#101 – Bring Back The Magic
#101 – Bring Back The Magic
-by Stacy Garwood-
When you think of Jimmy Buffett music and the word “magic”, probably the first thought would go to Little Miss Magic, a song that Jimmy wrote for his oldest daughter Savannah Jane when she was quite young, or songs such as He Went To Paris, which has “magic” so strongly tied to the message of the song, or if one wants to get philosophical, then one could imagine that “magic” runs through much of Jimmy’s music, but a song with both “magic” in the title as well as a thread in the song, is Bring Back The Magic.
“Bring back the magic, Don’t make life so tragic, Bring back the magic, Don’t make life so tragic…”
Bring Back The Magic was released on JB’s 1988 album called Hot Water. I always like to mention that this was a new version of Jimmy; the Jimmy that existed after he had shaved his signature mustache off, the mustache that had graced his face and every album cover to this point, except for his debut release in 1970’s Down To Earth. Now, I didn’t join the Parrothead ranks till 1993, so Jimmy without the mustache looks quite normal to me, but now, looking back, it was a big change for him and his image.
Hot Water also marked a huge turning point in Jimmy’s recording career because it was the very first album that he recorded at his very own studio, the just opened converted shrimp storage cooler or ice house near the wharf in Key West, located close to the water to make the unloading and storing of shrimp convenient. Jimmy named it Shrimpboat Sound, as an homage to the shrimping lifestyle of Key West, something he had been drawn to since he first arrived in Florida’s most southern town.
It was a small, unassuming building, but it would become a showcase for much music and many albums over the years, not only Jimmy’s but to many other artists as well, including Alan Jackson, Zac Brown, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, and Jimmy’s beloved stage and writing side kick, Mac McAnally, to name a few.
For years, people might have walked by this small white building that fit so neatly into its surroundings that most people would be unaware that a first-class music recording studio hid inside the small building. Probably Jimmy liked it just that way, fitting into the vibe of his beloved Key West, just like the small of ocean water and the crow of roosters in the air. During those recording sessions, Jimmy and his band would squeeze into tight areas, closely located to each other, sometimes with very little room for a full drum set and make magic music together.
In the late 1990’s, Jimmy added to the specialness of Shrimpboat Sound Studio’s by purchasing a vintage Neve mixing console. It was made in England and Jimmy purchased it from the great Gordon Lightfoot, and it has been considered to be the heart of Shrimpboat Sound since it found a home there. But that came long after Jimmy and crew settled into Shrimpboat to record his first effort in his very own studio, the album that would become Hot Water. That small white building has become a beacon for fan’s of Jimmy’s, and for years the faithful have been stopping by, maybe hoping to get a look at their hero on the porch, or perhaps just to look upon the small but magical structure and many of them have left behind mementos, covering the walls with stickers and taking fan pictures outside of the beloved recording studio that once was a giant cooler for shrimp storage.
“Beachcombers ride oh children lost in the tide, Time’s never at their command, Waves melt all castles of sand, Melts all castles of sand…”
Jimmy has cited the inspiration for this song as the Noel Rockmore painting called “Ride Of The Beachcombers”, and he said that he bought this painting and then sat with it all morning, and he let it, and the city of New Orleans, where he was at at the time, “talk to him”.
Noel Rockmore was a prolific artist, having an established career in the post New York art scene of the fifties, but in 1959, he changed major aspects of his life, including a dissatisfaction with the metropolitan art world of the time and a blooming divorce, brought him south to New Orleans. He even changed his professional name at this time, from Noel Davis to Noel Rockmore. Over the lifetime of his work, he claimed he was responsible for the creation of more than fifteen thousand pieces of art, including sculptures, charcoal drawings as well as oil paintings and a collection of portraits. His parents were both artists, with his mother being a painter and his father being an illustrator, so the art world would have been a natural fit for him, although he was musically gifted as well, playing violin and attending Julliard School, also known as the Institute of Musical Art in New York City.
