#75 – A Sailor’s Christmas
Day #75 – A Sailor’s Christmas
When I first shared A Sailor’s Christmas from Christmas Island back in November, I didn’t pick a specific date. As a matter of fact, the date seemed to pick itself. I was wrapping up the tribute that started very organically when I was shell-shocked and deeply mourning Jimmy’s passing, and the date didn’t matter at all to my choices. I knew I wanted to share something from one of his Christmas albums, and also a song that he had written. I knew I had a song I wanted to end with, and so the Christmas song just fell into place the day before that.
But the universe is crafty, because I realized after posting on November 15, that this blog was running a month behind my original posts, which means this song would land on December 15, only ten days before Christmas. And that day, this very day, is the date of Jimmy’s rerelease of Christmas Island on vinyl. The original only came out on CD, and of course can be purchased on digital formats, but this rerelease is a lovely vinal album, and some versions are bright, Christmas holly berry red.
Well, played Universe! Well played, Jimmy Buffett!
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Original post from 11/15/2023
Day #75 – A Sailor’s Christmas
A Sailor’s Christmas was released on Jimmy’s 1996 album Christmas Island.
A Christmas song, you might be asking, and the answer is yes. Jimmy actually had two Christmas albums, Christmas Island in 1996, and twenty years later, ‘Tis The Season, in 2016. Both are wonderful!
Christmas Island has a very special place in my heart. I listen to it multiple times each year during the holiday season. It’s full of great, catchy songs, which include some old Christmas classics with an added island vibe, and a couple new Christmas songs, two of which Jimmy helped write. Today’s song is one, and the other is called Merry Christmas, Alabama and it is a beautiful homage to the place where he grew up, and to other places where he lived over the years. The album also has Jimmy sitting in a charming dingy decorated for Christmas. What’s not to love about that?
“Sailor spends his Christmas in a harbour ‘neath the stars…”
A Sailor’s Christmas was written by Jimmy and longtime Coral Reefer drummer Roger Guth. Roger has cowritten several songs with Jimmy over the years. He is not only a talented drummer, but a talented pianist and has his own solo album.
This song tells us a tale of a sailor celebrating his Christmas in a harbour, coming to rest and enjoy his holiday, including dancing barefoot in the sand.
“Sail on the horizon gotta landfall rendezvous, Captain steers a well known course, He steers straight and true…”
This song has a couple lyrical nods to previous songs Jimmy has written, which he does quite a bit in his writing, and feels like saying Hello to an old friend. Just in the first verse, he gives us three. “Harbour” nods to One Particular Harbour, “landfall” from his 1977 song Landfall, “boats and bars” nods to his 1994 compilation called Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads. There are a few more but I will leave them for you to find.
“As he trims the sheets, he sings a song he learned on boats and bars…”
Christmas is special to most of us, but it was extra special to Jimmy because it was his birthday. He was born just after 1am on Christmas morning, and he has joked before about always having to stay awake on Christmas Eve until the time of his birth. He talked often about his Christmas birthday in interviews and concerts.
“He’ll tell some lies, meet some spies, And dance barefoot in the sand…”
I don’t know if Jimmy had always wanted to do a Christmas album but with a career already over twenty-five years in the making, it made sense. He also had three children at this point, two of whom were still quite young, so a Christmas song makes sense for them, as well. The second Christmas album came twenty years after the first, and that album cover picture is of Jimmy on a paddle board with two of his dogs, all dressed in Christmas regalia.
“The sailor spends his Christmas in a harbour having fun…”
I know it’s the middle of November, but Thanksgiving is only a week away, and then Christmas will be upon us before we know it. And I knew I wanted to share at least one Christmas song during this tribute, both because Christmas albums were part of his career, but because Christmas was Jimmy’s birthday and a very important part of his life.
This year, Jimmy will be spending his Christmas in the stars, and hopefully still having fun. I’ll be listening to both his Christmas albums, feeling grateful that he made them.
Please enjoy A Sailor’s Christmas. I have included the link in the comments below.
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My brand-new bouncing baby red vinyl version of Christmas Island is in the mail, and the good Lord willing, it will arrive on time, even to the “middle of nowhere” Montana where I call home, but if it doesn’t get to me for a day or two afterwards, I know it will get to me right when it is supposed to.
And in honor of this festive albums rerelease, I thought I would share the words that Jimmy himself wrote on the liner notes of Christmas Island, back in 1996.
“For those of you who didn’t know, I was born on Christmas Day 1946, the day W.C. Fields died. I think this only goes to prove that God does have a sense of humor, but being born on Christmas was rough going at first. The most obvious scam was to try and double up on presents. “Here’s your Birthday and Christmas present.” I even knew at that young tender age that a scam was in progress and it did not sit well with me. More importantly, it did not sit well with my mother, who made it known, in no uncertain terms to the aunts, uncles and cousins of the Buffett clan strung out along the Gulf coast, that she expected two presents for her bouncing baby boy-one for his birthday and one for Christmas. On the whole it worked quite well, though there were a few Scrooge like occurrences where I would get socks for my birthday and a tie for Christmas. This probably is the reason I never have liked to wear either since.
Today, I sit quietly on the shores of Peconic Bay reflecting back for a moment on a half of century of life. Time can be measured in many different ways. Hell it’s been twenty years since I had hair. I have been flying planes for ten years, my grandfather died 28 years ago, and so it goes. I am not clinging like some parasite to my forties, thinking that the best is over. I can look back at five decades where fun and joy have been far more visible in my life than suffering and sadness, and think that I was truly born under a lucky star. I also feel that the best is yet to come. So here in the Christmas season of 1996, it is my turn to give you a present for the holidays. Christmas Island is a collection of songs, not ladled over with sugary sentimentality and not too far out there in the strange corridors down which my mind sometimes wanders, and I hope it is what you would expect from the Christmas War baby turned island boy born on the day W.C. Fields died.”
– Jimmy Buffett, Sag Harbour, NY
I think he always put a lot of thought and intention into what he put in those notes, a little insight he liked to share with his fan base, and I am extremely grateful for every word he gave us, whether it’s lyrical, fiction or in sharing personal parts of himself and his life. I also like that he, like another famous story tied to this time of year, was born under a lucky star. I absolutely believe that you were born under a lucky star, Jimmy.
Stacy
Please enjoy A Sailor’s Christmas. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
