Come Monday by Jimmy Buffett

“This was the first hit record I ever had. I was working in London, far away from the brown L.A. haze, when I heard it on the radio and called the states and got the good news. I guess that was when I realized that I might be able to keep my phony baloney job for awhile.” - Jimmy. At a performance in 1974, Jimmy mentions he wrote this song heading out to California the last time, so it was literally wrote as Jimmy was “heading up to San Francisco for the Labor Day Weekend show” in 1973.

Headin’ up to San Francisco
for the Labor Day weekend show
I’ve got my hush-puppies on
I guess I never was meant for
glitter rock and roll
And honey I didn’t know
that I’d be missin’ you so

(Chorus)
Come Monday It’ll be alright
Come Monday I’ll be holding you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A. haze
and I just want you back by my side

Yes it’s been quite a summer
rent-a-cars and west bound trains
And now you’re off on vacation
somethin’ you tried to explain
And darlin’ It’s I love you so that’s
the reason I just let you go

Chorus

I can’t help it honey
you’re that much a part of me now
Remember the night in Montana when
we said there’d be no room for doubt

I hope you’re enjoyin’ the scenery
I know that it’s pretty up there
We can go hikin on Tuesday
with you I’d walk anywhere
California has worn me quite thin
I just can’t wait to see you again

Chorus
(Repeat lines 3 & 4)

 Ringling, Ringling by Jimmy Buffett

Ringling, Ringling was written while Jimmy was in Montana working on the film “Rancho Deluxe.” No in-depth description has ever been given by Jimmy.

Ringling, Ringling
Slippin’ away
Only forty people, livin’ there today
Streets are dusty and the bank has been torn down
It’s a dyin’ little town

Church windows broken
That place ain’t been used in years
Jail don’t have a sheriff or a cell
And electric trains they run by maybe once or twice a month
Easin’ it on down to Mussellshell

Ringling, Ringling
Slippin’ away
Only forty people livin’ there today
`Cause the streets are dusty and the bank has been torn down
It’s a dyin’ little town

And across from the bar there’s a pile of beer cans
Been there twenty-seven years
Imagine all the heartaches and tears
In twenty-seven years of beer

So we hopped back in the rental car
and we hit the cruise control
Pretty soon the town was out of sight
Though we left behind a fat barmaid, a cowboy and a dog
Bracin’ for a Ringling Friday night

Ringling, Ringling
You’re just slippin’ away
I wonder how many people will be there a year from today
`Cause the streets are dusty and the bank has been torn down
It’s a dyin’ little town
It’s a dyin’ little town



Brahma Fear by Jimmy Buffett

“Brahma Fear” was likely written in Texas while Jimmy was working bars there in the early seventies. No in-depth description has ever been given by Jimmy.

I’d like to ride the rodeo
But I’ve got Brahma fear
So I’ll just stick to aeroplanes and
Gently pop my ears

Drink a lot of whiskey
It gives me such a glow
It makes me quite immobile
Ah but it let’s my feeling show

And I’m somewhere below the spotlight
Somewhere below the ground
You dig deep enough you might find me
Find me, and you’ve found my sound

Yes, I own a whaler boat
It slides across the sea
Some folks say I’m part of it
And I know it’s part of me

And when I’m feelin’ solitaire
It let’s me be alone
And when I want to have a taste
It carries me back home

Chorus

Yes, I drink a lot of whiskey
It gives me such a glow
It makes me quite immobile
But it let’s my feelin’s show
Yes, it makes me quite immobile
Ah, but it let’s my feelin’s show



Brand New Country Star by Jimmy Buffett

This song was most likely written about Jimmy himself and where his career was going. No in-depth description has ever been given by Jimmy.

Well, he out grew his sequin suit
Sold his Trailway bus
Let his hair get a little too long
Duck tails bit the dust
His custom made, pearl inlayed guitar
slipped from his hands
And in it’s place a new electrical one
He had flown in from Japan

Chorus
`Cause he’s a cheeseburger eatin’
Abandoned Sunday meetin’
Brand new country star
He rides around in a Lincoln Continental
No steer horns on his car
Oh the record man say he’s the livin’ end
They’re gonna spin him right to the top
Yea, he’s a hot roman candle from the Texas panhandle
He can either go country or pop

Got a good ole’ friend name of Texas Ben
Tells him all the spots to play
And a sweet little lady, he calls her sexy Saddie
She’s with the boy night and day
They’re gonna open up a chain of fancy bowling lanes
The first one in his old home town
And on ribbon cutting day they’ll come from miles away
The folks will all gather round and sing

Chorus



Livingston’s Gone To Texas by Jimmy Buffett

This song was scheduled to appear on Jimmy’s second album, “High Cumberland Jubilee,” but Baranaby Records “lost” the masters to the album. This song popped up here, while the original version would not see the light of day for 2 more years. No in-depth description has ever been given by Jimmy.

