#122 – Big Top

by Stacy Loves Buffett · Published December 1, 2025 · Updated December 1, 2025

#122 – Big Top

-by Stacy Garwood-

What comes around once a year? It’s not a riddle, although that could be a great riddle. Many things come around once a year, actually. To name a few, dates like birthdays and anniversaries, seasons, and actually the earth’s rotation around the sun perfectly describes something coming around once a year. Events like rodeos, concerts, circuses and fairs are often annual. Other things that come to mind are holidays, such as New Years, Easter, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, which is fast approaching. Of course, that major winter holiday brings to mind the idea that Santa also comes around once a year, tied to a world full of diverse celebrations at Christmas. Which happened to be Jimmy Buffett’s birthday. A Christmas Day baby was little baby James William Buffett!

So the riddle is… what Jimmy Buffett song connects Santa, circuses, Jimmy’s birthday and his extravaganza traveling show…well, that answer is Big Top.

“Just like Santa, I come around once a year, Time to break out all of your party gear, There’ll be a jump up out on the lawn, Just look for all your friends, Singing along with your favorites once again…”

“Come on baby let’s rock, The circus has come to town, It’s a big time under the big top, Don’t ya just love the sound…”

Big Top was released on JB’s 2009 album Buffet Hotel. It was written by Jimmy and his long time Coral Reefer drummer and friend, Roger Guth. In the album notes, Jimmy says:

“It’s great to have a Roger Guth song again in this collection. Besides being our great drummer for over twenty years, Roger has a unique point of view as a writer, and can paint a pretty good picture of Parrothead life.

The original idea for this record was based on the fact that I have been lucky enough, thanks in large part to the ticket-buying fans, to do what I want as far as music is concerned.

So I decided we could include some things on this record as a tribute to the people who have paid our rent for over 40 years. I have always thought of our touring entourage as being as close to the circus as one can get without having to buy and feed lions and elephants, though I have heard about sightings of a few wild animals out on the lawn on occasion. If we are indeed a circus, then we need a big top, so here is yours, Parrotheads.”

In just a few words, Jimmy managed to compliment his drummer and friend as a great songwriter with unique perspective and discuss himself and his band as a bit of a circus, but also points out that his fans attending the show are a circus of their own. Maybe more of a circus than the main show on stage, with Jimmy providing the “Big Top” for the show the fans put on.

The song is upbeat, catchy and humorous, so what is not to enjoy about it?

“It’s a big time under the big top, Ain’t nothing wrong with that, Rumbling in my flip flops, Watching this three ring act…”

Roger Guth has cowritten with Jimmy several times, such as Jamaica Mistaica, Banana Wind, Overkill, Desdemona’s Building A Rocket Ship and Mental Floss from Banana Wind, A Sailor’s Christmas and Ho Ho Ho & A Bottle Of Rhum from Christmas Island, Math Suks from Beach House On The Moon, and including almost every track on Barometer Soup. Jimmy also covered a Roger Guth and Peter Mayer song, Lucky Stars, on Beach House. Roger Guth is a talented musician and songwriter and has several solo albums to his credit, as well as being the cool-cat sunglass sporting drummer in Jimmy’s Coral Reefer Band.

Jimmy no doubt enjoyed that himself and his band were also a great part of a circus performance, and he seemed to enjoy his band’s shenanigans, as much as the crowd did.

“And it’s a big time under the big top, There’s nothing wrong with that, Rumbling in my flip flops, I’m an accessory in front of the pack…”

So, where does the idea of the “big top” originate regarding circus entertainment around the world? Well, like most things, it was built over time by a variety of people and places.

Most people see the modern circus starting in 1768 in London, when ex cavalry officer Philip Astley, opened a riding school where in the mornings he gave lessons and in the afternoons he would open the arena up to paying spectators who viewed trick riding exhibitions, usually performed by himself. His wife Patty, also a fabulous rider, was a huge part of his business model as well as being a performer. Eventually he added acrobats and clowns from traveling fairs, to keep the audiences enthralled and eventually added a roof over the entire structure.

Astley had to rebuild twice after his previous buildings were destroyed, and each time he built bigger and more elaborate, to keep the spectators flowing through his doors. He is credited with establishing the perfect size of the circus ring, 42 feet in diameter, for performing equestrian tricks, naming the ring after the Latin term for circle. In Latin, circus means circle or ring, which actually traces back to the Greek word kirkos. The ring size developed by Astley became standard around the world.

