Post #10955 by jukeboy56 on Mon, Oct 14, 2002 3:47 PM

That's okay Woody. At least you tried with a semi-open mind.
I know this has been hashed and re-hashed to death, but here's my contribution to the perpetual Buffett rant:

The folks on here can call his music what they want, and I can certainly understand the ire it raises when his name is uttered in the same breath as the word "tiki". However, his music will always have a special place in my heart for the years that I spent as a fan. I don't listen to his tunes much anymore, and I don't buy every new album. But, I grew up in the middle of a flat, dry desert, 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean, and for me, JB provided my first method of escape to tropical climes. When I finally did get to see the ocean for the first time, his music helped me re-live the experience until I could go back again. For those of us who can get into it, it's escape music. A little vacation pressed into vinyl, 8-track tape, cassette or CD.
Buffett's music also provided a crossover between the rock that I listened to in the 70's and the country music that my Dad favored, which gave us a way to bond when I was a teenager and we had to struggle to do so. A few years back when my dad had a heart attack and I wrote to JB to describe the role his music had played between my dad and me, he sent my dad an autographed picture. (Okay, I know it was just his publicity people doing the sending, but it still meant something to my dad.)
So JB isn't for everybody, and it isn't tiki, and it doesn't belong on this board. So what? That doesn't make his music as deplorable as some folks on this board seem to try to make it. If you go to a tiki party and somebody puts on a reggae tune and passes out somberos and leis do you stomp out in disgust? Or lighten up and join the conga line? As for me, I'd rather dance.