In 1959, he arrived in New Orleans and legally changed his name to Noel Rockmore, with Rockmore being his mother’s maiden name. There was controversy about this in the art world, since he had already established a strong career under his birth name, but Noel Rockmore was unconventional, at best, and did things his own way. On arrival in New Orleans, Noel met Larry Borenstein, who was in the process of opening a club that featured New Orleans Jazz artists, dedicated to preserving that sound and history. At that time, Rockmore spent time painting the French Quarter with his own unique vision of the architecture, the people and the culture around him.
He took much of his work from New Orleans and returned to New York, showing at art galleries and establishing himself under his new name, but in the early sixties, New Orleans called him back, and on returning to Preservation Hall, he found that Larry Borenstein had a young couple by the name of Allan and Sandra Jaffe managing the music venue, and the place was skyrocketing in popularity, not only with the public, but with Jazz musicians in the area. Borenstein commissioned Rockmore to create portraits of these artists, and in around two years, Rockmore had painted over 800 works. It led to the collaboration of a book of portraits, called the Preservation Hall Portraits. It featured Rockmore’s work, but by the mid-sixties, Rockmore was doing a new series of works that included shipyards and construction sites and had moved on from Jazz portraits.
In 1969, Larry Borenstein got Rockmore a commission to create posters for the very first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, otherwise known as Jazz Fest, which was held in Congo Square, although at that time, it was still called Beauregard Square. That first Jazz Fest was held in 1970.
“Nothing can tear you apart, If you keep living straight from the heart, Though you know that you’re gonna hurt someone, The magic will come…”
Rockmore’s legacy lives on in New Orleans, even after his death in 1995. In 2006, a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans and the surrounding area, over fourteen hundred works by Rockmore were discovered in a storage facility in New Orleans, which included thirty-five years of personal correspondence belonging to the artist. Sometimes in the wake of chaos, treasures emerge. These finds continue to depict how captivated Rockmore was by New Orleans, by her music, her architecture, her foods and flavor and culture and people, showcasing both New Orleans and Rockmore’s work equally.
The painting that inspired Jimmy Buffett, which was called Ride Of The Beachcombers, is a colorful and almost chaotic image of people riding horses along the beach, with people walking along the shoreline in the background. I am not sure what inspired Rockmore to paint the image, but it is a beautiful thing, when art inspires art, and that Jimmy was able to be inspired and create a gorgeous song in response to the imagery of the painting.
“If you keep living straight from the heart, You know when to stop and to start, Once you see that no one really wins, Then the magic begins…”
Jimmy cowrote this song with Will Jennings, a long-time collaborator of Jimmy’s. They started working together back on the 1984’s Riddles In The Sand, which included the songs Who’s The Blonde Stranger, When The Wildlife Betrays Me, Ragtop Day, Knee’s Of My Heart and La Vie Dasante. On 1985’s Last Mango In Paris, Will Jennings cowrote with Buffett on Gypsies In The Palace, Everybody’s On The Run, Desperation Samba, If The Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me, Jolly Mon Sing and the title track, Last Mango In Paris, just to name a few, with several being quite familiar Buffett songs.
Will Jennings is known for cowriting Tears In Heaven with Eric Clapton and for writing My Heart Will Go On, made famous by Celine Dion for the Titanic Soundtrack, both of which were huge number one hits. Besides co-writing with Jimmy Buffett, he also has written or cowritten with Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, BB King, Rodney Crowell, Mariah Carey, Barry Manilow and the incomparable Roy Orbison.
“Red sky at night such a sailor’s delight, Red sky at dawn oh gypsy song’s coming on, Gypsy song comin’ on, Song comin’ on…”
Down in Key West at Shrimpboat Sound Studio’s, for this inaugural album, Jimmy invited many friends to be a part of the recording process. On Bring Back The Magic, longtime friends of Jimmy’s, The Neville Brothers, are credited with background vocals, along with Rita Coolidge, who sings harmony with Jimmy so beautifully on this song.
