Man, talk about parlaying a singing career into an empire! I'm not a parrot head, but do enjoy some of Jimmy Buffet's music. I was just made aware of this development, which is near our cottage in Florida. Suppose to be a huge deal when it's completed. https://www.latitudemargaritaville.com/watersound
I like his music, but I wouldn't follow him around or anything. I saw him for free a few years ago in Hermosa Beach for Shark Week
Saw him at the Shell in Waikiki a few years back and he was really good, and no Im not a Parrot Head just enjoy live music of all types.
The Shell is fucking dope. I went to the Kokua Festival a few years in a row. Jack Johnson, Eddie Vedder, Dave Matthews Band, Damian Marley, etc. Good vibes. The Parrot Head culture is fucking creepy imo.
I've done that when I was quite a bit younger. I'll never again get a good buzz going during the day.
When I was in the navy a buddy turned me onto Buffett early in his career (1974). He was a nice change of pace from the “regular” music of the day. After I was out of the navy, my brothers and I went to see him at the old Euphoria Tavern (which he named at least 2 of his sailboats after) in August of ‘75. Buffett and the Reefers came in late, played their asses completely off for all of 45 minutes and then left, no encore or anything else. It was a major ripoff. My brothers and I (having started the liquid preparation process much earlier in the day) were extremely pissed off and tried to storm the stage, calling Jimmy every unkind name in the book. All that got us was tossed out and told never to return. My impression of the guy ever since (besides thinking he hasn’t written a decent song in at least 25 years) is that Mr. Buffett is all about the Benjamins and if you drink enough at his concerts, you’ll buy into the hype and put up with anything. All that said, “Living And Dying In Three Quarter Time” is still in my Top 10 list of albums.....and the next morning I crawled out of bed with a 5 alarm hangover and took off for San Jose to watch the Timbers play (and lose) in the first NASL Soccer Bowl.......shitty concert, great road trip.
Wow, I just googled that concert after reading your post to see if I could find the original concert poster for you and I found this. It appears that the concert was very important to him. BEFORE JIMMY BUFFETT was chief executive of a lifestyle, a brand, or a lifestyle brand, he was a road dog determined to be a rock star. He had a mop of blond hair, a droopy mustache, wild eyes, a shit-eating grin, and ambition. That was the guy George Stevenson happened upon outside the Euphoria Tavern in 1975. Stevenson was a regular at the Euphoria, which lived in the industrial Southeast building Rotture now calls home. He was a broke law student who'd just wrapped a summer job with the Yamhill County District Attorney's Office. When Stevenson got to the Euphoria, he found a silver tour bus parked alongside the club and a pack of stressed-out hippies. And there was Buffett, banging on the building's back door trying to get in. "I walked up and suggested I could lead him to the front door," Stevenson says, "but just then the back door opened." And that could have been that, a chance meeting before a nice night among many nice nights at the Euphoria, a joint marked in Stevenson's memory by its L-shaped stage, spacious dance floor, wood beams, and good sound. You know, another nice place long gone. Except it wasn't quite just another night, and it isn't entirely gone. There's a quiet and serious library on the University of Florida's campus, and if you ask to see the Jimmy Buffett collection, which consists of 10 boxes of papers he donated in 2011, you'll find a contract from that night—August 23, 1975. Buffett made $1,250 for two shows. David Leiken signed the deal locally for Double Tee Promotions. He's still got Double Tee Promotions. Leiken says he went into the office on the Monday after the on-sale and was shocked to discover Buffett had sold out. They added another show. "That was a crossroads show," Leiken says. It gave Buffett a new market, in a new part of the country, where he mattered. It was a step closer to the rock stardom he was after. "People loved those shows," Leiken says. Buffett must have, too. In 1976, he bought a sailboat. When the salesman handed Buffett the keys, he was wearing a T-shirt from the Euphoria. "There was a look of contentment on my face like no one had ever seen before," Buffett wrote in his 1989 best-selling short-story collection, Tales from Margaritaville, "and my boat was christened Euphoria. I paid cash for her, and she was my insurance policy." One he didn't need. In 1977, "Margaritaville" broke big, and he bought a bigger sailboat, Euphoria II. He took each down into the Caribbean and got more songs, the songs that make the core of his legend. Now he's got boats, and planes, and casinos, and restaurants. A vacation club is opening next year in St. Thomas. A beach resort in Florida is scheduled to open, too. At Costco, you can buy a Margaritaville blender. And at many of Buffett's joints, you can order a Euphoria Daiquiri. It's a little piece of Old Portland that lives on thanks to Buffett, who piloted his hit to the forefront of the escapism industry. And he still plays shows. He'll brighten the Moda Center on Tuesday when he and the Coral Reefer Band play Portland for the first time since 2010. Stevenson will be there. In 1995, he helped found the Key NorthWest Parrot Head Club. They'll get a head start on next year's 20th-anniversary celebration by hosting a pre-show party on the Memorial Coliseum concourse. The $10 cover will go to local charities. It won't be as wild as the early days. Buffett's mustache hasn't been seen in decades. The hair is thin, too. But the grin's still guilty, like he pulled off a hell of a trick, which he has. https://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/before-the-blenders/Content?oid=13816158
I read this article when it came out and it hit it right on the head.....except for cutting the first concert short. Forty six years later I don’t recall a second show, but the lateness of it would certainly explain them saving their energies for later. I do want to stress that they were absolutely awesome while on stage. They definitely gave it their all........but not my $5 worth.......
I wasn't trying to say you're wrong or anything. In reading your post it sounds like it was a very memorable night for you. Fun memories! Just throwing out a couple of things in case you wanted to memorialize that night. Concerts are one of those things that people hand onto stuff from.
I got where you were coming from. I just felt like I made it sound like Buffett gave a shitty concert. It was actually absolutely terrific.....which made the early departure that much harder to take. We just wanted a whole lot more. But you’re right. Great memories.......including after getting tossed, my brothers decided to hop a moving train rolling through Produce Row....and left me with my younger brother’s panel truck to play “chase car”. Two drunks hopping moving freight cars with another drunk following in a vehicle defies the definition of “common sense”..........but when you’re young and invincible.........and I still look back on our idiocy with fondness.....
My uncle was a big time parrot head and he owned a parrot head themed bar in Beaverton for like 25 years. I personally don’t understand why people are so nuts about Buffett. I mean he’s okay. But cult following?
I TOTALLY get that! My guess is because he's such a laid back, dope-smoking, beach bum, party animal.
