The Buffett Experiment

Ok, I knew I had a Buffett song somewhere in my collection of mainly guitar-noise bumf, and finally remembered where it was. It was track 13 on the Hunter S Thompson "Where were you when the fun stopped?" CD. (Basically a collection of his favourite tracks....Robert Mitchum, Howlin' Wolf, Jefferson Airplane, etc.)

Right, must get myself in the right frame of mind & give this a listen. Put myself into the Buffett zone somehow.

I've come home from a day at work, and had 3 beers. (Unfortunately not American Buds/Millers/or Pabst f'ickn Blue Ribbon....Carlsberg Export). None of my Tiki's are multi-coloured and no amount of teasing will get my hair into a mullett, so I'm just going to have to imagine those aspects of Buffett-hood.

But here goes anyhow. My mind is open, though I recall fast-forwarding through that particular clutch of songs on the CD.
The Buffett tune is 'Why don't we get drunk'. It starts with a plodding beat, some cliched country stylings, and then Buffett himself kicks in. It doesn't take long to the payoff line, "Why don't we get drunk....and screw" Now I'm really not 100% sure whether the song is a parody (If so, Ween would have done a far better job) or one for the good old boys to crank up before a night of drunken attempted groping of anyone female in the vicinty.

I couldn't bear it.
Awful, hackneyed crap.
I tried, I really did, but it stank within seconds. Buffett remains a byeword for poor taste.

Trader Woody

[ Edited by: Trader Woody on 2002-10-14 15:01 ]

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.

be afraid! be very afraid!

i found this image searching for (no, not a picture of mr. buffet) but for images of martin denny (denny's the one in the hat).

it's from this article in the honolulu star bulletin:

Buffett indulges
his sense of adventure

"A new album,"Far Side of the World," pays fond tribute to legends Martin Denny and Gardner McKay:"

http://starbulletin.com/2002/03/28/features/story1.html

Has anyone seen the new Tiki shirts out by buffet. Pretty cool in their own sense. If your not a fan of his(which he's alright to me) you can't really tell it's his shirt company.

I saw the commercial for the new "Far Side of the World" album - it was in heavy rotation on cable last week - after all the talk here on T.C. I decided to take a closer look at the it and all the images looked to be African centric - no sign of Polynesian style or tiki-ness anywhere.

Very well put, Jukeboy, I agree with most of what you said. I am a fan and don't want to rehash the whole debate. However if you want to try out some Buffett- I think his best albums are Banana Wind (lots of steel drums-I love) and his Christmas Island. Yea it's almost time to play that! Don't start with "Why don't we get drunk and screw?"

Well yes, I apologise for flogging a dead horse, and I don't particularly have a problem with the Buffettites. I honestly wasn't trying to stoke up the embers of previous arguments.

We don't get any Buffett played either on the radio or tv over here so I wondered what
made seemingly sane Americans drive hundreds of miles to sit in a sandpit of their own making while Buffett sangs songs about tequila.
I tried, I really did & that'll be the last you hear from me on the subject.

Trader Woody

Let us just say he is no "Captain & Tenille"