In the “Names and Faces” section in newspapers all over the country on August 30, 1983, the following story ran:
Singer Jimmy Buffett, known for hits like “Margaritaville” and “Havana Daydreaming,” has been named in an $11-million suit alleging that one of his songs was taken from a dramatic monologue by the late Richard (Lord) Buckley, an entertainer during the 1930s and 1950s. Buckley’s son, Dick Buckley Jr., charged in a suit filed last Thursday in US District Court in Los Angeles that Buffett infringed on his father’s copyright. Buckley charged that Buffett took parts of his father’s monologue from “A Tribute to Buckley” and claimed it as his work in “God’s Own Drunk.”
Though few details on the whole incident are known, it inspired a song, much like all of Jimmy’s incidents over the years have. The song was titled “The Lawyer and The Asshole” and was played often through the 1980’s, with the earliest known performance being in Telluride, Colorado on August 27, 1983 and the last being November 16, 1986 in Gainesville, Florida. The song went something like this:
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This lawyer and this asshole,
Out in California,
Told Me I can’t sing “God’s Own Drunk” for you no more.
I hate bein’ told what I can and can’t do
So here’s a little message ’til I even up the score.
Kiss my ass Mr. Buckley
Hey something here’s wrong
You want all the money
And you never wrote the song.
I bet your poor daddy’s
Rolling over in the ground
So I’ll just sing my own good tunes
They still get me around.
Kiss my ass Mr. Buckley
Hey, something here’s very wrong
You want all this money
And you never even wrote the song.
I just bet your daddy used to beat you as a kid
If I find you in L.A. I’ll repeat just what he did
Kiss My Ass, Kiss My Ass, Kiss My Ass
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Although the outcome of the court case is unknown, “God’s Own Drunk” was replaced in set lists between the 1983 “Somewhere Over China” tour and 1987’s “A Pirate Looks at Forty” tour with the above song. Once a staple of Buffett shows and a favorite of everyone, the song still reappears every now and then, and even made the April 22, 2006 Irvine, California set list, but was never played. As of now, the song was last performed May 6, 2000 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Despite it reappearing throughout the 1990’s, the question still remains, can Jimmy legally perform “God’s Own Drunk” in concert?
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