NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who popularized Beachbums soft rock with the escapist, Caribbean-tinged song “Margaritaville” and turned that celebration of lounging into a billion-dollar empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen foods, did this died. He was 76.
“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” said a statement posted late Friday on Buffett’s official website and social media pages. “He lived his life like a song until his last breath and will be missed immensely by so many.”
The statement did not specify where Buffett died or provide a cause of death. An illness had forced him to postpone concerts in May, and Buffett acknowledged in social media posts that he had been hospitalized but gave no details.
Released on February 14, 1977, “Margaritaville” quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those “emigrating,” an excuse for a life of fun and escapism for those “growing.” older, but not up.”
The song is a leisurely portrait of a lounger on his porch, watching tourists sunbathing as a pot of shrimp begins to cook. The singer has a new tattoo, probably a hangover and is regretting a lost love. Annoyingly, there is a misplaced salt shaker somewhere.
“What seems like a simple ditty about blotto and healing a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful dullness of beach life,” wrote Spin magazine in 2021. “The tourists come and go, a group that is indistinguishable from them.” others. Waves crash and break whether anyone is there to watch it or not. Everything that means something has already happened, and you don’t even know when.”
The song – from the album “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” – spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, peaking at number 8. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 for its cultural and historical significance to the karaoke standard and helped put Key West, Florida, on the map as a music genre in its own right and as a world-renowned travel destination.
“There was no place like Margaritaville,” Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021. “It was an invented place in my mind, essentially derived from my experiences in Key West and the need to leave Key West and head for the road “Go to work and then come back and spend time on the beach.”
The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning Buffett’s supposed desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion-dollar brand. With a net worth of $1 billion, he landed at number 18 on Forbes’ list of richest celebrities of all time.
President Joe Biden expressed his condolences to Buffett’s family.
“Jill and I greet his wife of 46 years, Jane. to her children, Savannah, Sarah and Cameron; to her grandchildren; and to the millions of fans who will continue to love him even as his ship now sails to new shores,” Biden said in a statement. “We had the honor of meeting and getting to know Jimmy over the years, and he was alive as he performed on stage – full of goodwill and joy, using his gift to bring people together.”
Former President Bill Clinton wrote on
Music critics have never been kind to Buffett or his catalog, including songs from the sandy beach snack bar like “Fins,” “Come Monday” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” But his legions of fans, so-called “Parrotheads,” regularly came to his concerts wearing toy parrots, cheeseburgers, sharks and flamingos on their heads, flower necklaces around their necks and flashy Hawaiian shirts.
“It’s pure escapism,” he told Republic. “I’m not the first to do this, and I probably won’t be the last either. But I think it’s part of human nature to have fun. You need to say goodbye to whatever you do for a living or other areas of your life that are weighing you down. I try to make the work at least 50/50 fun, and so far it has worked.”
His special Gulf Coast mix of country, pop, folk and rock added instruments and tonalities more commonly found in the Caribbean, such as steel drums. It was a stew of steel pans, trombones and pedal steel guitar. Buffett’s incredible grasp of hooks and easy grooves was often overshadowed by his lyrics about fish tacos and sunsets.
Rolling Stone gave grudging approval in a review of Buffett’s 2020 album “Life on the Flip Side.” “He continues to carve out his surfy, sandy corner of pop music utopia with the cool, friendly warmth of a multimillionaire you’d happily share a tropical-style IPA with at 3 p.m., especially if his gold card was on the bar when you did,” the last one Round came.”
But others never warmed up. “While his songs are full of steel drums, lyrically they’re mostly about being a white American dreaming of Bahamas without Bahamas,” Eater sniffed in 2021.
On Saturday, tributes came from all walks of life, from Hollywood star Miles Teller, who posted photos of himself with Buffett, to former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Buffett “loved life in The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson wrote, “Love and Mercy, Jimmy Buffett,” and Paul McCartney called him “one of the kindest and most generous people.”
Buffett’s evolving brand began with the opening of a series of Margaritaville-style shops and restaurants in Key West in 1985, followed by the opening of the first Margaritaville Café nearby in 1987. Over the next two decades, several more opened in Florida , New Orleans and California opened.
The brand has since expanded into dozens of categories including resorts, men’s and women’s apparel and footwear, a radio station, a beer brand, iced tea, tequila and rum, home decor, foods such as salad dressing, Margaritaville Crunchy Pimento Cheese & Shrimp Bites and Margaritaville Cantina Style Medium Chunky Salsa, the Margaritaville at Sea cruise line and restaurants including Margaritaville Restaurant, JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill and LandShark Bar & Grill.
There was also a Broadway jukebox musical, “Escape to Margaritaville,” a romantic comedy in which a singer and bartender named Tully falls in love with the far more career-oriented Rachel, who is vacationing with friends and hanging out at the Hotel Margaritaville Bar Tully is working.
James William Buffett was born on Christmas Day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and grew up in the port city of Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and began busking in New Orleans, performing six nights a week at clubs on Bourbon Street.
He released his first record, Down To Earth, in 1970 and released seven more at a regular annual clip, with his 1974 song “Come Monday” from his fourth studio album Living and Dying in ¾ Time reaching number one. 30. Then came “Margaritaville.”
He appeared on more than 50 studio and live albums, often accompanied by his Coral Reefer Band, and was constantly touring. He received two Grammy Award nominations, two Academy of Country Music Awards and a Country Music Association Award.
Buffett was actually in Austin, Texas when he got the inspiration for “Margaritaville.” He and a friend had lunch at a Mexican restaurant before she dropped him off at the airport to fly home to Key West, so they started drinking margaritas.
“And I kind of got the idea that this is just like Margaritaville,” Buffett told Republic. “She kind of laughed about it and put me on the plane. And I started working on it.”
He wrote some of them on the plane and finished them while driving over the Keys. “There was a wreck on the bridge,” he said. “And we got stopped for about an hour, so I ended the song on the Seven Mile Bridge, which I thought was appropriate.”
Buffett was also the author of numerous books, including “Where Is Joe Merchant?” and “A Pirate Looks At Fifty,” and added films to his resume as co-producer and co-star in an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s novel “Hoot.”
Buffett is survived by his wife, Jane; daughters, Savannah and Sarah; and son Cameron.
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AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed from Los Angeles.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits