On the passing of Jimmy Buffett

 I am a 40 year parrothead saddened by the passing of Jimmy Buffett. 

I'm a big enough fan that Randi called to check on me.

I am heartbroken by the loss of the man who for many years brought joy to my summer nights.

He will be missed.

I have drifted away from the parrothead nation for the last few years. The fact that Buffett's concerts were the same every night and on the radio made it less like something I needed to attend. I didn't care for the arrangements, which sounded less than passionate and more like a party band just playing for tourists who didn't know better. Also I was not a fan of dealing with tailgating at Jones Beach.  (Don't get me started)

I have had some of the best concert experiences at a Buffett concert, the Hamptons concert in 1996 when the guys showed up with the grill from hell and literally BBQed for everyone, for free; singing at the top of lungs with friends: being handed the lyrics to Fruitcakes as we went in before the album came out so we could sing along, Jimmy, James Taylor and Sara McLachlan singing Christmas songs and many others. 

Recently I was rediscovering why I loved Buffett thanks to his radio station playing the original album cuts of his songs. Listening to the arrangements and the complexity of lyrics made me fall back in love with his music. Why wasn't he playing these songs and these arrangements in concert? Listening to the original arrangements and the wider range of songs than you get a concert I found the place where Jimmy came into my soul.  I knew why and how his music saved me and became the One Particular Harbor that let me get through life.

And now the man is gone...and I feel sad...and then I realize he isn't really- there is the music and the video and the culture and the magic still out there, and I realize that while he died yesterday " yesterday's over my shoulder, so I can't look back for too long, There's just too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can't go wrong"

Cliched and hokey but it would be something he would have said as an intro to Changes.