Review Summary: Buffett's intrigue with Parrotheads runs deeper than songs about Margaritas.
When I pay my bills, gonna leave these Tennessee hills
Take my lady to the sea
That's where we both come from, that's where we both belong
Think I'll go back to the Keys.
In 1971, as Jimmy Buffett busked in the streets of New Orleans pondering his future as the next country star, his first two attempts at recording folk country-- the unexceptional
Down to Earth, and later,
High Cumberland Jubilee-- went largely unheard, each selling fewer than a hundred copies. Buffett's diminutive twang and insistence on breaking the mold in traditional country music pushed him to outsider status in Nashville. However, an impromptu trip to Key West seeking inspiration for his music had galvanized Buffett-- stirred by the swaying of palm trees and sailboats, he returned to Nashville in 1973 to record his first major label debut.
A White Sport Coat & a Pink Crustacean is a concise 36-minute country crossover album that is regarded among Buffett's best works. Buffett features as a passably talented rhythm-guitarist but shines as a songwriter, paying meticulous attention to details in the stories that unfold within each tune. This particular skill-set would set Buffett apart from his peers and become his biggest strength in this and forthcoming albums.
Sport Coat was also the first Buffett record to feature liberal use of the slide guitar, splashing broad woozy strokes of warm Caribbean paint over his country-western canvas, further distancing himself from Nashville.
Sport Coat ebbs between styles and emotion: beginning with the frenetic honky-tonk "The Great Filling Station Hold-up", the record dips into country ballads "Railroad Lady" and "He Went to Paris", then flows into the tipsy frolic "Grapefruit Juicyfruit", before rising again with the Latin-inspired "Cuban Crime of Passion". The album carefully meanders between styles and pace before settling finally into the somber "Death of an Unpopular Poet". Pulled together tightly by Buffett's knack for arrangement and the adeptness of Buffett's backing band, The Coral Reefers, the tracks braid together into a mélange of like-minded but decidedly unique set of compositions.
Despite its ingenuity,
Sport Coat was greeted lukewarmly by critics and audiences alike, but nevertheless cultivated a local following that helped bolster Buffett's inevitable rise to stardom. While the aforementioned singles "The Great Filling Station Holdup" and "Grapefruit Juicyfruit" failed to chart well at release, the latter, along with "He Went to Paris" and fan-favorite "Why Don't We Get Drunk" would later be included in Buffett's 1985 7x platinum greatest hits compilation
Songs You Know By Heart, honoring them as Buffett's best work.
While we know Buffett would later become the king of Hawaiian-shirted baby boomers, frozen shrimp appetizers, Corona knockoffs, and ubiquitous margarita/burger bars, the roots of his success relied on his flair for story-telling, songwriting, and narrative development to sell his idea of country music to the masses. Nowhere else in his catalog is this more apparent than on this, his first album-- far from the reaches of super stardom and rum-endorsements. This a must-listen for anyone looking to decipher the mystique of the cult following he would eventually develop.
