Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
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Just about a month ago we talked about music as poetry, and I talked about Jimmy Buffett as a poet. The list of great artists we have lost in just a small number of years in long, and we all have musicians whose loss hits us harder than other. jimmy Buffet is hitting me hard.
I thought that tonight we might talk about memories of concerts by some of the greats that we have lost, and tell our stories about that time we met Jimmy Buffett in a bar or how we bumped into him on a beach. (I have done neither.) I worked with a graphic designer who knew Prince when he was still Prince, but other than seeing Dan Folgelberg in a venue that held maybe a hundred people, that’s as close as I have come to famous musicians.
So if you’re up for it, let’s have a musical celebration of life for some of these folks who have made our lives richer. And if you’re talking about a particular song or album, link to it if you can.
West of the Rockies
I’ve met Chris Isaac and his drummer (Kenny Dale Johnson). Both were very cool, accessible guys.
RAVEN
@West of the Rockies: My wife and I went to see Issac before we were married. She grabbed a set of binoculars out of the hand of the guy sitting next to her (she didn’t know him). His tv show was really funny.
Kay
I was at the beach today (Lake Michigan) and lots of people were (individually) listening to Jimmy Buffett. A spontaneous tribute :)
RAVEN
Of course Folgelberg started out in C-U even though he was from Peoria. He played at the Red Herring a good bit and he’d come out to Brownfield Woods to party. He was playing the Assembly Hall and my ex’s best friend was pals with him. I was plying hoop that day and blew my ankle so I sat one the couch while they all went to dinner and then backstage for the show!
TXSwede
WaterGirl, did you know my high school friend Steve Parke back when he did art for Prince? I only ask because Steve has a lot of really cool connections from his Paisley Park time, and it sometimes feels like it is a very small world. (ed: just noticed you worked WITH the graphic designer, not with Prince. sorry.)
Anyway, no great Buffett connections except drinking alone while listening to “Come Monday” and not quite believing “it’ll be all right”.
Onward.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
I love that!!
cope
I spent a glorious hour or so talking to Willie Dixon at some kind of blues festival event once. Several artists had tables/booths set up outside somewhere near the main Urbana campus of the U. of I..
He was just standing around and a few of us stood talking to him and whoever might have been with him. My most pressing question for him was where were the new blues players going to come from? We also talked about some of his better known songs and what it was like to be covered by big name artists. He gave me a couple of ballpoint pens with his name/likeness(?) on them, one of which I gave to my best friend at his wedding a couple of weeks later. I’m sure there were live performances at some point but those memories are lost to me.
Having seen Christone “Kingfish” Ingram live in a concert in a relatively small venue a few months ago, I can see my worries about the blues disappearing were unfounded.
planetjanet
I have been listening to Jimmy Buffett most of the day. Sirius XM was playing soft ballads all morning, some I had not heard before. Always a storyteller, but the optimism wins out. A friend sent me a quote from his book “A Salty Piece of Land” which is just beautiful.
His voice is a source of light and love.
WaterGirl
@TXSwede: I think Prince needed a graphic designer more than he would have needed an IT person. :-)
Either way, stories and memories don’t all need to be about Jimmy Buffett.
Hard to believe he’s gone. When I typed Jimmy Buffett to get an image online, it kept offering me “cause of death”. Seemed ghoulish to look that up. Since they said he was surrounded by family and friends, so it couldn’t have been the surprise for them that it was for us
It’s certainly the end of an era.
NotMax
If anyone still coming, on the aft deck (although ATM am on the pier enjoying a see-gar).
prostratedragon
cope@7: Willie Dixon, what a treat!
The woods are full of spirits. The annis horribilis of 2016 started for me on the New Year’s Eve before it, with Natalie Cole [“Take a Look”]. No special Jimmy Buffett connection for me, but always thought he seemed especially O.K., and glad that so many people liked him, so I had a cheeseburger last night.
Alison Rose
I’ve mentioned it before, but I literally would not exist if not for the Grateful Dead, since my dad was working for them when my mom moved to California from New York to do the same. A lot of people might say it kiddingly because they were likely conceived in the parking lot at a Dead show or something, but for me and my brothers, it’s an actual fact. So they definitely made my life richer because they made my life exist.
I will refrain from babbling about Depeche Mode because y’all have been subjected to that enough :P
WaterGirl
@planetjanet: That quote is beautiful. It brought a whole new round of tears for me.
His voice really was a source of light and love. And joy.
Alison Rose
@planetjanet: OMG that is lovely. I’m going to send that to my mom. She said yesterday she got hit with a real spike in grief for my father. I think she’ll appreciate this.
