#94 – Tides

by Stacy Loves Buffett · April 22, 2024

#94 – Tides

-by Stacy Garwood-

Tides is one of those types of songs that feel like it fits Jimmy Buffett and his lifestyle perfectly. There is the ocean and waterways, there is travel and adventure, there is friendship and stories, there is a gentle lyrical quality that touches on Jimmy’s introspection and appreciation for the beautiful currents, both in life and on the water, and all the gifts and adventure that those tides can bring.

“So I follow the tides, On currents far and wide, Chalking up the stories and the miles, Yes, I follow the tides, Big blue rides, And that’s the reason that I will never lose my smile…”

This song has been showing up on auto play in my head for weeks, a little more insistent all the time. I have always enjoyed it and feel so connected to the smooth melody and lyrics tied to the adventure the ocean can bring, as well as the adventures life can bring. I admit that each year, probably as I grow a little older, this song feels like it fits life a little more.

Tides was released on Jimmy’s 2013 album Songs From St. Somewhere and was cowritten by Jimmy and his friend and Coral Reefer drummer Roger Guth. I think it’s a song that Jimmy enjoyed. He used it as part of the 2013 promo for the release of Songs From St. Somewhere, played it live on several occasions, and even used it as musical backdrop of a video of him visiting and then surfing Byron Bay, Australia.

“And I follow the tides, Down my song lines far and wide, The world to me should still be free and wild, Yes, I follow the tides, Give me more, big blue rides, And that’s the reason I will never lose my smile…”

Roger Guth has been a member of the Coral Reefer Band since 1989, but his roots in music go way back into his childhood. He came from a family of musicians and reportedly started performing as a drummer at around age seven or eight. His family had what he referred to as a “wedding band” playing the VFW hall circuit. His father played accordion, his mother played guitar and his sister played the piano. He was a natural fit as a drummer but said in his first several gigs with the family band, his father brought a drum machine along in case he was bored, wandered off to play or wanted to sleep. I don’t think they ever needed to use the drum machine after Roger took up the drumsticks.

That first experience with music was with the “Big Band” sound but a young Roger soon discovered jazz music and that was where his love and interest really settled, leading him to studying and performing jazz. He grew up in St. Louis Missouri and as a teenager met the Mayer brothers, Peter and Jim, who people might also recognize as long-time members of the Coral Reefer band. But before they were part of the CRB, they had their own thing going on.

The PM band consisted of Peter Mayer on guitar and vocals, Jim Mayer on bass and vocals and Roger Guth on the drums and keys. The band formed in the late eighties and signed a recording deal with Warner Bros. Music, and their debut album was released in 1988, and gave them a top ten single called Piece Of Paradise. Their producer happened to be working with Jimmy as well.

This was the same year that the three men were introduced to Jimmy Buffett, with the plan of them working with him on the studio sessions for the 1989 album Off To See The Lizard. It went well and these three friends really jelled with Jimmy and soon Jimmy invited them to tour with him that summer as part of his Coral Reefer Band. Roger said he thought it would last for that one summer, but they have been part of that band and the large family of musicians around Jimmy ever since.

Roger Guth seems a bit mysterious, a little quiet, and he doesn’t often do interviews, and is noted for sporting a pair of sunglasses when he performs. His nickname is Scotch, which is also the name of his first solo album, related to his choice of beverages. He is noted to a whiskey and wine aficionado as well as a man who loves to spend free time fishing. I am sure that he and Jimmy could talk fishing and water ways for hours. He now lives and works and put down roots in Nashville, Tennessee. He loves to fish, and I am certain he and Jimmy shared many conversations about a pastime they both enjoyed.

Roger Guth says that he figured that his time with the Coral Reefers would last for one summer and then everyone would move on, but it was a permanent gig. A pretty good gig! He joked in an interview after that first summer tour, “we have a job, we might want to keep it”, and keep it they did. He says working with Jimmy on his tours was “the big time” and it really couldn’t get better than that, sold out shows, private planes, nice hotels, and they kept that party going for more than thirty years. A party that seems to still be moving forward, per Jimmy’s wishes.

I will be seeing “the party” in just a couple of weeks at Jazz Fest in New Orleans and I can’t wait to see the Coral Reefer Band perform, thankful that they are providing this opportunity for the fans to still connect with Jimmy’s music. It is really hard to imagine what things will feel like without Jimmy leading the show, but I certainly am grateful for the opportunity to pay my respects and celebrate the music with fellow Parrotheads.

Roger Guth has been a part of cowriting multiple songs with Jimmy over the years, almost as many as Jimmy cowrote with Mac McAnally. He lists several well-known Jimmy Buffett songs that he co-wrote as his favorites, including Barefoot Children In The Rain and Frenchman For The Night. Other cowrites with Jimmy include Colour Of The Sun, Party At The End Of The World, Take Another Road, Vampires, Mummies and The Holy Ghost and a holiday favorite of mine, A Sailor’s Christmas. He also cowrote almost every song on Barometer Soup with Jimmy, Russ Kunkel, Jay Oliver, and Peter Mayer.

