#80 – Island
#80 – Island
This song has been an ear worm for me for quite a while, even last year it just kept playing over and over in my mind, but there wasn’t the chance to include it with my initial posts, but I knew I hoped to share and discuss it early in this year. It is a beautiful song, one of Jimmy’s softer, more poignant ballads, and it has always struck a chord with me.
Island was on JB’s 1981 album Coconut Telegraph, and it is his second to last album produced by Norbert Putnam, a beautiful, productive era of a total of five records between this duo. I think Coconut Telegraph is a great album, just like all the efforts that Jimmy and Norbert worked on together. Norbert is given credit for playing the upright bass (such a cool instrument) on this record as part of the Coral Reefer band, but otherwise had retired from playing on studio albums in the early seventies, in an effort to focus on producing.
“Island I see you in the distance, I feel that your existence, Is not unlike my own…”
Jimmy cowrote this song with David Loggins, who is sometimes credited as David, Dave or David Allen Loggins. No matter what you call the man, he is a talented songwriter. He has written many songs over the years, for artists such as Wynonna Judd, Reba McEntire, Tanya Tucker, Restless Heart, Don Williams and Crystal Gayle and has written number one songs for Kenny Rogers and Juice Newton.
David Loggins is not to be confused with his cousin Kenny Loggins of Loggins and Messina, or Kenny’s older brother Daniel, who is also a songwriter and producer. Musical family indeed. And just an interesting tidbit about the Loggins family, Kenny wrote the song “Danny’s Song” for his brother Daniel after the birth of Daniels son. Danny’s Song was recorded first by Loggins and Messina but then in 1972 by Anne Murray, who omitted some of the original lyrics but took that song into the top ten for weeks and earned her a 1974 Grammy nomination for Best Female Vocal Performance, which she lost to the beautiful vocalization of Roberta Flack on Killing Me Softly With His Song.
I find the trail of music and songs and artists and producers so interesting; I can’t help but share, but now, let’s get back to David Loggins and Jimmy Buffett
David’s biggest solo hit as a singer-songwriter was Please Come To Boston in 1974, which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and reached #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart. I have always enjoyed that song.
As a matter of fact, Jimmy performed Please Come To Boston in 2000 at his Mansfield Massachusetts concert and I think he did a beautiful job with it. I am sure it was both an homage to the city of Boston as well as Loggins, who crafted the city of Boston so wonderfully into his song.
“Island I see you in the moonlight, Silhouettes of ships in the night, Just make me long that much more…”
I don’t really know how Jimmy and Dave Loggins started writing songs together, or what their connection was, but they ended up writing at least three songs together, because besides Island, Jimmy has two other songs on albums over the years that he cowrote with Dave Loggins. Treat Her Like A Lady from 1978’s Volcano and Happily Ever After (Now And Then) from 1996’s Banana Wind. I am not sure if they were still writing together twenty years later, or if it was an older song that was resurrected for a new album. If anyone knows, I would love to hear about it in the comments.
This song, Island, has a poignant, elusive quality about it, as if the point of view is a person pining for the unattainable, an unreachable piece of land, an island that remains forever out of reach. The lyrics are beautiful, painting scenes in your mind, as he was so great as a songwriter at doing, a lovely ballad, yet there is something soft, a little sad, and with a feeling of impossibility about it. You know the song is written on a much deeper, very personal level.
“I tried to build bridges, But they all fell down, I’ve taken to the air on wings of silver, But always hit the ground…”
“Well I tried to book passage, but you have no ports, And I tried to sail in but your wind and waters, Tore my sails and broke my oars…”
“Island I see you in all of my dreams, But I’m a man with no means to reach your distant shores…”
If there is an article or interview out there where Jimmy talks about this song in detail and the deeper meaning behind it, I haven’t found it. But in the Parrothead Handbook that came along with the Boats, Beaches, Bars and Ballads discography, his entry for this song states, “I wrote this with David Loggins. I thought back to a time when I had been holed up on San Salvador in the Bahamas waiting for the weather to break, watching how simple island people live and wondering if I could ever really slow down that much. I am still wondering.” He wrote that in 1992, and the song was from almost a dozen years before. Still wondering…
When looking at the lyrics of the song, all Jimmy wrote was “For Jane”. Certainly, that is a dedication, but perhaps also a bit of an explanation?
“Island they say no man is like you, They say you stand alone, Sometimes I feel that way too…”
The song is certainly evocative, placing strong images into the listener’s mindscape, but clearly this is a song of deeper meanings, certainly deeper on a second or third or thirtieth listen.
“Island, I see you in the distance…”
If I had ever had the chance to sit down and ask Jimmy about some of his songs, I hope I would have put this song on a list. There is something hauntingly beautiful about it, as well as just a touch sad. And real, it feels very real!
Stacy
Please enjoy Island. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
