Post #541624 by Dr. Zarkov on Sat, Jul 10, 2010 11:40 AM

I'm sorry, but I just can't understand why some people here get all worked up over Buffett and Parrotheads. As long as the Parrotheads don't try to pretend that what they are doing is real Tiki, I really don't care.

I remember in 2005 when my wife and I had dinner with the station manager of Festival FM at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, where I volunteered as a DJ for a week playing Tiki show to largely uncomprehending Brits. Several of the younger DJs (they call them "presenters" over there) complained to him because they thought I was playing old boring big band music -- they were incapable of telling the difference between Glenn Miller and Billy Eckstine -- and their idea of contemporary rock was mid-1970s Fleetwood Mac and Dee-Lite from the early nineties. The station manager (who is my age) and I agreed with my observation that younger people tend to be less tolerant: If some kind of music is not their cup of tea, they cultivate a passionate hate for it. When you get older you tend to simply avoid music you don't like without wasting unnecessary energy or karma by getting all worked up over it.

In the late sixties and early seventies Buffett was a favorite of my crowd of college friends; I still have all of his early albums on LP and still remember buying his first one at E.J. Korvettes in Bergen County, N.J. In those days he was considered a singer-songwriter of the same caliber as Steve Goodman and John Prine. And it may surprise you to learn that he also was considered quite hip at the time -- marrying Tom McGuane's sister encouraged that view. For every bouncy fun tune like "Margaritaville" there was "A Pirate Looks at 40." But after his first handful of albums he started to repeat himself and seemed unable to come up with clever tunes. I lost interest and haven't bought one of his recordings in decades.

As for the Margaritaville, some of my favorite memories are of the tiny bar on the back of the one in the French Quarter in New Orleans back in the nineties. You entered on Decatur Street and the place was barely big enough for a small bandstand and a few tables. On several trips there I would go in on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening and singer-songwriter Mike West was performing, sometimes with his wife Mishkin or other musicians who would sit in. There were never more than a few people there and they were all locals who along with Mike I had the pleasure of getting to know, including bartenders on their off hours, workers on river barges, other musicians, etc. Sometimes tourists would walk in, take one look around and then walk out. And unlike the clubs along Frenchman Street in Treme, there was no bucket passed around after every song, although Mike did sell his CDs, which I am delighted to own, featuring his acerbic and unromantic songs about living in New Orleans (check him out on Amazon).

Well, enough of my rambling on. I guess what I am trying to say is: If you don't like Buffett's music, don't listen to it; if you don't like Parrotheads, don't hang out with them; and if you can't avoid that, be nice to them and treat it as an opportunity to introduce them to the wonders of true Tiki.

[ Edited by: Dr. Zarkov 2010-07-23 08:05 ]