His most recent contribution to cowriting with Jimmy was from Equal Strain On All Parts song My Gummie Just Kicked In. Roger Guth has said that it was thrilling to cowrite this song with a team of friends, including Jimmy, Peter Mayer and Tina Gullickson, and states it was absolutely thrilling to know that he wrote a song that Beatles member and Wings frontman Paul McCartney played bass on.

Roger Guth has said that one of the best things about working with Jimmy, and the reason he worked with him for so many years, was that Jimmy appreciated his band members as musicians and both welcomed and encouraged their input and writing talents and was happy to put their songs on his records. Other well-known songs which are written by Roger Guth and Peter Mayer that Jimmy recorded are Blue Guitar and Lucky Stars.

I am not sure about how the writing process worked with Jimmy and Roger for this song, who had what line, who had the melody, who had the general idea, but it turned out beautifully written. Before looking into the backstory of this song, I honestly had no idea how many songs that Roger Guth had worked on with Jimmy as a writer, but this one has always touched my soul.

One thing Jimmy did in his songs is that he would touch back on previous songs he had written or recorded, mention them in the lyrics, and this song opens with a touch back to a Jimmy classic, Son Of A Son Of A Sailor.

“Every sailor’s son, Is taught when they are young, That the pull of the moon lingers on, Something we can’t escape, From Bimini ‘round the cape, Mix in the wind and the sea and sing along…”

This lyric also touches on the moon and its tie to the ocean and the tidal flow of the waters, the rise and retreat of those waters. The moon and the earth exist with a gravitational pull between the two bodies, and one of the major things the moons gravitational pull does to the earth is affect large bodies of waters, usually oceans and seas, but even larger inland bodies of waters like the Great Lakes. The waterways bulge and then retract, depending on the moons distance and position around the planet, thus creating high and low tides.

Tides are one of the most magical parts of being by the ocean. The high tides rise up, giving us something to dip our feet in or playfully splash through before we retreat before the water catches us. Then when tide takes its turn to retreat, we are left with beautifully sculpted beaches to sink our feet into and find treasures left behind. And the beauty is that it’s a cycle that is repeated and repeated, slightly different each time, and both bringing and then leaving slight variations in treasures behind. It’s one of the simply magical aspects of life on this beautiful blue ball of a planet that we are gifted with during our lives here.

Tides played a big role in Jimmy’s life, including both his love of the sea, but also touching multiple times over in his music, even landing in several song titles, including not just this song, but Prince of Tides and a favorite of mine, Slack Tide.

In this song, tides are both a physical motion that rises and falls, but also hints at emotionally letting yourself go with the flow and let yourself be taken with the tides and where it takes you, tied to people and laughter and stories.

“To whom it may concern, I’ve always tried to learn, That the good days need to last, Season with a lot of laughter, Here and in the ever after, With poetry and painters from my past…”

This last line always strikes a chord with me, hinting at the things that paint the pictures of our lives, while we are going with the tidal flow of life. The people that are important or influence us, the stories that intersect in our lives as we travel along the miles of our lives.

“Hoping to catch a ray, Looking to misbehave, As my lucky stars still shine above the sea, Watching the ships roll in, I play that Otis song again, For the tourists and some mermaids by the sea…”

Again, as I mentioned earlier, a lyrical touch back to a song that Jimmy recorded but that was written by Roger Guth and Peter Mayer when singing about “lucky stars”, which is one of the things that I think fans of the music really enjoy, the nods to previous milestones and great songs.

This verse also touches on great artists, such as Otis Redding, and his beautiful recording of Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time, and certainly touches on the idea of ocean tides in the lyrics. This sixties soul classic was left us to us as a post-humous gift from Otis Redding, who tragically died in a plane crash just three days after recording the song. I love that Tides touches back on Otis and the song that he gifted to the world, which has touched so very many lives, from 1967 right until now, a song that I am sure will touch many lives in the years to come.

“And we’ll follow the tides, Down our song lines far and wide, It seems to me my life’s still fee and wild, Yes, we’ll follow the tides, give us more big blue rides, And that’s the reason I will never lose my smile…”

Most people who know Jimmy Buffett’s music know he loves the ocean and had a great appreciation for all things related to the ocean, and this song seems to touch on many of those great aspects. I think the lyrics are absolutely beautiful. I am grateful that Jimmy and Roger sat down and wrote this lovely song that touches on our world and the beauty of it, including the ocean, the moon, the music, the stories and the friendships we make along the way, with a few mermaids by the sea to make the song just a bit sweeter.

If you don’t know the song Tides, I hope this little introduction to it, as well as Roger Guth, a fabulous drummer, songwriter, and musician is welcome. Although it might not be as well known as Come Monday or Margaritaville, it “fits” Jimmy in a perfect way, enough that Rolling Stone even named it one of Jimmy’s top fifteen songs.

Tides is a song gives us a little instruction on living on this big blue ball of the world and about all the magic we make while we are on it, following the flow and tides that make our lives something special.

“And we’ll follow the tides… that’s the reason you should never lose your smile…”

Stacy

Please enjoy Tides. I am sharing the studio version as well as a video of Jimmy surfing Byron Bay Australia to this song; both links are included below. Enjoy!

2013 Studio Version: