#109 – Waiting For The Next Explosion

by Stacy Loves Buffett · November 4, 2024

#109 – Waiting For The Next Explosion

-by Stacy Garwood-

The world has felt edgy and uncomfortable for a while. I do not for a moment believe I am the only person feeling it, although my life has had some serious challenges recently. Certainly, in the last several months, and maybe even further back to the pandemic, although we might not have been aware of exactly what we were feeling leading up to that time… but something was coming, something was going to change things, and it was going to feel unsettling.

“Waiting for the next explosion” feels like that’s what our world has been feeling for the last several months, so the RadioMargaritaville Wheel of Fortune spun this song out to me last night, I nodded my head and said “yes, indeed” to the Universe. Perfect song at the perfect time, and I gave some words of thanks into the heavens to Jimmy Buffett for always having the right song for the right moment, as well as a nod to his foresight in writing and recording this song, which is twenty-five years old, but still feels just right to describe the way the world feels right now.

“Fire in the sky, lava in the ocean, Sittin’ round waitin’ for the next explosion…”

Waiting For The Next Explosion was released on JB’s 1999 album Beach House On The Moon. Beach House On The Moon was an album I listened to over and over when it was first released, and I have shared several songs from it over the course of this blog, and before that, on my personal social media page. I think it’s a great album, and this song is one of four on that album that was a solo writing effort from Jimmy. He had a few covers on it, a few co-written songs, and a few group efforts, but his solo efforts in songwriting always tug at my heartstrings. Jimmy Buffett was a fabulous song writer, and he was able to express emotions such a love, humor, whimsy, and social paradigms into his songs with charming lyrics and catchy melodies.

I really don’t know if I ever came across an interview that explained what Jimmy was thinking about when he penned this song, but it seems clear to me that the “end of the world as we know it”, also known as Y2K, probably inspired this song. Or at least the fear mongering from the media and computer corporations promising doom and gloom and the potential for life as we know it reverting to the dark ages. At that time, I didn’t recognize it as fear mongering, but I certainly think of it as that way now. Whatever you want to call it, it certainly had a lot of media attention.

For those people who don’t know, don’t remember, or were just too young to know that Y2K is, or was, let me recap. In the mid to late nineties, just as computers were becoming a needed household item, and we were entering the world of the internet (even if your dial up took an hour to connect and one misplaced phone call would kick you off the internet or an email might show up tomorrow or next week), a new fear was suddenly arising.

The computer systems that we had started to become so reliant on as a society, computer systems that were supposed to be smarter-than-a-billion-humans-put-together, might not be smart enough to understand that on midnight of New Years Eve in 1999, when the world rolled into the new millennium of 2000, those smarter-than-a-billion-humans-put-together computers more than likely would not be able to understand the difference between the year 2000 and the year 1900. Or any year ending in a double zero, I suppose.

Of course, there was some logic behind the worry. Back when computers were becoming bigger and more efficient and every classroom in America needed a personal computer to award diligent students with time playing The Oregon Trail, data took up a lot, I mean A LOT, of space. And at the time, it seemed logical to use only the last two digits of the actual year in programs, instead of wasting all that computer space by using a specific century designation.

Anyway, nothing much happened, and we rolled into the year two thousand without much difficulty. But there was A LOT of fear. Fear that the electric power grid would black out in confusion, leaving everyone in the dark, fear that utility companies that supplied water, electricity, natural gas, propane, etc., would shut down, and God forbid that you would want to be flying at midnight because it was more than likely your plane would shut down and immediately plummet from the sky. Some countries were recommending their citizens have three or seven days of drinking water on hand, just in case…

So, Jimmy’s song doesn’t mention the Y2K fear, sometimes referred to as “The Y2K Bug”, but the fact that it was written and then came out on an album that was released right before the turn of the millennium, seems to indicate its inspiration tied into the next big thing that we were supposed to fear in our world. I took a little walk down memory lane reading a few colorful articles about the Y2K situation, including the many journalists that traveled to New Zealand and other such places, to be the first people to report on the failures and disasters as they started to happen. Although, in true let down fashion, they didn’t have much to report because nothing happened.

Living their lives, just waiting for the next explosion…

“Back in the fifties they thought it made good sense, To teach all the school children about civil defense, Don’t be scared, do not cry, Just dive under your desk and kiss your ass goodbye, Oh oh, such a dangerous world…”

His song reaches back to his school days and the fact that while the “Cold War” was happening, children in grade schools were taught to hide under desks in case of bombings, although no desk will save you from a nuclear blast. Jimmy was my parents’ age, and they remember this too, and this was happening across the nation, not just in Alabama and Montana, respectively.

Living our lives, just waiting for the next explosion…

“Over in China they got smart real fast, That’s where they invented the man made blast, They lost a few fingers and some bamboo shacks, By they gave birth to a tribe of pyromaniacs, Oh oh, it’s a dangerous world…”

I love how Jimmy opens the song talking about the invention, or discovery of the ingredients combined in China to create “black powder”, which certainly led to brilliant fireworks, which Jimmy loved. I do too. Really, who doesn’t enjoy fireworks? Okay, I know, there are logical reasons for people not to enjoy fireworks, and my beloved dog hated them, and I always had sympathy for her ears and nerves come New Years and July the Fourth.

Living our lives, just waiting for the next explosion…

“It was a hell of a hustle, paranoia promotion, Sittin’ round waitin’ for the next explosion…”

And after the Y2K predictions, there was also the Mayan Calendar predicted apocalypse in 2012, which also unsettled people, and the media also ate up, predicting all sorts of dire happenings…

Living our lives, just waiting for the next explosion…

“Fire in the sky, fallin’ on the ocean, Sittin’ round waitin’ for the next explosion…”

And I feel like we are doing it again, especially in the United States, with the huge and controversial presidential election taking place tomorrow (although early voting has been happening), when it feels like fifty percent of our country will celebrate and the other fifty percent is prepared to mutiny, regardless of the results. I certainly don’t want to make this political, and while I have my own opinions, that’s not what this is about nor are they worth sharing, but with all the buildup in the media, plus crazy X-class solar flares and Mother Earth shaking things up, it feels like we are again on the edge of chaos and meltdown…

Living our lives, just waiting for the next explosion…

“Where you gonna be, When it hit’s the fan, Got a plan, What you gonna do, If it lands on you, Where’s your point of view…”

My advice, taken from a long line of Jimmy Buffett songs would include turn off the news, put down your phone, relax, enjoy the sunset, drink a Margarita (or your preferred beverage), listen to your favorite song, and just don’t take it all so seriously. Love your family, your friends, your neighbors, your animals, love nature and the planet, and know that whatever happens, it’s more than likely going to be just fine.

“Down at the beach club there’s a sales convention, Night sky is the focus of the crowd’s attention, It’s no cosmic collision, just a fireworks show, But they feel it in their hearts when those, Concussion bombs blow, Oh oh, such a dangerous world…”

“Gunpowder’s louder than Newton’s laws of motion, Everybody’s waitin’ for the next explosion…”

And then something else will eventually come along, something that will potentially rock our worlds… but hopefully the fire work show will be delightful.

Fire in the sky, fallin’ on the ocean, Sittin’ round waitin’ for the next explosion…

Stacy

Please enjoy Waiting For The Next Explosion. I have included the link below. Enjoy!

1999 Studio Version: