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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jimmy The Storyteller, January 10, 2001
After recording two albums for the obscure Barnaby label, Jimmy Buffett made his major label debut with A White Sport Coat & A Pink Crustacean. The album's title shows the humor that courses throughout the album as it is a take off on the old Marty Robbins' hit A White Sport Coat & A Pink Carnation. Mr. Buffett is a pre-eminate storyteller and the songs on the album sound like you could be sitting at a bar listening to him hold court. The album starts off with the hilarious "Great Filling Station Holdup" which tells of a small-time robbery gone wrong. "Railroad Lady" is a great country song that has been covered by Lefty Drizzel & Willie Nelson. "He Went To Paris" is a beautifully sad song while "Grapefruit (Juicy Fruit)" is a fun and goofy song. "Cuban Crime Of Passion" is one of his first songs to incorporate the Caribbean sounds that would become his signature sound. "Why Don't We Get Drunk" has become a staple in his concerts and has become an audience singalong. "Peanut Butter Conspiracy" tells of a struggling musician who may or may not be Mr. Buffett himself. "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More" is a slight song and the only weak link on the album. "I Have Found Me A Home" and "My Lovely Lady" are two nice ballads. "Death Of An Unpopular Poet" is one of his most underrated songs and a vivid tale of a poet and his dog. This was his first album that he recorded after he went to Key West for the first time and although it is mostly a country-folk album, there are glimpses of the sound he would become famous for.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buffett's first major-label effort, July 5, 2005
I just can't put it any better than Tom McGuane did in the liner notes to this album. Among other descriptions of the album, he states that "What Jimmy Buffett knows is that our personal musical history lies at the curious hinterland where Hank Williams and Xavier Cugat meet...."
Wow. There's no way I could come even close to something that erudite, and McGuane nails it about as good as anyone ever has in describing Buffett's music from those days over 30 years ago.
Hell, it hurts to even think about all that time gone by, but there it is. Still, this music holds up pretty well, even if it is somewhat dated. Especially so when you consider that Buffett, the starving, hard-partying singer/songwriter would become the megastar, businessman, author, salesman, pilot, diver, fisherman, jewel thief, surfer, master chef, lion tamer, environmental activist, palm reader, etc. etc. that he became. With all that going on, it's a wonder he's found the time to write any tunes at all...
What the hell, I digress.
The music on this album has a pretty strong country flavor, as Buffett had been trying to make it in that genre. Don Gant, the producer of the first four albums did a good job on this album and the musicians used were top-drawer Nashville studio people. It made a big difference, no question about it. Michael Utley and Fingers Taylor appeared on this album, and have been with him for the most part, ever since. On the early material, Taylor's harp and the steel guitar work of Doyle Gresham were very influential in defining his sound -- almost equal to Buffett's singing voice and lyrics.
The tunes are clever, occasionally poignant, interesting and in the case of "He Went to Paris," "Grapefruit Juicyfruit," and "Why Don't We Get Drunk (and Screw)," absolutely essential classic Buffett.
He really does find the spot fairly close to Hank Sr. and Cugat in tunes like "Cuban Crime of Passion," and "They Don't Dance like Carmen (Miranda) No More." "The Great Filling Station Holdup," is a silly uptempo country flavored tune about failure at crime among starving musicians, and the similar "Peanut Butter Conspiracy" is an autobiographical tome about petty larceny. Sounds to me like Buffett might've been low on cash in those early days, but it lent for some good material in any case.
All in all, this album is another essential early-years Buffett opus. You should own it as you should own all of his first six or seven major-label albums. After that, it gets to be something of a crapshoot, because they all started sounding the same, more or less. In general, the post-70s material is okay, but more formula than from the heart. You might even want to put down your hard earned money on some of it, but the early stuff is by far the best. He was doing great work, building his act, honing his songwriting ability and he wasn't yet the big shot. He had ambition, no question about it and he was smart. In the end, I think he decided to go for the gold first (subconsciously?) and the art would take care of itself -- as it always would -- and did.
Oh well, hell, in the beginning, he probably figured if he could sell a few records and get a steady gig, he could maybe even be able to buy a boat of some kind. Maybe travel some. Meet all kinds of women. Wow!
Five stars. The boy earned 'em.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The absoulute best Jimmy Buffet album., November 27, 1999
I own have this one on CD and I have the original album. It is Buffet's best work. "Death of an Unpopular Poet" is the best Buffet song. This is a great CD that every Parrothead should own.
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