#78 – Banana Republics

by Stacy Loves Buffett · January 1, 2024

#78 – Banana Republics

I bet if you asked a group of people about this song, casual Jimmy Buffett fans, or even some more serious ones, the majority would tell you that Jimmy Buffett wrote this song. It would make sense, after all Jimmy put in on an album in the mid-seventies and has been singing it ever sense, it fits his lifestyle and his brand and some of his early life choices… but that majority of people would find out that this lovely gem of a song was written by Steve Goodman.

“Down to the banana republics, Down to the tropical sun, Go the expatriated Americans hopin’ to find some fun…”

Banana Republics was released on JB’s 1977 album Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, which is one of the “most Jimmy” albums there is, right up there with AIA, Havana Daydreamin’ and Living & Dying in ¾ Time in terms of Buffett lore. But that 1977 album that had such wonderful Buffett written classics like Margaritaville, Changes In Latitudes Changes in Attitudes, In The Shelter and Landfall actually contained two songs that Jimmy did not write.

And one of those two songs was Banana Republics.

I have to admit that I was years and years onto my Parrothead path before I realized that Jimmy had not written this gem of a song. It just seemed so “very” fitting, how could it not be a Jimmy Buffett song? It mentions Caribbean islands and ganja and rum and expatriated Americans running away to the tropical sun and the lure of the sea.

Of course, it IS a Jimmy Buffett song, because he made it very much his own almost fifty years ago, but he did not pen this lovely lyrical beauty of a song. That honor lies with Steve Goodman.

Steve Goodman and Jimmy Buffett became quite good friends in their early years of being singer-songwriters and performers working the same club scene. Steve was just a couple years younger than Jimmy, but they started their musical careers around the same time, in the late sixties. While Jimmy was learning to charm a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Steve was performing in Chicago, his hometown. When Jimmy was later playing gigs in Chicago during his Nashville years, it was Steve who introduced Jimmy to the music scene in the Windy City.

Not only did Steve show Jimmy around the clubs of Chicago, but he also showed him around Wrigley Field and is the reason that Jimmy Buffett was a Chicago Cubs fan. Steve was a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan, famous for penning the song “Go Cubs Go” which has been played at the end of all home games for almost twenty years now, a tribute to Steve, who died long before the Cubs ever seen their World Series trophy in 2016. Steve actually penned that song in 1984, just before his death that same year. That same year the Cubs won the National League pennant and Jimmy sang the National Anthem at Wrigley Field and dedicated it to his longtime friend Steve, who had died days before after a lifelong battle with Leukemia.

Steve Goodman and Jimmy Buffett cowrote several songs together, including Woman Goin’ Crazy On Caroline Street and It’s Midnight And I’m Not Famous Yet. Jimmy always talked about Steve with so much love and respect, it was apparent they were quite good friends.

Steve Goodman was a fabulous singer songwriter, although he never had a great deal of commercial fame in his life, he penned many well-known songs. He wrote “City Of New Orleans” which Arlo Guthrie covered and made famous and “You Never Even Called Me By My Name”, which he cowrote with John Prine and which was made famous by David Allen Coe, and is humorously known as the “perfect country and western song”. I certainly love that song!

And then there was a song called Banana Republics, which Steve wrote after spending some time on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. He went to the islands on the suggestion of his good friend Jimmy Buffett, who had a great love of the Caribbean islands and escaping to them for some respite. In the book Steve Goodman: Facing The Music by Clay Eals, it is reported that Steve wrote the song based on what he saw while he was down there. He felt like life on St. Croix was hard for the natives, not much work and the shores were flooded with expatriated Americans. Everyone seemed to have a love of cheap rum in common. Goodman’s lyrics do include a little darker look at life in the Caribbean and how it’s not all rosy all the time.

“Down to the banana republics, things aren’t as warm as they seem, None of the natives are buying any second-hand American dreams…”

In a radio interview from 1976 on Folkscene with Howard Larman, Goodman said he didn’t really know he was going to write that song and described it as something that came out around 4am and was similar to pulling teeth. All he had was the line, “Give me some words I can dance to and a melody that rhymes”. Steve put that song on his 1976 album called “Words We Can Dance Too”. I found this lovely detail in an article called “Banana Republics”-everything you even wanted to know about the song, by Paul Leslie.

“Late at night, you will find them in the cheap hotels and bars, Hustling the senoritas while they dance beneath the stars, Spending those renegade pesos on a bottle of rum and a lime, Singin’ “Give me some words that I can dance to or a melody that rhymes…”

In an interview with Clay Eals for the Goodman biography, Jimmy Buffett said, “I just loved that song” and also said, “it sounds like a song I should have wrote”. Jimmy had placed other songs written by other artists on his albums, to give them a boost or because he could recognize a great song. He did this multiple times in his career, including songs by long time Coral Reefer Mac McAnally and writing partner Will Kimbrough.

“Some of them are running from lovers, Leaving no forward address, Some of them are running tons of ganja, Some are running from the IRS…”

So, Jimmy put Banana Republics on his soon-to-be hit album Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, and made it his own. It was beautifully instrumentalized and has a different sound than Goodman’s recording of the song. I am sure because of its connection with that hit album, and because it sounds so “Buffett-like” it is no wonder that many people think Jimmy Buffett penned this song. Like me… for many years! JB did have a few lyric changes, the most notable is exchanging the word “marijuana” for “ganja”.

This is a wonderful song, and I will stand my statement that the song is “classic Buffett” whether he wrote the song or not. I hope you enjoy listening to Banana Republics, and I have chosen to share Jimmy’s studio version from 1977 in the link below, although there are some beautiful live versions of this song too, as well as Steven Goodman’s recordings. All of them are worthy of listening too!

Stacy

Please enjoy Banana Republics. I have included the link below. Enjoy!