SiubhanDuinne
@Alison Rose:
Ha! Nice story! And I literally wouldn’t exist without Gilbert & Sullivan. My parents met during an amateur production of H.M.S.Pinafore in 1940. My mother was singing the soprano lead, and my dad was conducting his first orchestra. So I really get that sense of connection.
Ihop
Ok. This may take a while. I am viewed by the majority of the people who know me as a hippie, which in no way am I ashamed.
Why the fuck would anybody be so.
The worst of those who have gone was stevie ray Vaughan. Haven’t. Haven’t.
Garcia’s passing sucked.
I still haven’t fully processed Neil peart’s death. Probably won’t.
SiubhanDuinne
@planetjanet:
What a beautiful passage.
oldster
Brushes with musical celebrity…hmmm….
I got off a flight from London many years ago and found out that the connection to Philly was not flying. Instead, they were putting us two-by-two into cabs to drive from Newark to Philly, and get our connections on that side.
I wound up riding with Davy Jones of the Monkees for several hours. He was a very decent, unassuming bloke. His years of mega-stardom were many decades behind him, of course, but he was still touring and still making a good living doing it.
It was a good conversation. A few weeks later, he sent me a copy of his memoir, which is titled (I kid you not) “They Made a Monkee Out of Me.”
It was not a life-defining moment for me, or really much more than a pleasant way to pass the time on a cab-ride. But I had bought his albums way back in the mid-60s, so he meant something to me. I am glad to have met him.
Suzanne
Sooooo I am, uhhhh, younger than many Buffett fans. But I love his music. Anyway, this is not on topic, but I was remembering how I picked Spawn the Younger up from Girl Scouts one time. She was probably first or second grade. Anyway, she apparently told her whole troop about how her mom likes this funny song about a cheeseburger and that she dances around the whole house and sings it! Her troop leader made sure to tell me all about it and we were both in hysterics.
I told Spawn about his passing and she got really sad. She’s such a sweetheart.
SpaceUnit
I don’t have any Jimmy Buffett lore to share but here’s some dogs surfing at the beach:
Dog Surfing Contest
You’re welcome.
oldster
@SiubhanDuinne:
A soprano and a conductor??
Well, love can level ranks….
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Are you all alone?
SiubhanDuinne
@SpaceUnit:
That is so cute.
SiubhanDuinne
@oldster:
Rend the air with warbling wild.
West of the Rockies
@planetjanet:
I’ve enjoyed Buffett’s early writing but couldn’t get into Salty Piece… I really tried. But loved Tales from Margaritaville and Joe Merchant.
zhena gogolia
I was in a semi-private room late at night in a chic restaurant in Kansas City, MO (yes, there are such things), with a bunch of people I didn’t know whom my fellow secretary had picked up in a bar, and Pink Floyd were seated at the next table. Someone sent their cloth napkin to be autographed by them all. I didn’t know anything much about them so wasn’t too excited.
I’ve seen a lot of classic bands (the Dead included) but don’t have any great memories. Mostly they made my ears hurt, and I hate the smell of marijuana, so never had much fun at those.
I think my biggest thrill in a theater was seeing Edward Villella, but he’s still alive.
Citizen Alan
Peter Pan Goes Wrong was excellent. If The Goes Wrong Show is funny to you and you happen to be in LA through 9/17, I highly recommend it.
Kristine
@Alison Rose: Not possible to babble too much about Depeche Mode.
No Buffet connection here. My one and only for years was David Bowie–I remember those first videos showing up on the late night rock shows in the early 70s. I saw him life twice, at Tinley Park in 1990 and at the Rosemont Theater in January 2004. The former was a disappointment because I needed binocs to see the stage; the Rosemont show was wonderful. He was in his mid-50s and looked amazing. A few months later during a show in Prague he had a heart attack and never toured again.
His death in 2016 really hit me.
Catnaz
In my brief waitressing career, in 1976, I waited on Buffett and his party of ten. All very nice people and pretty good tippers! Every one of them, all Floridians of course, ordered fried shrimp. This was in Tennessee. I still don’t quite know what to make of that
NotMax
Believe it or not, grand total of 2. But what was there was cherce. Good conversation.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia: I’ll say Zappa was pretty thrilling.
Kristine
@oldster: What a great story!
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Oh, well I’m glad you had at least one companion!
zhena gogolia
@oldster: That’s sweet.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Not off topic at all!
Alison Rose
As far as real-life encounters with musicians, other than the Dead themselves, when I worked for them I also got to meet others who came by. The shipping department and front offices were in the same place as the vault and studio, so some famous faces showed up over my five years there. Bruce Hornsby and Bonnie Raitt are the two who stand out in my memory. Both super sweet and friendly people.