“It’s a big time under the big top, Ain’t nothing wrong with that, Dancing the part in my flip flops, Watching this three ring act…”

Using the same business model, Charles Hughes, opened the Royal Circus in London in 1782, very near Astley’s Amphitheatre. It was an enclosed structure that included a ring for equestrian acts as well as a stage for variety acts and performances. It was from this that the term “circus” was adapted as a name that encompassed the entire entertainment show, not just a ring for performing riding tricks. Music and stage performances were a popular part of the shows.

“Come on baby let’s rock, The circus has come to town, It’s a big time under the big tent, Don’t you just love the sound…”

By the Victorian Era times, there were hundreds of circuses operating across Great Britain, feeding people’s appetite for entertainment while providing them with local opportunities to see the shows, more convenient than traveling to London.

The idea of a tent to cover the physical circus was gifted to the world by American J. Purdy Brown in Philadelphia in 1825. He started using a canvas tent to encompass his circus area, which he felt was an innovation over permanent buildings. It would certainly have been more cost effective and had the ability to be moved with relative ease. He initially started with a smaller tent, but as his circus grew and developed, the tents became bigger and bigger to accommodate the growing show. He eventually had a tent big enough to accommodate multiple rings, and this tent became known as “The Big Top”.

“Come on baby let’s rock, The circus has come to town, It’s a big time under the big top, Don’t ya love to move around…”

Possibly the most famous mobile circus of all time was the Barnum and Bailey Circus. PT Barnum started as an operator of museum oddities who branched out into the circus world when he teamed up with circus owners Dan Costello and William Coup. This began what eventually was named Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome. Several years later, he joined with traveling circus rival James A. Bailey. The two men introduced the world to an enormous elephant by the name of Jumbo and wowed crowds across the country. That great spectacle became known as “The Greatest Show On Earth”. It was the Barnum and Bailey Circus that truly defined the traveling “big top” extravaganza’s, combined with the fun and energy of circus side shows. Jumbo’s story is a sad one, but with or without him, the show went on.

“Fortune teller’s full of gossip and news, The tattooed man is wearing his points of views, Under the big top is where we all belong, Just a good tribe happy to sing along…”

Eventually, after the deaths of both Barnum in 1891, and Bailey in 1906, the Barnum and Bailey Circus was merged, a polite way of saying they were bought out, with another great rival in the circus world, Ringling Bros. Circus. These circuses performed separately after this merger for several years, before combining under one great name and one great sized “big top”. The Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus stayed in business until 2017. These are the circuses that I remember from my childhood, although they arrived in town in a caravan of semis by that time, no longer traveling across the country by rail cars.

Circus’s traveled sometimes by wagon, and then eventually by railroad, and finally by semi-trailer caravans. Jimmy Buffett’s traveling circus, as he referred to his show, both in this song as well as in interviews over the years, came mostly by bus and then semi, with the main acts traveling in by plane for performances.

As Jimmy mentions in Big Top, his show only comes around once a year, traveling to repeat venues and familiar locations, a show for only one night. Although in places like Vegas, he would often perform for several shows during a stop.

One of the things that Jimmy did so well, is link his own life, as well as humor, into his songwriting, and the line that stands out to me is, “just like Santa”, did I mention that Jimmy was a Christmas baby?, “I come around once a year”.

“Just like Santa I come around once a year, Time to break out all of your party gear, There’ll be a jump-up out on the lawn, Just look for fins, Singing along with your favorites once again…”

This song also contains an idea that Jimmy has promoted more than once in his life and career:

“Walkin’ this tumultuous tightrope ain’t no sweat, No place I’d rather be you can bet, Workin’ without a net might seem severe, But if I fall I know it will appear…”

The same idea, although worded differentlywith the lyrics, “Leap and the net will appear” lands directly in the lyrics of Johnny’s Rhum and is something that I have heard his daughter Savannah Jane mention in interviews, as something that Jimmy often said to her. I love that it’s a theme that has carried through his entire career, because you know there must have been times, what he was creating seemed impossible, yet he did it fearlessly and was obviously wildly successful.

A Fun Fact before wrapping this up- another thing that only comes around once a year is the selenicereus grandiflorus, a flower known as the Queen of the Night or the Night-Blooming Cereus, which only blooms once a year and that beautiful, divinely scented blossom only lasts for one night. Jimmy probably knew all about it, since it’s native to the Caribbean and Central America. He also was a man who liked fun facts, so it seemed worth sharing when discussing things that come around once a year.

“Come on baby let’s rock, The circus has come to town, It’s a big time under the big top, Don’t ya just love the sound…”

Stacy

Please enjoy Big Top. I have included the link below. Enjoy!

2009 Studio Version: