#77 – Bubbles Up

by Stacy Loves Buffett · December 25, 2023

Day #77 – Bubbles Up

Here it is… the day my spontaneous tribute connects the 76 songs that came before, wrapping up something that began with an ear worm sometime in the night between the ending of September 1^st and the start of September 2^nd, when myself and many people in the world were reeling from the news of Jimmy Buffett’s passing at the age of 76, is now connecting with Christmas Day, December 25^th to cap off what in total is my 77-day deep and sincere thank you card to James William Buffett.

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Original post from 12/25/2023

Day #77 – Bubbles Up

Bubbles Up was released on Jimmy’s studio album Equal Strain On All Parts. This album was set into motion while Jimmy still spun around on this big blue ball of a planet but ended up released as a posthumous gift to his fans and fans of music everywhere.

“Bubbles up, They will point you towards home, No matter how deep or how far you roam…”

Why Christmas Day, you might be asking, and I will tell you it is because Jimmy was a Christmas Day baby. He was born in the early morning hours, just after 1am, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and having a birthday on such a major holiday, especially considering Jimmy’s firm Catholic upbringing, certainly influenced Jimmy’s life. Jimmy would have turned seventy-seven on this Christmas Day. And while I stated that song 76 was the end of my tribute to Jimmy, the truth is, I have planned a song 77 since the early days of this concept, and I knew that Bubbles Up was going to be that song.

Bubbles Up was cowritten by Jimmy and Will Kimbrough. If that name seems familiar, it is because it is not the first time these two men combined their talents. As matter of fact, the last song I shared prior to this, day number seventy-six’s song Wings, was also a lovely song cowritten by these two men. Will Kimbrough actually has cowriting credits on five songs on Equal Strain On All Parts and played on the studio album.

Unfortunately, Jimmy cannot directly share his stories on the ideas behind the writing of these songs, but he left us a bread crumb trail to follow. One of which is Will Kimbrough himself, who says that Jimmy had sent him some ideas for a couple songs, one of which was Bubbles Up. The inspiration came from advice that Jimmy had received from a close friend “Red” Best, but we’ll get too “Red” later.

Now, Kimbrough took the idea of Jimmy’s water survival training and combined it with some of his own personal work with people who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Jimmy and Will had been cowriting songs together for twenty years, and Jimmy trusted him with material he had written, or on ideas he was brewing. But with this song, Will felt like maybe his take was not quite what Jimmy had envisioned with his ideas and early lyrics. He worried the song might be a little too dark for Jimmy to want to release, but with a little tweak here and there, they settled on some breathtakingly beautiful lyrics, and another song was born.

“When the world starts a-reelin’, From that pressure drop feelin’, We’re just treading water each day…”

The idea of the song and the initial lyrics dealt with being under water, when your equilibrium was turned upside down, and the idea of using bubbles of air to find your way home, or at least to the surface.

So, let’s talk a bit about “Red” Best. Now, “Red” was a long-time friend, someone Jimmy had met in Key West in the eighties. They shared a love of music and food and the ocean, and it turns out that “Red” could play a pretty good lick on a harmonica. A friendship was born over music and love of the sea. “Red” happened to be Admiral James Best of the US Navy. At that time, they met, Best was Commander of the Naval Air Station in Key West and their friendship had carried on after Best’s transfer to Norfolk, Virginia.

At one point, “Red” asked Jimmy if he would be interested in performing a concert on the aircraft carrier USS America after it came back in from some training, and Jimmy said he would, IF he could “catch a ride” to the carrier in a F14 Tomcat (yes, that’s the plane from Top Gun fame). And the Navy then said, yes, that could be arranged IF Jimmy went through water survival school in Norfolk.

So, Jimmy Buffett found himself in Norfolk Virginia, perhaps questioning his sanity as he spent a week doing water survival training. In A Pirate Looks At Fifty, Jimmy referred to this week as “water soaked hell” but he was game for everything they placed in front of him. At one point, as he was strapped into the mock nose of a plane that was set to nosedive into the water and tip forward, his friend “Red” tapped him on the helmet and said, “Remember, rockstar, bubbles up”.

“When your compass is spinnin’, And you’re lost on the way, Like a leaf in the wind, friend, here me when I say… Bubbles up, they will point you towards home…They will show you the surface, the plot and the purpose…”

Jimmy made it through that week of training, acquired himself the nickname “Brillo” because his wet, curly yellow hair resembled a Brillo pad, and earned himself a ride on that Tomcat and was able to land on a US Navy aircraft carrier.

Jimmy mentions his friend “Red” Best, his time in “water soaked hell” and his Tom Cruise Top Gun “Tomcat” experience in his book A Pirate Looks At Fifty. In the section called Time On The Bottom: One Small Bass, he mentions how this series of connections led to the training that saved his life.

In 1994, Jimmy was fishing with friends off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts in Madaket Harbor. After a good day fishing and finding one perfect bass, Jimmy set off for home. Now, Jimmy Buffett did not go home like most people, nor did he get to his favorite fishing holes like most people. Nope, he flew to them, in a restored Grumman G-44 Widgeon seaplane. On takeoff on that day, a swell hit him sideways and pushed his plane nose down into the water. Stunned, battered and in a plane quickly taking on water, Jimmy recalled his navel water survival school training and the advice from his friend “Red” about bubbles going up.

Jimmy was able to get out of that plane safely through a window that was completely submerged and swim the wing of his plane, which was still above water and flag down his alarmed friends who had witnessed the crash from their own vessel, and eventually go on to perform for his crazy Parrothead fanbase, write multiple songs and tell multiple great stories, but most importantly, he survived and was able to hug his wife and children, which was a priority after the shock of his plane crash wore off.

“Bubbles up… So when the journey gets long, Just know that you are loved, There is light up above, And the joy is always enough, Bubbles up…”

Almost thirty years later, that incident and the training that led up to it, including survival advice from a harmonica playing navy admiral paved the way for Bubbles Up. Because Bubbles Up is certainly great physical advice but it turns out its also great emotional and mental advice as well.

Which is the amazing thing that Jimmy and Will Kimbrough did while writing the song, then in the studio, Jimmy gave this song beautiful attention, and his vocals are heartfelt and emotional and strong yet tender. I am not sure what he was thinking while recording it, but I believe he put great effort into this song.

Paul McCartney, a friend of Jimmy’s, who was part of the story of My Gummie Just Kicked In and who played on that song, had heard Bubbles Up before the album was released and said about this song was that he believes that was probably the best vocal performance that he had ever heard from Jimmy.

I don’t really know Jimmy’s intent with the song, but in the wake of his death, the phrase “bubbles up” has quickly claimed a place with his fan base, and I see as many people saying “bubbles up” as “fins up”.

The first time I heart Bubbles Up was on the morning of September 2^nd, and I was crying like soggy sack of potatoes in my chair, listening to RadioMargaritaville and generally feeling pretty crappy about the world at the moment, when Kirsten debuted this song. I recall that she said something along the lines that she thought Jimmy must have left this song for his fans, to help them find a way through his death. I do think the song feels like a comforting hug or a balm that you apply over and over until the injury is soothed.

“There’s a way to feel better, Be well set to weather, The storms ‘til the sun shines again… Bubbles up…”

For whatever reason he placed it on his album, for whatever reason he had the idea for the song and reached out to Will Kimbrough to help him write it, I am grateful. All the things that connected, including a harmonica playing admiral, a plane crash off the Massachusetts coast, and his first reminiscing of this story in A Pirate Looks At Forty, I am thankful it all combined to give us Bubbles Up.

I hope you enjoy the song and I hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit more about the interesting life and times of Jimmy Buffett. Please enjoy Bubbles Up.

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Besides mentions of the backstory to Bubbles Up in Jimmy’s own A Pirate Looks At Fifty, I would love to give a nod to Buffett Backstories by Scott Atwell, which has just added Bubbles Up to the Backstory collection. There is a great video production that interviews “Red” Best; I hope Mr. Atwell does not mind my sharing his work. I will include the link below.

Stacy

Please enjoy Bubbles Up. I have included the link below. Enjoy!