Can’t recall, but as I understood it at one time, Jimmy Buffett’s first Number One Hit was?
Never mind his long career as a singer-songwriter, or the string of amazing songs we all know by heart, no, that’s not it. Or the way one of my companions kept going on and on about the various shows we’ve been to, and how he did a different set list.
While it is apparent that he loves what he does, each show does seem to be tuned to a different crowd, and there are songs that don’t appear on every set list. If they have a set list at all.
Two other groups come to mind, the Grateful Dead and Hank III. All three employ many of the same marketing techniques, and most of those tricks fly in the face of convention.
At Buffett’s last Dallas show, there were three radio vans, the kind of van that is painted — wrapped — with a logo and call letters, and all three were from competing country stations.
Despite his first two albums being “Nashville,” I just never did get the whole Jimmy Buffett as a country singer. (Could be me.)
One excellent move? He did a George Strait song while the Lone Star was proudly displayed behind the band. Underneath the flag? “Home to Dan Cook.”
That plays to a home-town crowd.
While, near as I could see, the Jimmy Buffett machine doesn’t encourage tappers, like the Dead and Hank III, I’m sure the sets can be found on “Radio Margaritaville,” and other online outlets.
Once, in Houston, he did Lyle Lovett’s “If I had a Boat,” and seeing as how Lyle was originally from a Houston suburb, big hit with the crowd.
Good, good show, satisfying, and, there was that reminder. In life, enjoy the part that is called “work,’ and it makes it a lot easier to do. The true joy lies in the doing.
Doesn’t hurt to have millions of loyal fans.