Jimmy Buffet, Requiescat In Pace

Jimmy Buffettt has passed.

I’m not sure JB created lifestyle music - but he created a lifestyle music. What he called Gulf and Western - was about beaches and adult beverages and low-rent decadence that tapped into the psyche of millions.

Including me. I live in the Caribbean in no small part because I spent a lot of early years crushing his first eight major label albums.

I learned basic guitar song structure - from his basic guitar song structures. And I learned harmonica from copying his Coral Reefer Band mate - Greg “Fingers” Taylor.

He was a great songwriter - in the sense that in his songs he could capture and vividly deliver stories. About people - and parts of America, then the world - about which we dreamed, but most of us would never see.

Except through him and his music.

He was also an entrepreneur deluxe. He turned his G & W lifestyle into restaurants and bars, resorts and living communities. He wrote books - autobiographies, short stories and novels. His songs inspired a Broadway musical.

He flew planes and captained ships all over the planet. He lived stories - and then shared them.

He fully embodied the maxim “Life isn’t a destination - it’s a journey.”

Rest In Peace.