And then there was the time I met the punk band Rancid in my late teens, and one of them told me my boots were cool, and I felt like I had won at life.
MagdaInBlack
@Kristine: Never saw a Bowie concert, but we did see him in “Elephant Man” in 1980 at what was then The Blackstone Theatre in Chicago. We were all excited we saw him get into his limo in the alley and wave as they drove by.
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: Yes it was!
Alison Rose
@Kristine: Bowie is one of the top musicians I’m gutted to never have had the chance to see live.
RAVEN
@Alison Rose: The last time I saw the Dead Hornsby was on Keys, come to think of it the same with Bonnie!
planetjanet
@West of the Rockies: I may have to pick up some of his books. Joe Merchant sounds good.
Quinerly
I have been dipping in and out of the Buffett fans FB Groups today. Never was into them before but a lot of good stuff being posted.
David Letterman put this up from a show way back.
https://fb.watch/mQSf6Hrjcj/?mibextid=Nif5oz
This one made me cry. From A Capitol Fourth
https://fb.watch/mQSqblcXxz/?mibextid=Nif5oz
I loved this from an aviation site
https://avgeekery.com/remembering-jimmy-buffett-parrothead-musician-and-pilot/?fbclid=IwAR3vi-F7lXDiyWNDHsUG3dGOppzwftSpnJv5BzCYeIwgnqJMnDUXmyxxA7o
Sorry about the links being FB links. As most always, I’m reading from my phone. Easiest for me to pull the links as they were posted.
Bg
My husband and I saw Jimmy Buffett at the old Miami Marine Stadium. The Stadium was on the water and the band played on a barge a few yards out.
If you haven’t heard the songs One Particular Harbor or Lovely Cruise, give them a listen
planetjanet
@Alison Rose: I saw Bowie one time. He was touring with Nine Inch Nails. Just an amazing night.
geg6
Right after college, I worked for a country music station and met lots of famous people from my least favorite genre of music. The ones who were nice are who I remember best: Dwight Yoakum, Reba, Willie and Buffett. Didn’t get to talk much if at all with any of them but they were gracious and made a point to greet staff. I also ran smack into (literally) Kenny Loggins coming out of a bank in Santa Barbara. He was very nice about me plowing into him and going all mortified fan girl.
Yarrow
One of my college roommates was from Florida. We listened to a lot of Jimmy Buffett. A lot. One night in January I came back to our dorm room after studying at the library. It was cold outside and my roommate was sick of it. Open the door to find the heat cranked up to something like 85 degrees, my roommate in shorts and a t-shirt and Buffett blaring from the speakers. We started making margaritas and everyone on the hall came down and joined us. Fun night. RIP, Jimmy.
Kristine
@MagdaInBlack: ::envy:: I remember reading about the play in some of my music magazines. Wish I could’ve seen it.
He was a pretty good actor. I thought he was the best part of The Prestige.
Kristine
@Alison Rose: I am so glad I saw him, esp. in 2004.
billcinsd
Not a big Buffet fan, I mostly found him blandly inoffensive. He did seem like a good person.
I can’t really think of any musician I really like who has died. Not that that hasn’t happened just I can’t remember such. Living in South Dakota I have never met any famous musicians. I have met some moderately famous musicians, foremost Mike Connell of The Connells who had the biggest selling independent recording release of 1993
Kristine
@planetjanet: I would’ve loved to have seen that show.
Yarrow
Well, I hung out and drank with Country Dick Montana. That was a fun night.
FastEdD
At the Fillmore West when I was a kid I went to see Ten Years After, and the support act was Terry Reid, a British singer who had the most amazing voice I had ever heard. When he was done with the last set at about 2 am, he unplugged his guitar, got off the stage, and walked down the San Francisco streets singing with us, our voices echoing off the buildings as we walked home. 30 years later I saw him at a tiny club in Hollywood and got to share that story with him. He bought me a beer this time. He lives out near Palm Springs by now. Been through lots of hard times, but he’s still gigging.
The story he’s famous for now is that his friend Jimmy Page asked him to sing for a band Page was putting together. Terry said no, he had a band and a record contract, but maybe Page should look up a singer named Robert Plant. Life takes strange twists and turns.
