Jimmy
Buffett: A Good Life All the Way by Ryan White (Touchstone/Simon &
Schuster, 2017, 368 pp., $26.99/12.99) brings style, wit, deep
understanding, and insight to the story of an entertainment
phenomenon that would be easy to dismiss as merely a substance
infused romp through an aimless and lucky journey to riches and fame.
In writing a thorough, deeply researched, and thoughtful biography
about one of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries'
most potent entertainment forces, White sheds light on the music
industry and American culture while exploring the life of a
remarkable entertainer who both represents and helped to form today's
cultural landscape.
Ryan White's style is
smooth, hip, and light, just as are Jimmy Buffett's singing style and
take on life. Buffet, born to a longtime family of seafaring Mobile,
Alabama sea captains seems to have surfed over life, while developing
a take on its experience with broad and long-lasting appeal. Coming
from a background of relative privilege, he discovered the joys of
black blues sung by smart white guys early in his wandering college
career, when he noticed that guys with guitars got all the girls, a
phenomenon many have noticed. Nevertheless, Buffett seems to have
done his apprenticeship as an itinerant bar and small venue musician
with joy and a good deal of attention, playing the streets of New
Orleans, starting and losing bands, exploring and exploiting the
Nashville music scene as a song writer, plugger, and Billboard
columnist,
always watching and listening. Meanwhile, Ryan's jazzy, folk-rock
inflected seventies and eighties tone sets the stage for an
interesting and readable exploration through the life of one of
America's most entertaining and gifted singer/songwriters.
White serves up Buffett's story in a light-hearted manner, making it
go down as easily as tequila while maintaining a driving narrative
flow. Whether it's Mobile, AL, the development of the Nashville music
scene, or the discovery, founding, sale, and development of Key West
to a series of joyful scoundrels, White keeps the narrative light
while throwing in enough solid information along with crumbs of humor
to keep the reader's eyes from glazing over. Buffett's ability to
attract trustworthy and effective partners (Don Light, Tom Corcoran)
and advisers while continuing to trust his own musical vision should
not be underestimated. In the end, Buffett, despite seldom cracking
top ten in either the song or album charts, was able to create one of
the most lucrative entertainment brands in history. The book reads a
lot like listening to Buffett songs, always salted with nuggets of
insight and wisdom, keeping the reader's interest. Nevertheless, it's
clear that White has done his homework with plenty of references and
interviews cited yet never becoming pedantic.
Perhaps the most interesting elements in the book lie in the
contrasts between various versons of Jimmy Buffett: the incessant
partier, the driven perfectionist, the innovative wordsmith, and the
able leader. His ability to move between the roles making each of
them a full part of his multi-dimensional persona is what makes
Buffett both believable and, sometimes, truly likeable. He managed to
draw talented people to him, tap into their resources, build a
musical empire and a personal fortune, and leave mostly good memories
behind.
The book appeals to everyone interested in Buffett from casual fans
who've enjoyed his songs while seated in a bar or in occaisonal radio
plays, or a chance album purchase to dedicated Parrot Heads who
follow him and the the Coral Reefers ceaselessly. They pay over a
$1000 a piece for tickets, because these baby boomers and later have
enjoyed Buffett, living his life vicariously while mostly staying
sober and industrious, making successes of themselves, just like
their hero. Sometimes the book seems to get pretty deep into the
details of song development, recordings, and contracts, but it is,
therefore, a Buffett feast for Parrot Heads while never becoming
overwhelming for the more general reader interested in Buffett as a
singer and a phenomenon.
Ryan White
Twice named one of the top
writers in the country by the Society for Features Journalism, Ryan
White spent nearly 16 years at the Oregonian covering sports, music,
and culture. He's appeared on the public radio variety show Live
Wire! as both an interviewer and an essayist. He has also written for
Sports Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News,
the Washington Post, the Portland Mercury, and Portland Monthly
magazine. A perfectly OK beer league hockey player, he lives in
Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter.
(Amazon profile)
In Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All
the Way by Ryan White (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2017, 368
pp., $26.99/12.99), Ryan White has written a nuanced and
thoughtful book that probably captures as much of Jimmy Buffett as
can be fitted between book covers. Buffett emerges as a complex man
who discovered he had become a “BRAND” and knew how to capitalize
on that while continuing to write and sing songs keeping the brand
alive. Seemingly easy going, offhand, even sloppy, he's detail
oriented, fully self-aware. As I read the book, I was often unsure if
I like Jimmy Buffett or not. But he emerges as a good man with a life
well spent who has created a dream for others to drop into and then
return to their more humdrum world. Not a bad legacy to leave and a
wonderful reading experience to describe it. I received the book as a
digital download from the publisher through Edelweiss and read it on
my Kindle app.
