A Parrothead tribute to Jimmy Buffett
by Leelon Edwards
Jimmy Buffett tossed out his anchor and I was not ready for the cruise to end. I wasn’t ready to say “Manana” much less “adiós para siempre”, (Goodbye forever.) I never met him, but we had some history.
I remember when 40 years old seemed a long way off. Even at 33, I could relate to his lament to being “200 years too late” (A Pirate looks at 40). A life in the Keys, given to proclivities and vice; it seemed such a desirable alternative to the 9-to-5 version of my white-collar, middle-class profession. “Give me oysters and beer, for dinner every day of the year and I’ll be fine” (Tin Cup Chalice) did not seem all that far-fetched… I could have given it all up and gone there several times. Instead, that became another lost opportunity when the “original destination was just a story that he loved to tell” (Cowboy in the Jungle). I never wanted to be the guy that would be satisfied to “swim in a roped off sea” but then life has its way of leaving you at the “Port of Indecision” or at least comfortable in an occasional visit to “Margaritaville”.
It was never my intention to settle “for questions that bothered him so” (He went to Paris). However, I didn’t stretch my sails and search out the wind that Jimmy found in Key West. At one point, I could have been a “Nautical Wheeler” with a “Pencil Thin Mustache” or a “Son of a Son of a Sailor,” but I found a groove that rewarded me with “Boats to Build”, a “Brown Eyed Girl”, three great kids and grandchildren that love “Jolly Mon Sing.”
I had hoped maybe Jimmy could have simply sailed off to the “Coast of Marseilles” or “Back to the Island” where he didn’t have to “Reason with Hurricane Season”. Or better yet, Desdemona could do a rocket ship drive by, pick him up with Jane, and take them to their “Beach House on the Moon” and take some half-baked cookies and several fruitcakes with them. All things considered, his “One Particular Harbor” may have been somewhere at the East end of Long Island, NY but I suspect it was much closer to his “Caribbean Soul”. A “mysterious calling harbor, so far and yet so near, where I see the day my hair’s full gray and I finally disappear.” (One Particular Harbor).
I wonder sometimes, in these last four years, whether he found his way back to when he was an altar boy at St Mary’s, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa. Perhaps his time with family and friends gave him pause to revisit Attitudes and Latitudes, the tire swing, the Holy Ghost, and his “Blue Heaven Rendezvous”. But it’s not my business, eternity planning is the prerogative of the captain when “Sending the Old Man Home.” I can picture him on his beloved boat, Music, with a hat and gloves with “One hand on the starboard rail, waving back at me” (Captain and the kid) and I can pray that now he is “finding the right way home.” (Incommunicado)
These moments we're left with
May you always remember
These moments are shared by few
And those harbor lights
Aw they're coming into view
We bid our farewell much too soon
So drink it up
This one's for you
Honey, it's been a lovely cruise
by Leelon Edwards
Jimmy Buffett tossed out his anchor and I was not ready for the cruise to end. I wasn’t ready to say “Manana” much less “adiós para siempre”, (Goodbye forever.) I never met him, but we had some history.
I remember when 40 years old seemed a long way off. Even at 33, I could relate to his lament to being “200 years too late” (A Pirate looks at 40). A life in the Keys, given to proclivities and vice; it seemed such a desirable alternative to the 9-to-5 version of my white-collar, middle-class profession. “Give me oysters and beer, for dinner every day of the year and I’ll be fine” (Tin Cup Chalice) did not seem all that far-fetched… I could have given it all up and gone there several times. Instead, that became another lost opportunity when the “original destination was just a story that he loved to tell” (Cowboy in the Jungle). I never wanted to be the guy that would be satisfied to “swim in a roped off sea” but then life has its way of leaving you at the “Port of Indecision” or at least comfortable in an occasional visit to “Margaritaville”.
It was never my intention to settle “for questions that bothered him so” (He went to Paris). However, I didn’t stretch my sails and search out the wind that Jimmy found in Key West. At one point, I could have been a “Nautical Wheeler” with a “Pencil Thin Mustache” or a “Son of a Son of a Sailor,” but I found a groove that rewarded me with “Boats to Build”, a “Brown Eyed Girl”, three great kids and grandchildren that love “Jolly Mon Sing.”
I had hoped maybe Jimmy could have simply sailed off to the “Coast of Marseilles” or “Back to the Island” where he didn’t have to “Reason with Hurricane Season”. Or better yet, Desdemona could do a rocket ship drive by, pick him up with Jane, and take them to their “Beach House on the Moon” and take some half-baked cookies and several fruitcakes with them. All things considered, his “One Particular Harbor” may have been somewhere at the East end of Long Island, NY but I suspect it was much closer to his “Caribbean Soul”. A “mysterious calling harbor, so far and yet so near, where I see the day my hair’s full gray and I finally disappear.” (One Particular Harbor).
I wonder sometimes, in these last four years, whether he found his way back to when he was an altar boy at St Mary’s, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa. Perhaps his time with family and friends gave him pause to revisit Attitudes and Latitudes, the tire swing, the Holy Ghost, and his “Blue Heaven Rendezvous”. But it’s not my business, eternity planning is the prerogative of the captain when “Sending the Old Man Home.” I can picture him on his beloved boat, Music, with a hat and gloves with “One hand on the starboard rail, waving back at me” (Captain and the kid) and I can pray that now he is “finding the right way home.” (Incommunicado)
These moments we're left with
May you always remember
These moments are shared by few
And those harbor lights
Aw they're coming into view
We bid our farewell much too soon
So drink it up
This one's for you
Honey, it's been a lovely cruise