Customer Reviews

Fruitcakes

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know CDs aren't supposed to wear out when you play them, but I play this one enough that I worry about it. Daily. The alarm goes off. I hit snooze. I hit play. The lively beat of "Everybody's Got a Cousin in Miami" usually brings me most of the way into consciousness. "Fruitcakes" leaves me awake & chuckling. The rest is shower/dressing/breakfast/email music.

I'm not a Buffett Fan. Y'all can take Margarittaville & go Get Drunk & Screw for all I care. Most of his other stuff holds no appeal to me. But this CD is different (fans beware) & I like it. It's laid back, with just enough of a Carribean feel to be "exotic." Buffett's sense of humor shines through brightly.

Some tracks, like "Six String Music" & "Love in the Library" are unremarkable, but I find them staying with me in a lilting & upbeat way. The ode to his daughter "Delaney Talks to Statues" gets me every time, but I'm sentimental & my own daughter is growing up way too fast. I own a lot of Grateful Dead CDs (several changer cartridges full). I find his interpretation of "Uncle John's Band" enjoyable & refreshing rather than inept and blasphemous. He gets the spirit of that song & manifests it with good humor. He cracks "Apocalypso," as the ultimate existentialist joke.

Five stars for a playful, sunny masterpiece. I love it. I have it on good authority that Joe Merchant does, too.

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This cd, I believe, is Jimmy's best 90's album. There is a nice mix of ballads, (love in the library, Delaney talks to statues), and upbeat songs, (everybody's got a cousin, Quietly making noise). Another reason to buy this album is to hear Jimmy's great remake of the Greatful Dead song Uncle John's Band. This is one of my favorite Buffett cds, and it is worth the price.

If you read the reviews at this site of Jimmy's 90's releases, you will find a common thread that you need to allow these albums to grow on you. I'm still having a little trouble with Banana Wind, Beach House, and even Barometer Soup. (I'm still hesitating on Carnival.) But this one is definitely worth playing until you can't get enough of it! I love Lone Palm, Uncle John's Band, Six String Music, Love in the Library, Frenchman For The Night, and especially Quietly Making Noise. Catholic school veterans and childhood fans of classic monster movies will identify with Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost, as I do. She's Got You is about the only dismissable track here. This is maybe my favorite Buffett album after Somewhere Over China. Well, it's a close 2nd tie with Volcano and Floridays... Keep playing it, you'll love it! VagbndKing@aol.com

My dad is a big fan of Jimmy Buffet. I had never heard of him until in the summer of 1994 when I was 13 years old. My dad and I drove down to Florida from Ohio with this tape in the cassette player the whole way down their and back. At first, I have to admit that I didn't really care for the music. But after awhile it grows on you. Pretty soon I found myself singing the words to every song along with my dad. This record is on my top five of all time. My favorite songs are Uncle Johns band, Sunny Afternoon, Six string music, and the downright funny title track. Whenever I put this cd in I am in Florida all over again reliving all of the unforgetable moments that my father and I spent together. If this album does anything for you, it will put you in a great mood.

I have many fond memories of the summer of '94. I met my wife that summer, I went on a road trip to New Orleans with my best friend, attended my third Buffett concert, and theres this CD which I consider Jimmy's best release in the 90's. It had been five years since his last studio release which was good but nowhere near as good as Fruitcakes. Jimmy just sounded renergized and fresh on this CD unlike most of his 80's releases after Coconut Telegraph. "Uncle John's Band" is a great cover of the Dead song. "Everybody's got a cousin", "Fruitcakes", "Lone Palm", "Queitly Making Noise", "Vampires","She's Got You", "Sunny Afternoon" are really good. There is not a throw away song on this entire CD. Everytime I throw this CD in the player I am transported back to that great summer. I can almost feel the gulf coast breeze as my best friend and I travel down I-10 to N'awlins and I feel like I did when my wife and I first started dating. I know this is getting a little corny but this CD is like the soundtrack to a great part of my life. Thanks for the memories Jimmy.

"Fruitcakes" is an absolutely fantastic album. The title song, his cover of the Dead's "Uncle John's Band" and "Quietly Making Noise" stand among his all-time very best songs. "Love in the Library" and "Lone Palm" showcase his delightful storytelling and uncanny knack for putting together tunes that stay in your head long after the music has stopped. BUY THIS CD! Along with "Barometer Soup", by far his 2 best albums of the '90's.
ENJOY! Buy 2 if ya can!!!!

I am a Jimmy Buffett fan for quite a few years now, but didn't own too many of his CD's. This is my 5th or so CD of his, and is quickly becoming my favorite. It has a great blend of all the sounds you expect from Jimmy: caribbean beat/feel songs, love songs, upbeat happy songs, and just pure Jimmy. Its a great driving or doing housework song, or even a workout CD. Most songs have a lively beat. I love it.