Nothing here is different
Nothing’s changed at all
Livingston’s gone to Texas
They say he had a ball

They say he learned to be cowboy
They say he learned to rope and ride
But I wonder if he ever
Thinks about the tears his woman cried

Now Holly, won’t you let me
try and make you smile?
You loved him as if he were your husband
Now he’ll be gone a while

Wrote he had to see the country
On starry nights he wished you were there
And so it shows wherever he goes
Deep inside you know he really cares

And nothing, here is different
Nothing’s changed at all
Livingston’s gone to Texas
The snow’s about to fall



The Wino And I Know by Jimmy Buffett

“This was a song I wrote after listening to Gordon Lightfoot, who has been a great influence on my style. Gordon takes uncommon subject matter and turns it into lyrics that make you listen to what the singer is saying. With all the passing trends of the last two decades, I still haven’t changed my style of writing. A good story is never out of fashion. Thanks, God.” - Jimmy

The ice cream man he’s a hillbilly fan
He’s got seventy-eights by Hank Snow
Walks down the street, shufflin’ his feet
To the rhythm that only he knows
And I’ve seen him in so many places
I saw him the night I was born
In a Bourbon Street bar I received my first scar
From an old man so tattered and torn

And the Wino and I know the pains of street singin’
Like the door-to-door salesman knows
the pains of bell ringin’
It’s a strange situation
a wild occupation
Living my life like a song

Well the coffee is strong
at the Cafe Du Monde
And the donuts are too hot to touch
But just like a fool, when those
sweet goodies cool, I ate ’til I ate way too much
Cause I’m livin’ on things that excite me
Be they pastries or lobsters or love
I’m just tryin’ to get by being quiet and shy
In a world full of pushin’ and shove

And the Wino and I know the pains of backbustin’
Like the farmer knows the pain of his pick-up
truck rustin’
It’s a strange situation, a wild occupation
Living my life like a song

Sweet Senorita, Won’t you please come with me
Back to the island, honey, back to the sea
Back to the only place that I want to be

And the Wino and I know the joys of the ocean
Like a boy knows the joys of his milkshake
in motion
It’s a strange situation, a wild occupation
Living my life like a song
Yes, It’s a strange situation, a wild occupation
Living my life like a song



West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown by Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy mentions in a performance in 1974 that this song was a true story. No in-depth description has ever been given by Jimmy.

Standin’ on side of the highway 4 exit
A lady in tie die, a bag by her side
Not really lookin’ like anything special
Saw Tennessee tags and she waved for a ride

Sat right beside me as the meter hit sixty
Explainin’ her travels and her family background
When she got thru I could not help but thinkin’
She’s a long way from a West Nashville grand ballroom gown

Her father had money and her mother had love
Channeled entirely to her dear sister Dove
Twenty-two years in societies plan
Canceled at the swing of her dear mothers hand

Six hours later we hit Cincinnati
Yawning she woke and asked where we were
When she found out she said "I must be going"
This close to Nashville was too close for her

So I stopped by the roadside and I gave her five dollars
She took it then kissed me and gave me a note
She told me just to read it then mail it in Nashville
On old loose leaf paper to her mother she wrote

She said Momma I’m fine if you happen to wonder
I don’t have much money but I still get around
I haven’t made church in near thirty-six Sundays
So fuck all those West Nashville grand ballroom gowns

Yea, she’s a long way from the West Nashville grand
ballroom gown



Saxophones by Jimmy Buffett

This song describes some of Jimmy’s roots in Mobile while Jokingly implying that if he had Saxophones he would have hits. No in-depth description has ever been given by Jimmy.

I cut my teeth on gumbo rock
Benny Spellman and Doctor John
Sweet Irma Thomas and Frogman Henry
Use to boogie woogie all night long
Though I love rock and roll the acoustic guitar
was the only way I had of becoming a star
I’m doin rather nice and traveling around
But they won’t play my record in my ol’ hometown

But If I had saxophones
Big baritones cleanin’ up the muddy breaks
If I had Saxophones
I could get some recognition from
that Mobile Alabama DJ

Livin’ by the ocean sometimes I get the notion
To take my Janie downtown
We hang out in a funky little bar
They call it the Shipwreck lounge
Well, we get kinda drunk and we play rock and roll
Grabbin’ everybody right down in their soul
When we get to cookin’ something’s still wrong
There’s still something missing from them good old songs

But If we had saxophones
Big baritones cleaning up the muddy breaks
If we had saxophones
I could make that joint shimmy like a big
California earthquake

If we had saxophones
Big baritones cleaning up the muddy breaks
If we had saxophones
I could get some recognition from
that Mobile Alabama DJ



Ballad Of Spider John by Willis Alan Ramsey

“Willis Alan Ramsey is one of the great Texas troubadours who has built a musical legacy. I think he is one of the best writers I have ever known, and I hope to one day hear that he has made another album.” - Jimmy. Note: some of the lyrics of this song were cut on this version, while Jimmy often sings the full version live.