Ajabu
I don’t have any Jimmy Buffett stories, but here’s one you might appreciate:
I had the good fortune to be in the bridge generation of musicians. Old enough to play with beboppers (and did) yet young enough to play the Fillmore (and did that also). I got to know most of the major, jazz artists personally. And I was trained and mentored by Randy Weston. One night I took a date to see Miles Davis. Miles knew me primarily because my date had gone to high school with his drummer, Tony Williams. But you don’t just walk up to Miles Davis and talk to him. During a set break I went to the bathroom. As I was standing there at the urinal, minding my own business, I heard this familiar gravelly voice behind me. “ I understand you play a lot of Randy Weston music.” I replied., “ yes, Miles, Randy trained me. I love his tunes.” Brief pause, then “ Fuck’s the matter with you? Nobody in your band talented enough to write nothing?” And out the door… I stood there for a minute dumbfounded, and then thought, “ Damn, I just got a mentoring session from Miles Davis!”
Next day I started writing my own music.
Quinerly
And, great to see the Delaney segment posted. There are several of those on YouTube and they are wonderful. I watched them as they originally came out. Those and AJ Croce’s solo home concerts kinda kept me sane, as I became deeply depressed after 3/2020. Also, if you Google Delaney, some wonderful interviews with her about the entire project. Really puts it in perspective now knowing he had been diagnosed at least a year prior and they were all riding out Covid Times together.
CBS has some great Buffett segments up from his days hanging out with Ed Bradley. I was going through some old Jazz Fest pics and found one I took of Jimmy, Ed, with a friend of mine in the middle near one of the food courts at Jazz Fest. Have no idea why someone didn’t get one of me with them at the same time. I think I was pretty muddy, though.
FastEdD
@Yarrow: If it ain’t Country, it ain’t Dick! The Beat Farmers begat the Farmers, but they still play around San Diego. Saw them a couple months ago. Jerry Rainey’s still at it.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
@planetjanet:
That is such a lovely quote. He had such a way with words, both sung and written. His music was running through my mind last night and all of today. So sad he is gone – way too soon.
schrodingers_cat
Of the artists who have passed away that I miss most are
Lata Mangeshkar, Bhimsen Joshi and Freddie Mercury.
All 3 have a connection to Mumbai like I do
Bhimsen Joshi singing about the glories of Lanka
Lata Mangeshkar singing about martyrs who didn’t come back after the war with China.
Freddie singing at Live Aid concert.
billcinsd
@Alison Rose: And then there was the time I met the punk band Rancid in my late teens, and one of them told me my boots were cool, and I felt like I had won at life.
Neat, did you call yourself Ruby Soho for a while?
billcinsd
@Yarrow: I’m surprised you remember it. I loved The Beat Farmers
HinTN
@RAVEN: A friend spent his life building incredible houses, only to move on to build the next. At one point he had a place in Pagosa Springs surrounded on three sides by the San Juan National Forest. Dan Fogelberg built a mansion up the road from his place.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Back in the late 70’s, my husband’s brother had a piano and organ store in Sarasota. One night, Greg Allman called him up and said he needed a Hammond B3 speaker. Did he have one and could he bring it up to Tampa where they (the Allman Brothers) were rehearsing before heading out on a concert tour. Dave said sure and called and asked us if we wanted to help him deliver it. We took it up to Tampa and the roadie thanked Dave and asked us if we wanted to sit in on the rehearsal. Wow! There were only about 40 or 50 people in the audience and it was just amazing. What a great band.
JaySinWA
testing changing email in posting
Baud
I haven’t listened to Buffet lately, but more in my youth. For some reason, his passing hit me a tinge harder than other musicians. Maybe it was something about his style.
citizen dave
Never understood the Parrotheads crowd, other than it’s where a portion of drunkards would go to drink with other like-minded people. Our local connection is that Buffet’s stage manager lived in Indy, Tom Bautista, and he came up with an idea for a park in the middle of our freeways (I’m feeling like this is a How to Watch Traffic with John Wilson episode): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-idle-an-oasis-in-the-midst-of-traffic-in-indianapolis/. Ashamed to say I have yet to visit it, although I drive by many mornings on the way to work.
I once asked Neil Young a question about his two pet monkeys (Harriet and Speedy) he had when he lived in the Tenderloin in SF at a movie screening (think it was the Prairie Wind/Heart of Gold movie) at SXSW in Austin. Answer wasn’t memorable.
I saw Mississippi bluesman R L Burnside a few times. The last time at the House of Blues in Chicago. My friend and me were watching from a balcony standing area, and in the part where RL did a couple solo songs, his guitarist Kenny Brown all of sudden was next to us, says Hello and how RL really wanted to come and do the show (he had health issues). That was interesting.
oldster
@Ajabu:
That is an *extremely* Miles Davis story. Any other artist would have encouraged you in a friendly, avuncular way. Not Miles. Harsh and cutting. It’s to your credit that you discerned the kind intention underneath.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ajabu:
Oh, wow, that is a fantastic reminiscence!