Rita Coolidge is a thrice nominated and two-time Grammy Award winning artist, noted for her collaborations with then husband Kris Kristofferson, winning Grammys for From The Bottle To The Bottom in 1974 and Lover Please in 1976. Her music fits multiple genres, and she is noted for her country, folk, rock, pop and jazz contributions to music, and she wrote, though did not received credit, for the piano coda at the end of Eric Clapton’s Layla, with credit for that going to her then boyfriend Jim Gordon. Although she has still not received official credit for this, her claims have been corroborated by Clapton’s band, Derek And The Domino’s keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. Coolidge claims she doesn’t expect any financial compensation at this point, but she wants people to know that was her work on that iconic song.
Rita Coolidge has had a prolific career and is still making music. I don’t know how her contribution on Jimmy’s Bring Back The Magic was decided on, but her vocals in combinations with Jimmy’s are quite breathtaking, and can be heard on the verse that starts with “Red sky at night…” with she and Jimmy trading lines and then sharing harmony on the following repeat of the chorus.
“Nothing can tear you apart, If you keep living straight from the heart, Though you know that you’re gonna hurt some, The magic will come…”
In a live performance Jimmy did on the Tonight Show promoting this album, a very famous Neville brother makes an appearance on stage as the great Aaron Neville sings background vocals on both Bring Back The Magic as well as Great Heart, a song that Jimmy covered that was written by Johnny Clegg. A jamming Michael Utley can be seen carrying an always positive piano melody. These live performances that have been recorded are a treasure for fans of Jimmy’s music anywhere, along with a time capsule of bandmates over the years. Personally, Aaron Neville is about the coolest background singer I could imagine, and somehow, I think Jimmy would have agreed, and probably really appreciated his friend’s contribution. Aaron Neville and Jimmy had known each other and had been friends since Jimmy’s time in New Orleans in the late sixties, long before he or the fabulous Neville Brothers had recording contracts and made their mark on the music world.
“If you keep living straight from the heart, You will know when to start and to stop, Once you see that no one really wins, Then the magic begins…”
I think this could be one of Jimmy’s more underrated songs, probably because it just gets lost in such a vast catalog of music and lengthy career, so it’s fun to highlight this lovely song. Bring Back The Magic was released as the second single from Hot Water, with That’s What Living Is To Me on the B-side. Bring Back The Magic charted on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and reached #24, so it’s officially a hit song for Jimmy Buffett that many people might not know.
In 2019, on a Jazz Fest stage, in a posthumous tribute to Allan Toussaint, Jimmy Buffett took the stage along with Rita Coolidge, John Boulle, Irma Thomas and the Neville Family, and in 2024 at Jazz Fest, many people took the state along with the Coral Reefer Band to honor Jimmy Buffett, including the fabulous Irma Thomas who sang a rousing version of Jimmy’s I Will Play For Gumbo, both to honor Jimmy and his music but also the city that he loved so well.
No one sang Bring Back The Magic that day, but I was in the audience, and I can assure you that magic was all around us in the crowd as well as up on that stage. In that moment, though there were tears, there was never tragedy and there was a whole hell of a lot of life and love and magic.
“Bring back the magic, Don’t make life so tragic, Bring back the magic, Don’t make life so tragic…”
Stacy
Please enjoy Bring Back The Magic. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
From The Tonight Show, Jimmy’s live featuring Great Heart and Bring Back The Magic with Aaron Neville on background vocals, and Jimmy and Johnny having a conversation is priceless:
This is from a personal Facebook Account of kenvkrck, which I have no official affiliation with, but I am grateful that they posted the video.
Other Links That Might Be Of Interest:
Buffett’s Shrimp Boat Sound Recording – Key West – Route 1 Views
» Shrimpboat Sound Studio “Is A Key West treasure” (soul-of-keywest.com)
Jimmy Buffett Key West Studio | Shrimpboat Sound (justkeywest.com)
Jimmy Buffett – Bring Back The Magic :: Sasslantis
“Don’t Write Me Off Because Of My Age!” Music Republic Magazine Interview — Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge Interview from Aug 27, 1988 at Wolfgang’s (wolfgangs.com)