Spider John is my name friend
I’m in between freights and I sure would be obliged
If you’d share your company
I know this may sound strange to you
But if you wait ’til the song is sung and the stories told
You might come to understand
Why I’m old and bent and devil’s been runnin’ out of time
When I long ago held a royal flush in my hand

Oh, I was a super market fool, I was a motor bank stool pigeon
Robbing my hometown
I thought I’d lost my blues, yes, I thought I’d paid my dues
I thought I’d found the life to suit my style

But here I sit ol’ Spider John
The robber man
Long, tall and handsome
Yes, ol’ Spider John with a loaded hand
Taking ransom

Then one day I met Diamond Lil
She was the sweetest thing, I declare,
That the summer breeze ever blown my way
Lilly she had no idea my illustrious occupation
She thought I was a saint, not a sinner gone astray yay
But you see that word got around and Lily left town
Never saw her again
Tossin’ and turnin’, causin’ my heart to grieve

Oh, I was a super market fool, I was motor bank stool pigeon
Robbing my hometown.
I thought I’d lost my blues, thought I’d paid my dues
I thought I’d found the life to suit my style.

But here I sit ol’ Spider John
The robber man
Long, tall and handsome
Yes, ol’ Spider John with a loaded hand
Taking ransom

That is all my story
Been these thirty years since I took to the road
Find my precious jewel one
If you see my Lilly, won’t you give her my regards
Tell her ol’ Spider got tangled
In the black web that he spun

You can tell her that ol’ Spider got tangled
In the black web that he spun



God’s Own Drunk by Lord Buckley

This song was obivously recorded in one take, after Jimmy and the band were slightly liquored up. Jimmy says he first heard this song when a roomate of his played it for him while he lived in New Orleans in the late ’60’s. To this day it remains one of Jimmy’s most popular songs, despite the fact that it’s rarely ever performed live anymore.

Well, like to explain to you all before,
I ain’t no drinkin’ man
I tried it once and it got me highly irregular
And I swore I’d never do it again

I promised my brother in-law that I’d go up and watch his still
While he went in to town to vote
It was right up on the mountain
where the map said it would be

Friends let me tell you one thing,
it wasn’t no ordinary still
It stood up on that mountainside
like a huge golden oak

God’s yeller moon shinin’ on the cool clear evenin’
God’s little lanterns twinklin’ on and off in the heavens

Like I explain’d to you once before I ain’t no drinkin’ man
But temptation got the best of me
And I took a slash

That yella whiskey runnin’ down my throat
tasted like honey dew vine water
And I took another slash,

Took another’n an another’n an another’n
For I knew I’d downed one whole jug of that shit
and commenced to gettin’ hot flashes

Goose pimples was runnin’ up and down my body
And a feelin’ came over me
somethin’ I’d never experienced before

It was like, like I was in love
In love for the first time, with anything that moved

Animate, inanimate it didn’t matter
It’s like there’s a great neon sign flashin’ on an’ off
in my brain sayin’ "Jimmy Buffett there’s a great day a comin’"
`Cause I was drunk

I wasn’t knee crawlin’, slip slidin’, Reggie Youngin’
Commode huggin’ drunk
I was God’s own drunk and a fearless man

And that’s when I first saw the bear
He was a Kodiak lookin’ fella `bout nineteen feet tall

He rambled up over the hill
expectin’ me to do one of two things,
Flip or fly, I didn’t do either one
It hung him up

He started sniffin’ around my body tryin’ to smell fear
But he ain’t gonna smell no fear `cause
I’m God’s own drunk and a fearless man
It hung him up

He looked right in my eyes, and my eyes
was a lot redder than his was
It hung him up

So I approached him, I said " Uh Mr. Bear, I love
every hair on your twenty-seven acre body

I know you got a lot of friends over there
on the other side of the hill
There’s ole’ rare bear, tall bear, Pretty bear, Killy Jare
Really bear, smelly the bear, smokey the bear,
pokey the bear

I want you to go back over there tonight
And tell them I’m feelin’ right
You tell them I love each and everyone of them
like a brother and a sister
But if they give me any trouble tonight
I’m gonna run every God damn one of them off the hill"

He took two steps backwards and didn’t know what to think
Neither did I but bein’ charitable and cautious
I approached him again

I said "Mr. Bear, You know in the eyes of the Lord
we’re both beasts when it comes right down to it
So I want you to be my buddy, Buddy bear"

So I took ole’ buddy bear by his island size paw
and I led him over to the still
He’s a sniffin’ around that thing cause
he’s smellin’ somethin’ good

I gave him one of them jugs of honey dew vine water
He downed it up right
Looked like one of them damn bears in the circus
Sippin’ sasparilly in the moonlight

I gave him another’n an another’n an another’n
For I knew it he downed eight of them
and commenced to doin’ the bear dance
Two sniffs, a snort, a fly turn, and a grunt
It was so simple like the jitter bug
It plum evaded me

We worked ourselves into a tumultuous uproar
And I was awful tired and went over to the hillside
and I laid down and went to sleep
Slept for four hours and dreampt me some tremulous dreams

When I woke up, there was God’s yeller moon
shinin’ on the clear cool evenin’
God’s little lanterns twinklin’ on and off
in the heavens

My buddy the bear was a missin’
Want to know something else friends and neighbors
So was that still