Quinerly
First show for me was July, 1967. Greensboro, NC. I was 6 and wanted to see the Monkees. I was in love with Mickey. No siblings, but my teenage musician only cousin took me. I remember being very upset when my Monkees didn’t come out immediately. My musician cousin was excited about the skinny Black dude who opened for them. He kept telling me to be quiet.
I have a feeling most of you will know the story of the guy who opened for them on a few shows in 1967. I even saved my program. It’s a prized possession.
Alison Rose
@RAVEN: I think at the Fare Thee Well shows a few years back, Bruce singing West L.A. Fadeaway was sheer perfection.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodingers_cat: Queen’s performance at Live Aid was legendary/epic/beyond words.
Alison Rose
@billcinsd: Haha, no, but my birthstone is ruby so I could have!
Quinerly
@cope: wonderful post. Thank you for sharing.
Phylllis
@Cowgirl in the Sandi: Greg literally lived down the street from my family when I was in high school. We could see their place from our backyard (way out in the country in Manatee County, FL). He had split from Cher and was with some leggy blonde he’d drive around in a low slung red sports car. We’d get treated to him and Dickie Betts practicing together regularly.
HinTN
@zhena gogolia: He was a smart man, too. Once some of us went to the back door in Atlanta and were ushered into his presence. He was being badgered by a “reporter” about the dental floss (something you might find in your medicine cabinet) being cocaine (“what was in the medicine cabinet? was it cocaine?). I put my arm around the reporter’s shoulder and told her it was just dental floss and ushered her out. Zappa seemed relieved.
Quinerly
@zhena gogolia: I would have loved to have seen Zappa. Never was in the cards for me. Lucky you!
schrodingers_cat
@Villago Delenda Est: Freddie Balsara (and his bandmates) killed it
My parents let me stay up to see it!
dexwood
I’ve had a few encounters with rock and/or rollers over the years. I met Bowie, briefly, while he was filming The Man Who Fell to Earth here in New Mexico in 75 or so. He was nice enough, but understandably aloof. I somehow lucked into a gopher job on the set. I drove Buck Henry to the Albuquerque airport in my 72 beetle. He was cast in the same movie. He was running late to catch his plane and I was available. Funny and gracious.
Los Lobos have pretty much set down the soundtrack of our lives since mrs. dexwood and I met in ’75. Seeing them was our second date. We’ve seen them 15 or 16 times. They were in town on the night of our 35th wedding anniversary. Had to go. Got to talking with a sound man before the show started. Told him about our love of the band and how it was our anniversary. We went back to our seats awaiting the start of the show, sipping a beer when I felt a tap on my shoulder. The sound man. He said come with me the band wants to meet you two. No fucking way! He took us back stage and there they were to greet us. They gave us autographed CDs and t-shirts, hugs and congratulations. Then they went to work and we went to our seats. Best anniversary ever.
Quinerly
@Bg: they are favorites. His older stuff is the best. I loved that entire album.
RAVEN
@Alison Rose: This was in Charlotte, NC. I saw Bonnie at Red Rocks with Bruce and her dad!
RAVEN
@Bg: The steel drum on Harbor is awesome.
Wyatt Salamanca
Back in the late 1980’s , as I was walking down the street in midtown Manhattan I bumped into Tom Verlaine. Told him I was a big fan of Television and that Venus was one of my all-time favorite songs. He thanked me and we continued on our separate ways.
I never got to see Television perform, but it was cool running into Tom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f3d5ZdE4vY
Another time in 1989, as I was walking down Central Park West, I passed a hotel as Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, and Bill Wyman stepped into an SUV en route to Shea Stadium for a concert.
I saw them the following night at Shea Stadium and they were great. I considered that chance encounter the day before to be good karma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B51A6bcMeDY
kalakal
The people who used to live next door to me in Leeds 2 eldest sons were in a band called Spacehog which were for a time in the 90s pretty big over here ( gold records and all) and pretty unknown in the UK. Got to know them and their starry girlfriends Liv Tyler, Kate Moss a bit. All perfectly pleasant people. They gave a great New Years party 1999/2000. They liked coming to Leeds because nobody knew them,
I met Ginger Baker once to interview/photograph him, he was vile
I also met Ritchie Blackmore backstage once and he was very nice which I’m told is very rare event. I asked how he felt about smashing a strat every gig, he said they were factory rejects
Wyatt Salamanca
@Ajabu:
Good story. It reminded me of this chance encounter between Miles Davis and David Crosby
https://news.yahoo.com/miles-davis-pointed-ferrari-said-154600451.html
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est: Ajabu WINS THE THREAD!
zhena gogolia
@HinTN: That’s a good one!
