Post #1646 by Swanky on Wed, May 22, 2002 6:44 AM

For most of us, the exotica of Martin Denny and the 40's-60's lounge and classic ploynesian music is as far away, romantic and mystical as the "little island in the Pacific."

On the other hand, Jimmy Buffett is as close as the nearest college campus bar, or even closer.

It's not just some knick-knacks we savor, but the exotic lands and attitudes that come with it. That's what brought ex-GI's to Polynesian bars and restaurants in NYC and Chicago, and elsewhere in the 50's, and that's what we crave and search out and try to recreate.

I suppose there is a group among us that is more about Key West and Parrots than Maui and marimbas. But this whole thing was born of the first group. The second is late to the party. And the first group looks at the second as crashers. When one of the second group requests Buffett at the tiki bar, they are revealed.

I'd say a good many don't hate Buffett, but they don't see his music as pertaining to the Polynesian Pop mythos.