Hide Article Text (OCR)
USMgraduate Jimmy Buffett has choiceof three homes when not on singing tour(Editor’s note: Jimmy Buffett attended Pearl River Junior College and received a journalism degree from USM in 1969. He was a member ofKappa Sigma fraternity at USM.)By MARY CAMPBELL AP Newsfeatures WriterJimmy Buffett has a lifestyle many can envy. He is a performer who travels a lot, but when he goes home between tours he can go to a house inJIMMY BUFFETTAspen, Colo., or an apartment in Key West, Fla,, or a boat in the Caribbean.When he finished his tour this summer he headed for his boat, the Euphoria, docked in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. He has owned the 33-foot craft about a year. After a few days spent getting the boat into shape,Buffett took up his exploring where he’d left off — sailing from one island to another. Also in August, he flew to Colorado and got married.Another event of the Buffett year was “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” his fifth LP for ABC Records, his eighth ever, selling more than 500,000 copies and being certified gold. It was his first gold record. A single, “Margaritaville,” was a summertime hit and is nearly gold.“Margaritaville” takes its name from the Margarita cocktail. “It’s not a debauched song,” Buffet says. “It’s just a very light song, about a person hanging out on the beach, not caring to do anything. The last verse goes ‘I blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top, cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.’ If you ever wore thong sandals and had somebodystep on the heel, you know what it means to blow out your flip flop.”The last concert on Buffett’s summer tour was in New York and the reviews included such phrases as “lively sense of humor,” “sensitivity,” “Jolly, rowdy, good old boy,” “several songs glorify alcohol,” “smoothly flowing country ballads.”Buffett, who is from Mobile, Ala., lived in Nashville a couple of years and recorded for Bamaby Records, before moving to Key West in 1971 and Joining ABC in 1973. He never pursued a!+■ country music career.He has traveled, performing his own songs, for about 12 years. As a solo, he appeared often in college coffee houses. “I like to be on the move. It’s part of my nature, I guess.”Calling himself a mediocre guitar player, he first added a second guitarist. Then he put together a five-piece backup band.“Three years ago I booked it, performed, rented cars and figured out the expenses. Now there’s a work force of 22 people on the road.”Almost all performers travel so Buffett tries to stay away from writing songs about the road. “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” the title of his latest album and the song which will be his next single, however, came out of his reflections on a lot of bast traveling.But few performers sail around the Caribbean, so Buffett writes more songs inspired by people who live In the islands. “Most of my stuff is very personal; it’s 90 per cent based on something felt or observed or heard about, with the Caribbean and its characters being a large source.“There’s a lot of mystery to the Caribbean. Most of the people who arerogues would rather have their story told than not.”He usually takes one or two people out on the boat with him, Buffett says, but he can also sail it alone. When he does that, he anchors in a beautiful place, goes to bed about 8 p.m. since there are no bars or movies to go to, then gets up about 5 a.m. and starts writing songs. There are no phones to ring. He refreshes himself with snorkeling or swimming, then back to song writing.Buffett says he used to write songs in a very structured way. Now he thinks of bits of lyric or melody, keels that in his head and on the boat puts the ideas and the bits together into songs.“I write in about four keys. I concentrate more on lyrics than on the music that is involved; my melodies are pretty simple, basically. It seems tobe a workable formula, so I’m not going to mess with it.”One reason the new LP sold well, Buffett says, is the record company advertised it and told salesmen and promotion men to push it. He also signed with a new management company which booked him to open concerts on the Eagles 1977 tour. He says, “I was a victim of no advertising in the past. I’m more than happy to share the success of this album.“Opening a show 18 the hardest thing to do. The majority of the audience is there to see the headliner. But everybody has to do it. It’s part of the business.“I try to leave an impression, make adent. I try to be as good as I can to try towin them over. If you establish yourself, it pays off.”Buffett’s favorites of the songs he has written are “A Pirate Looks at 40,” about a friend, and “He Went to Paris,” about his grandfather and a wino he knew in New Orleans. “They had a good life and are still smiling. That’s everybody’s dream — get through the whole thing and be contented.”Buffett’s family background is Welsh. He is blue eyed and fair haired. “My father is a marine architect. He does cost analyses for building ships. My grandfather was a ship’s captain and came from Nova Scotia. The family has been sailing people for a long time.”Man who drove carinto Plains KKKrally indictedAMERICUS, Ga. (AP) - Buddy Cochran, charged with driving his car into a Ku KIux Klan rally at Plains, Ga., was indicted by a grand jury Monday on eight counts of aggravated assault with an automobile.Twenty-nine persons were injured in the incident July 2 in President Carter’s home town.Cochran, 30, of Amerieus, remained in the Sumter County jail under bond of $50,000.The grand jury heard testimony from 10 witnesses who had attended the rally. Witnesses earlier had testified at a commitment hearing that Cochran was driving a car which smashed through the crowd at the speaker’s platform.Bill Wllkerson of Denham Springs, La., imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan of America, which sponsored the rally, was in the courthouse Monday but was not summoned by the grand jury.Buffett built a house in Aspen because he used to perform in Colorado a lot and likes It in the summer. He avoids coid weather. He has a songbook just published and in the fall there’ll be a new LP as well as a tour, which he’ll headline, in the South.After the storm season, he’ll return to Key West. Buffett smiles. It’s a nice way to make a living, he says.Dean promotingWatergate boohNEW YORK (AP) - Former White House counsel John W. Dean III, in town to promote the paperback version of “Blind Ambition,” his book on Watergate, says he is a fulltime writer.“I have to make a living, and I’ve chosen to want to write,” said Dean, 39.“The tittilation of scandal is gone out of it, and now it seems something to take some perspective on,” he said Monday of the Nixon White House affair.Dean said his wife Maureen, also a Watergate author, has had television and movie offers but most of them were “pretty clearly an effort to exploit her.”“That’s the pure commercializing in Watergate that none of us want to get involved in,” he said.FAMILY OF EAGLES ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — Alex Robertson McCalmont, 16, recently became the fourth son of Mr. and Mrs. Lynn McCalmont to receive the Eagle Scout award. His brothers, Jack, Scott and Andrew, all Eagles themselves, presented the award to him.* * * * * * * * * ******
Newspaper Details
Hattiesburg American
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, US
Wed, Aug 24, 1977
Page 64
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
MS, USA 22 Jul 2020
Other Publications Near Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg Daily Progress
Hattiesburg Daily News
Hattiesburg News
Hattiesburg American
