“Floridays” part one: the best is yet to come

Congratulations! Little do you know, but we just got done navigating through Jimmy Buffett’s country era. Thankfully, it was quite short. It’s now 1986, and Buffett is a pirate looking at forty (wink wink), and I must say his life is looking quite eventful. Starting at this point and going until the late 90s, it is quite a whirlwind of a time for Buffett, and soon I’ll have to make an opinion piece to just try and recall these years. Regardless, that’s a problem for the future, and for now, we have an album in front of us. Emerging from the country era, we are entering what I’ll dub the “return to the tropics” era. Now, without further ado, “Floridays.”

Imagine several days of the biggest carnival celebration in the world, full of parties and jubilation in Rio. Put yourself there, wouldn’t that experience leave an impression on you? With that in mind it’s not all too hard to imagine what Buffett was thinking when he wrote “First Look”, one of the best songs off the album. He prepared for an adventure to Rio by studying language tapes and reading books, however nothing could really prepare him for this otherworldly extravaganza. Buffett experiences some of the normal sights of Rio, such as the mountains and the beaches, however he must’ve partied a little too hard because we fast forward six days to where Buffett feels a little out of it due to what he drank. Despite that, he seems prepared to do it all again, since he described his first look of Rio as a “chemical reaction” (sang in Portuguese; those languages tapes came in handy). Overall, this is a great song with a slower and calming vibe to it, with the instrumentals and the backing vocals contributing greatly to this.

“Nobody Speaks to the Captain No More” is a tribute to three people; Gabriel García Márquez, Allie Fox and Phil Clark. Márquez wrote the book “No One Writes to the Colonel,” a novella about a veteran from Columbia’s 1,000 Days’ War. Fox is an anti-consumerist character from the novel “The Mosquito Coast” (by now it is quite evident that Buffett is well read). This song’s captain was a “fugitive with a pseudonym”, who dealt with many internal problems of grief and regret from the time of the war, of which he thought of while he sat on a “beach of promises he meant to keep long ago.” Now, do you remember “A Pirate Looks at Forty?” (you should). It is the popular Buffett song written about Phil Clark, that real pirate from the days of old Key West. Clark was found dead on a Northern California Beach, with most guessing that he must have been swept overboard from a boat. It’s a tragic end for a man who inspired a song that resonated with many, but Buffett paid one last tribute to him with this song. It’s a beautiful yet sad song, not something you often get from Buffett, but that’s far from a bad thing.

We get a somewhat reflective song with “When the Coast is Clear,” in which Buffett reminisces about the days “back before the circus came to town”, referencing how old Key West has vastly changed since he first made landfall there. It is a short song about how Key West becomes quiet when the tourists have left, and how it almost feels a little like it did back before the small town became a tourist hotspot, and Buffett represents this by talking with his former self, just like how he used to with countless friends.

Buffett must have been a big fan of the mid 1980s because the song “I Love the Now” is all about how despite it being true that the people of the 80s have their fair share of problems, “it’s the only circus I know”. Overall, it’s a nice song, nothing too crazy, but I find the chorus catchy. Also, I found out while researching this album that Buffett co-wrote the song with Carrie Fisher, which is quite random. “Creola” is a fine song, a little slow, but that’s just a part of its much more mellow vibe, so it works well for it, but seven minutes? That’s pushing it, Jimmy.

I hate to cut things short, however it’s become apparent that I write too much. It’s my fault for being so excited to discuss these songs that I love. But I surpass The Record’s recommended opinion sizes over double sometimes, so it would be best to split this opinion into two halves, since there is a lot to say. So, I will leave it here, and I will say that the best is yet to come for this album.