One of our colleagues moved to Montana. It took a lot of splaining to my husband about the tune I kept singing to myself.
zhena gogolia
@Quinerly: Yes, very special.
AliceBlue
@Wyatt Salamanca: IIRC, Tom Verlaine passed a few months ago.
Alison Rose
@RAVEN: Amazing!
lowtechcyclist
@HinTN:
Would this by any chance have been the inspiration for a certain Zappa song about dental floss?
“raisin’ it up, waxin’ it down, in a little white box that I can sell uptown”
williamd
For something completely different, my wife, son, daughter and mother-in-law saw Jimmy Buffet perform in San Diego earlier this year; I suspect it was his last big concert. It was as advertised, if maybe a bit short. Glad we had the chance.
Salty Sam .
When I was in college, a friend from high school (very talented guitarist) got some guys together and started a country-rock band (early 70’s Austin- the “Cozmic Cowboy/Progressive County/whatever you wanted to call it” was on fire). They were a tight little band, got big in the local scene, and then their lead singer’s ego got in the way. He quit to go solo and promptly disappeared. My buddies advertised for a new lead singer. I was there the night a young guy, recently discharged from the Army, auditioned. His name was George Strait.
We were blown away. George started singing with the band (“Ace In The Hole”), and I remember remarking to one of the band members “this guy is gonna go far”. Heh.
When George hit it big in Nashville, he used studio session musicians on recordings (standard practice). But Ace In The Hole was his road band from the beginning until he retired years ago. Super nice guy too.
Ajabu
@oldster: That was the point. Miles didn’t do avuncular but his interest was sincere. Alex Haley told of a phone call from Miles. (They were friends) Haley said hello, Miles said “Chili” and hung up.That was a dinner invitation.
Elizabelle
Sad about losing Jimmy Buffet but actually, we were lucky to have him. And it will be fun to dip into his back catalog.
I think Mark Twain would have liked him. Tremendously.
Previously, I think the biggest shock and sadness was losing Tom Petty days after he’d finished his farewell tour and, of course, Prince. One of those “remember where you were when you heard the news” events. Both unexpected and, it turned out, opiate-related. Very sad.
Narya
Sitting in the college bar with a friend (3.2 beer only…) and Howard Cosell told us the news…
I still miss him and wonder what he might have done.
Alison Rose
@Elizabelle: Honestly, I’m STILL not over losing Tom. One of my faves my whole life. I’m so glad I got to see them numerous times live.
RAVEN
@Salty Sam .: I saw Freda and the Firedogs at the Broken Spoke and Michael Martin Murphy at the Armadillo in them days!
RAVEN
@Alison Rose: My SIL was at that last show at the Bowl.
Yarrow
@FastEdD: billcinsd: It was a fun night. One of my friends was always going to see bands and became friends with a lot of them. He knew Country Dick so we all hung out. Saw the Beat Farmers several times. His deep voice was something else.
My very favorite group that he was in was the Pleasure Barons. They had a bar onstage. That had to be one of the all time great shows.
Elizabelle
@Alison Rose: I think I just saw Tom Petty once, but it was the Hollywood Bowl. And ZZ Topp opened. Fabulous show.
Both Buffet and Petty seem like they were very decent men in real life, too. Genuine folks.
Kristine
So many great stories.
Kelly
I’ve never been close to a famous musician. However a high school buddy of mine ditched college for a year found himself selling trinkets to tourists on St Thomas, VI. He hung around long enough to get in with the locals. One afternoon a local told him to a bar would appear to be closed this evening. Go around to the back they’ll let you in. Don’t say a word to anyone. An hour after he got in Jimmy Buffett came in the back door. Jimmy knew quite a few people by their first names. Visited with everyone for a while. Put a chair on a table, played and sang. Many sing alongs. More visiting with the crowd.
RAVEN
@HinTN: Caribou Ranch in Nederland. My people either move to Tucson or Boulder back in the day. A number lived in Ruby Gulch and hung with Dan some.
eta
I guess he didn’t live there but in Pagosa Springs like you said.
Wyatt Salamanca
@AliceBlue:
Yes, we’ve lost so many musical greats this year:
Jimmy Buffett, Tom Verlaine, Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Robbie Robertson, Wayne Shorter, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Burt Bacharach
Elizabelle
Oops. I am misspelling Buffett. Needs 2 Ts. OK.
The singer/songwriter, not the meal.
Wyatt Salamanca
@kalakal:
There’s a documentary called Beware of Mr. Baker in which Ginger Baker’s dickishness is on full display. He trashed Keith Moon and John Bonham and hit the director on the nose with a walking stick.
Ajabu
@zhena gogolia: Thanks! Just reminiscing. With my lengthy music career I have dozens of those. (What my wife calls my “name dropping” stories… I tell her that I can’t help that my occupation put me in constant contact with famous folks. Hell, she talks about her friends!
Alison Rose
@Elizabelle: Oh man, that would’ve been awesome. I saw them a few times at Shoreline Amphitheater, and then also two shows when they did their runs at the Fillmore in 97 and 99. That was incredible.
Quinerly
@Wyatt Salamanca: and Gordon Lightfoot. It’s been a tough summer.
Salty Sam .
Ahhh, th’ Dillo. Them were the days…
Freda and the Firedogs were great, but I really enjoyed her as “Long Tall Marcia Ball” when she got back to her Louisiana roots.
RAVEN
@Salty Sam .: She plays her in Athens from time-to-time.
Sean Nuttall
@planetjanet: thank you for that
Ajabu
@Quinerly: that’s another one of my stories. I auditioned for him once in the 70s. Didn’t make it though. He told me that, although I was a good player, he needed classical readers. That’s an unusual combination and I didn’t have it. Oh well…
Quinerly
@Ajabu: 💚
Sean Nuttall
It’s tough getting old. I’m 61 now & it seems like every band that I love are gone. My first concert was Aerosmith on the Rocks tour in 1976. Last night thaley played their last show ever in Philly. I guess it’s just the way of things, but when it’s you going through it it’s not a lot of comfort.
It’s no so much them not touring, but knowing there will never be anymore new music. A couple of years ago it dawned on me that the last original album Genesis put out was 30 years ago. No new Zeppelin tunes for 44 years. God it’s depressing.
Well I guess I’ll always have tribute bands until they fade away
Elizabelle
I liked when it was possible to go to concerts without it feeling like a rent or mortgage payment. We were lucky in that respect.
When it turns out to be cheaper to fly to see a show in Europe …
geg6
I forgot to mention that I know Donnie Iris quite well. The olds may remember his 1971 hit with the Jaggerz, The Rapper. He then moved on to Wild Cherry through the 70s. Then hit it big again with Donnie Iris and the Cruisers with Ah Leah and Love Is Like a Rock in the 80s. He still pulls a big crowd here in the ‘Burgh but has not played much since his 80th birthday party last year. Mutual friends say he had some health issues but is doing well. Nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He always hung out in local bars to hear local bands and never wanted any attention. Which he couldn’t quite escape, being a local hero. I’ve known him for 45 years and he’s always happy to see me, especially now that I’m not behind a bar any more and can have a beer with him.
Matt McIrvin
I briefly met Ravi Coltrane at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He knew my friend’s sister. He seemed nice. Not much of a story there, I guess.
laura
I’m an “old enough” and was very fortunate to have seen Jimmy Buffet in around the very early 80’s at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. It was a pleasurable show, but sure as shit Not the same caliber show as the Neil Young and Crazy Horse show from the Rust Never Sleeps Tour. Despite his large catalog of songs and reminisces and such like, I love his very simple early song, and I hope you do too:
https://youtu.be/XKGw_hrlaOY?si=ImXoDvIoxoN8nY6w
Quinerly
@laura: I watched that video today. I love that Jane is in it. That link from Letterman I posted above includes “Come Monday.” With some back story told by JB. I didn’t catch the year of Letterman but I think it was around the time JB and Jane separated for several years, but didn’t divorce. They were apart in the 1980’s.
A
Had a nice conversation about the latest issue of down beat with Hornsby in 91. Really nice guy.
Ivan X
@Alison Rose:
Not me, babble on!
BillD
Back around 1980 I and a friend were producing music and interview shows with various acts, including Chuck Berry, for what was then the NBC Radio Network. I got to know Chuck a bit and pursued a couple of projects with him that never came to much. I was with him in the Madison Avenue offices of his music lawyer Bill Krasilovsky trying to pitch co-writing or editing his upcoming bio when he posed a question to Bill. He wanted to know if he could be sued for relating the story of how he once watched pornograhic films, stag movies as they were once called, with Bing Crosby in the crooner’s basement projection room. Bing was long dead and Bill said he could relate the story, but it didn’t make the book. Chuck and Der Bingle watching porn: what a concept.
