website.
“Railroad Lady”, “The Great Filling Station Holdup”, “Death of an Unpopular Poet”, and “Peanut Butter Conspiracy” are all really great Buffett songs that I had never heard before. Buffett is great at writing a food song, and on Peanut Butter, he describes that during his hard-luck days as a struggling musician, he survived by stealing peanut butter and sardines from the local grocery. There is no explicit evidence that he would eat them separately, so I like to think that he was spreading his PB on the sardines and popping them into his mouth, like a disgustingly nautical version of Ants on a Log.
This album is the start of something great. It bounces back and forth between serious and silly like a great Buffett album should. Jimmy really summarizes it best on “He Went to Paris” when he writes
“Some of it's magic,
And some of it's tragic,
But I had a good life all the way”
Do yourself a favor and buy a $2,000 Margaritaville(TM) Daiquiri Blender and play “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean” at your next earliest convenience.