"Everybody's Got a Cousin in Miami" (written by Buffett and Michael Tschudin) opens with a little 'phone conversation' about Jimmy's cousin, who's the shady sort who operates out of a phone booth and can get anything for anybody. "Everybody's got a cousin in Miami/Everybody understands the impromptu/Dancing in the heat to the beat/That turns your clothing clammy/Everybody needs to have a dream come true..."

"Fruitcakes" (written by Buffett and Amy Lee) "Fruitcakes in the kitchen/Fruitcakes on the street/Struttin' naked through the crosswalk/in the middle of the week./Half-baked cookies in the oven/Half-baked people on the bus/There's a little bit of fruitcake left in every one of us..." Tied with "Vampires, Mummies, and the Holy Ghost" for my favourite on this album. Very conversational style delivering the lyrics on the subject of fruitcakes in this world.

"Lone Palm" (written by Buffett) "While out on the beach there are two empty chairs/that say more than the people who ever sit there/from under my lone palm I can look out on the day..."

"Six String Music" (written by Buffett and G.E. Smith) "You can get into Beethoven, you can groove on Jimmy Reed/But keep it simple stupid/All we really need/is six string music..."

"Uncle John's Band" (written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter) "Come hear Uncle John's band playing to the tide/Come on along or go alone/He's come to take his children home"

"Love in the Library" (written by Buffett and Mac McAnally) is of course a quiet song about falling in love with a girl he met in the library. :) "Love in the library, quiet and cool/Love in the library, there are no rules/Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime/I fell in love in the library once upon a time..."

"Quietly Making Noise" (written by Buffett and Michael Tschudin) Steel drums, brushes switching to snare after the opening, xylophone, not much guitar. "Not too soft not too loud/Just enough to draw a crowd/Quietly, quietly, quietly making noise..."

"Frenchman for the Night" (written by Buffett and Roger Guth) *Too* laid back for my taste, to the point of being almost suitable for Muzak. Acoustic guitar, very little piano, percussion toned down to using brushes. The total effect challenges my theory that percussion in modern music is mostly abused.

"Sunny Afternoon" (written by Ray Davies) "The tax man's taken all my dough/And left me in this stately home/Lazing on a sunny afternoon/And I can't even sail my yacht/He's taken everything I've got/All I've got's this sunny afternoon..." I can't help thinking he's about to sing "Desperation Samba" when I hear the opening of this song.

"Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost" (written by Buffett, Roger Guth, Peter Mayer, Jim Mayer) leads off with an organ solo, though not *quite* a ripoff of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (aka the Mad Scientists' Anthem) before preceding to the topic of the singer's therapy. "Talk about denial and dysfunctional things/Head's like a bell some days, it dongs and it dings.../Spend lots of money but I'm tacklin' my fears.../Vampires, mummies, and the Holy Ghost/These are the things that terrify me the most/No alien, psychopath or MTV host scares me like vampires, mummies and the Holy Ghost."

"She's Got You" (written by Hank Cochran) "Only thing different/Only thing new/I've got your picture/She's got you". (Jimmy actually sings "she" on the first chorus but changes to "he" later on.) Peppy song for a the-hussy-ran-off genre. "He or she? Gender bender to me..."

"Delaney Talks to Statues" (written by Buffett, Mac McAnally, and Amy Lee) A father's song for his young daughter.

"Apocalypso" (written by Matt Betton) is notorious in my family because Jimmy played it on the Letterman show when the album first came out, only to be hustled offstage to make time for a little kid who could name all fifty states. Who, us? Fans? *Grr*. The steel drums naturally get a place in the sun in this one. "They say this universe is bound to blow/But I say we crank up the calypso control/Apocalyp, apocalyp, apocalypso/We'll be dancing when we go..."

This recording is loaded with crazy songs with the title track being the luniest of them all. Don't get me wrong this is good stuff and Jimmy as usual keeps throwing us many ear catching lyrics. Sometimes Jimmy's efforts in the singing department could be better. However gems like Love In The Library, Quietly Making Noise, Vampires, Mummies, And The Holy Ghost, as well as countless others make this a worthy purchase.

In my opinion, this is definitely the best Buffett album of the 1990's. It is solid throughout, and Jimmy wrote a lot of the really good songs here. I especially like "Quietly Making Noise", "Fruitcakes", "Everybody has a Cousin in Miami", and "Love in the Library". This album is so far superior to "Banana Wind", "Don't Stop the Carnival", and "Beach House on the Moon", that it's hard to believe that it came out of the same artist. But with this album, Buffett reminds all of us wannabe's that when he's on, he IS the best. Jerry Diaz KEY WEST-the band