Alison Rose
@Ivan X: LOL I know you wouldn’t mind :P When the heck are we gonna get those four extra MM tracks they kept hinting at??? Martin had said “later this year” and I was hoping it might be during this break in the tour. Come on, guys!!
Cathie from Canada
My story is that we were in the sparse audience when The Who came to Saskatoon on a Canadian tour in 1968. They played at our old arena – most Canadians had never heard of them (though my boyfriend, now my husband, certainly had) so they hadn’t sold all the tickets. After the warm-up act everybody moved down from the bleachers to the main floor seats – loudest event I have ever attended. Daltry was stunning. Keith Moon went through an entire pack of drumsticks over the concert. They did some pieces from Tommy but said they hadn’t finished it yet. At the end of the concert they started smashing their guitars and the roadies were running around the stage trying to save the equipment. What a memory!
My other story was when Liam Clancy was touring Canada as a solo act in about 1972 — he did an set at the University of Saskatchewan dining hall and afterwards a group of us sat around with him and had beers, we were all star-struck. What a nice guy.
Otherwise, we’ve just been to the usual raft of concerts – eventually Saskatoon got itself onto the circuit so performers doing a Canadian tour often came through (Bob Seger, Bob Dylan, Randy Bachman, Chuck Berry, etc)
Rokka
I ran into Bing once at Cypress Point during the pro/am while he was doing a troop morale tour when it was 35 degrees during a hail storm.
Once upon a time I was in a country band that played a country club gig. During a break, the manager said somebody in the next private room wanted to talk to us. We go into the room and it’s Tennessee Ernie Ford! He said we played purdy good for a bunch of city slickers.
Our light guy at the time (who eventually did sound for Weird Al) told us the nicest guys he ever worked for were Jimmy Buffett and Neil Diamond. He also mentioned a mid set pick me up routine where a roadie would put a small line on a guitar pick and hand it to the front man who would do the line and start the next song all in one motion.
I spent three days at the Dead HQ auditioning for Phil in 2000. Nobody in our group got a gig. The other guitarist at that audition just joined the Beach Boys.
Hoppie
As usual, late to the thread (borrring)…. Anne Laurie, I wanted to acknowledge how many of us used regularly to do the “Labor Day Weekend Show”… I did 39 of them before health issues intervened. But my life’s work in fandom was to make it truly a WORLDcon, and like Moses, I have only glimpsed the Promised Land: had to miss Dublin, Helsinki, and (although health might have allowed it, missed for obvious reasons) New Zealand. Perhaps we shall meet again someday. Maybe a Boskone if I can manage.
Shalimar
I never met Jimmy Buffett. My step-dad was a newspaper editor in Mobile and knew his parents fairly well, so i have heard stories of various parties from the ’60s and ’70s.
Momentary
I was friends with Brad Mehldau when we were both teenagers.
I sat next to an extremely depressed looking Paul Westerberg on a couch before a show, and worried that Bob Stinson was going to sit on me.
I was friends with Grasshopper from Mercury Rev in my 20s.
Johnny Thunders checked me out before a show, in a small club, we were about three feet apart.
I’ve had online interaction with Mike Scott from the Waterboys.
Bcameraian
This thread brings back a large load of memories. I used to work on music videos back in the day, back when they would offer a choice for overtime pay. “Cash, coke, or weed.” I always took the cash.
Met a lot of my heroes – Linda Ronstadt, Robbie Robertson, Steve Windwood, Dr. John, Gatemouth Brown. Too many more to list here. Most were very nice people, some were jerks.
Never met Jimmy Buffett but always went to see him at Jazz Fest.
My favorite story was getting a work call one night. “Be at such and such guitar store tomorrow morning. We’ve got a two-day shoot with some old rock and roller.” My friend told me his name but confessed he didn’t know who he was.
We show up at the guitar store and start setting up for the shoot. The owner was there but nobody told him who the musician was that we were filming. His knees buckled and his jaw dropped to the floor when Carl Perkins walked into his store, shook his hand and thanked him for letting us film there. Those two days with Mr. Perkins was one of the highlights of my career.
Warren Senders
@schrodingers_cat:
I spent a lot of time with Bhimsen Joshi in the 1980s, including a long car trip from Pune to Kundgol; I sat in the back seat of his Mercedes playing antakshari with his 3 children.
Ben Cisco
I was part of the stage crew at the show Roger Troutman and Zapp played at my alma mater. Had an hour long conversation with him in the dressing room afterwards talking about music (I was a drummer during my college years) and life in general.
Got docked for that hour. WORTH IT
WaterGirl
@Ajabu: Great story!
Hey, whatever happened with the cars and the engine?