Customer Reviews

Jimmy Buffett: The Key West Years

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm a big Buffett and Corcoran fan but this book cannot possibly be contrued as anything else but a blatant attempt by Corcoran to sucker Buffett fans into buying an almost worthless and VERY skimpy book. It's all of 60 pages, minus 10 for the filler pages and you're left with just 50 pages of actual book. Half of the pages are pictures so you end up with a whopping 25 pages, that's right, 10 dollars for 25 pages, each containing only 2 to 3 paragraphs!! Most are simply brief descriptions of places that were in Key West while Buffett lived there and very little of anything else. Want to read a couple of sentences about Jimmy, that's all you get. Want to hear stories about what was a very colorful time in Buffett's life, don't bother, it isn't here. The longest story is about 3 sentences. The biggest surprise though was after I finished reading it I looked at my watch and discovered that it took me under 10 minutes. That's not a book, that's a magazine article. I'm very disappointed that Mr. Corcoran would stoop to ripping off his and Jimmy's fans with something like this.

I was expecting to have funny anectdotal stories about Jimmy and his gang as they hung around the keys. While it may have been a fun to reminisce for Mr. Corcoran, it wasn't a very fun read.

For me it seemed like mr. Corcoran was trying to tell funny stories, but was leaving all the fun parts out. It was an easy read, but very boring.

Tom Corcoran's book could have been called "The Parrothead's Guide to Key West." If you've ever picked out the line "Went down to Fausto's to get some chocolate milk" from Jimmy Buffett's parodic song "My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don't Love Jesus" and wondered what it meant, this book is for you. "Jimmy Buffett: The Key West Years" gives us descriptions of 35 of his old Key West haunts, combined with 39 photos (including front/back covers)--many of them taken by Corcoran himself, who as a Chart Room bartender gave Jimmy his first drink as a welcome to Key West. Later, Corcoran would turn photographer and provide the photos for a number of Jimmy's album covers (check your album photo credits!). Corcoran is such an insider that he casually mentions things that will blow away "parrotheads," who may find themselves wishing Corcoran would write a sequel. Every entry will have you recalling lines from Buffet lyrics!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Buffett in his mid-`80s Key West digs for a little magazine called "Clockwatch Review" and I started the first Hemingway Days Writer's Workshop upstairs at the current Margaritaville. I spent ten summers in Key West working the festival and started to feel like a local, but Corcoran's book told me things about Buffett and Key West that I didn't know . . . and gave me plenty of places to look up the next time I'm in town. Most entries give specific addresses, though Corcoran apparently forgot to include precise locations for the Old Anchor Inn and Logan's Lobster House. No matter. It'll give me something to ask old-timers the next time I squander an afternoon at Captain Tony's, The Green Parrot, or Schooner Wharf!

I picked up Corcoran's book on Buffett while in Key West, so I could use it as a sightseeing guide. The book is short, but very informative (because Corcoran was actually among the motley crew in KW during the 70's). From the locations of Jimmy's former abodes to sites of notable shows, the book is fairly comprehensive. I was able to locate his apartment on Waddell St., which Hunter S. Thompson stayed in for several years and learned about some Buffett connections to places I'd already been. Some reviewers have been harsh, but this $10 guide is a nice addition to any Parrothead's collection.

Having been born and raised in Key West, I learned a couple of new and interesting things about Buffett's early forays onto the Key West scene but, like others, was disappointed by the superficial facts offered up by Corcoran. The stories read like teasers for actual chapters that, apparently, were never written. Perhaps Corcoran, a fiction writer, does not understand the art of reporting and disseminating facts. Each "teaser" left me, in the words of Paul Harvey, waiting for the "rest of the story." This is a travel guide, at most, advising which Key West homes should be hanging signs that read "Jimmy Buffett slept here."

In addition, other stories are left out of context by insufficient back story (names of people but no reference to their relationship) that require the reader to already have an understanding of characters they just met.

We bought this book on a trip to Key West. It was fun driving around and seeing (even visiting) some of Buffett's early haunts. Without the book, we wouldn't have seen nearly as many. It's not a great 'story' or biography, but it gets a parrothead around Buffet's Key West.

I bought it because I like Buffett and Corcoran and I was not disappointed. A good read and well written.

OK, all the previous reviews have a lot of truth in them. I, too, was expecting more from Tom Corcoran since he was there throughout the '70s when Buffett began creating his own legend. So, for those of us who already know Key West well and have been longtime Buffett aficionados, there's little new in this slim volume.
However, if you've never been to Key West -- or have been there just once or twice -- you'll probably find the book interesting, and maybe even informative. For the rest of us ... well, we're still waiting for the definitive book on "the Key West years." Maybe Jimmy eventually will write it himself.

This book is not much more than a compilation of a few of old photographs of Jimmy Buffett and some of his old haunts. The people who critiqued it very harshly should consider the nature of the book before making a negative comment. The book WAS worth the 10 dollars paid for it, old photographs and the 1st and 2nd hand experiences written about Jimmy Buffett's adventures at each location are worth the small price. The book isn't long, it isn't very detailed, but the old photographs and little details will help any Parrothead to picture the manner of which Jimmy's songs and stories originated.

For any PARROTHEAD considering a pilgrimage to southernmost Florida, Tom Corcoran's booklet JIMMY BUFFETT: THE KEY WEST YEARS can serve as a useful guide. Buffett's longtime friend and photographer, Corcoran ventures beyond the usual haunts of Capt.Tony's Saloon, The Chart Room Bar, Mallory Square, Casa Marina, and-of course- Margaritaville Cafe. With Tom's list of landmarks for land sharks, many a Jimmy B. fan will need days for exploring the side streets and back alleys of Key West. His stories of time with Jimmy are quite a tease, just hors d'oeuvres for the appetite of avid PARROTHEADS. Like any good vacation, or JB & Coral Reefer concert, this offering of pictures and prose leaves one wanting more. Say- was that James W. Buffett's plane I saw flying over A1A? I heard he was in town...Rico Gringo(AKA Rick Bates)