#106 – Lady I Can’t Explain
#106 – Lady I Can’t Explain
-by Stacy Garwood-
We have all had those moments, when we have said something, done something, or didn’t say or do something we should have, and we have no way to explain how it happened or what we are thinking. This goes for relationship woes as well as everyday life choices. One of the things that connects Jimmy’s fans to his music is that he tells it like it is. He’s been there, we’ve been there, and sometimes there is no explaining it away.
“So I’ll just keep on dreamin’, Thoughts that are in my brain, You just keep on being’, Lady I can’t explain…”
Lady I Can’t Explain was released on JB’s 1979 album Volcano. It was one of the five songs that was written entirely by Jimmy on that album, while the other five songs were cowritten by Jimmy. Jimmy has always been a prolific writer, and this album is no exception. The song was never released as a single but it’s one that I have always connected with on this album. I have enjoyed it since I first heard it, and that was on cassette tape. I later acquired it on CD and now am waiting on a shiny pink vinyl.
Jimmy has said in interviews that Volcano is one of his favorite albums, although I am not sure if that is about the music on the album, or the feelings inspired by the memories of making it. Probably, it has both of those influences, but I do think Jimmy did love it. More than thirty years after the original release, Jimmy did a digital album called Volcano – Live 2011, and it includes each and every song from the studio album but recorded from live concert performances. It’s a charming, upbeat record, and several of the songs, including Lady I Can’t Explain are a little more festive than the original recording, which is one of the great things about adapting songs to fit a studio sound or a festive crowd.
Volcano was produced by Norbert Putnam, one of five studio albums he produced for Jimmy, but a major difference in this album was the location. It was recorded on the island of Montserrat in the British West Indies, being part of the Leeward Islands, a close neighbor to a favored spot of Jimmy’s, a home away from home, Saint Barthelemy, sometimes shortened to St Barts.
Jimmy and Norbert Putnam also worked on a highly successful live album, Jimmy’s first live album, which was called You Had To Be There. The album itself was recorded from several live shows in two locations, one being Miami, Florida and the other being Atlanta, Georgia. But for this effort, Jimmy and Norbert Putnam took their recordings to AIR Studio’s in London to be mixed, working with producer, mixer and engineer Elliot Scheiner. That live album was immensely popular for Jimmy on its release in 1978.
While in London for the studio work, Jimmy was able to meet one of the owners of AIR Studio, one Ser George Martin, who had recently discovered the tropical island of Montserrat and was setting up a recording studio on the Caribbean island, as a way to help artists completely isolate from everyday life and immerse themselves in their music in a paradise location. Jimmy wasn’t hard to convince, and even joked with George Martin that it wasn’t a hard sale because Jimmy was intrigued by the idea of just taking a boat over from his home in St Barts to Montserrat for the recording process. Jimmy knew he would be working on another studio album soon, and plans were made to record it in the Caribbean.
Ser George Martin was a legend in the music industry. He is probably most well known as the music producer that worked at EMI Studio’s in London, on a street named Abbey Road, and helped put a band from Liverpool on the music map of the world. Yes, that studio on Abbey Road was home to much of the recording success of The Beatles. You might have heard of them. You might have heard of George Martin too. He is sometimes referred to as The Fifth Beatle, although the nickname has been applied to other people as well.
By some weird twist of fate, George Martin was born quite interested in music to a rather non-musically inclined family, teaching himself to play piano at a young age, and by age eight, he had written his first song. When it came down to career choices, music didn’t seem very practical, and he thought he would become a surveyor, engineer or a pilot for the Royal Air Force. Indeed, at age seventeen, he applied to the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy and trained as a pilot. World War II ended before he seen any air combat, and he left the Navy in 1947.
Music was always a part of his life, and during his time in the Royal Navy, he performed on BBC radio as part of a Royal Navy variety show, playing a self-composed piano piece. With the veteran’s grant he received for his military service, he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He studied the piano and oboe, and he was a lover of symphonies and variety shows, and took courses on music composition, which included orchestra work. During this time, he played oboe in bands to make extra money.
In 1950 he joined EMI Records, as an assistant to the head of Parlophone’s label. Parlophone was not EMI’s premier label, mostly dealing with classical record compositions that were not high sellers. By 1955, George Martin was heading Parlophone records and was producing both classical and jazz music, as well as cultivating an interest in skiffle music, which was a music genre that combined folk, blues, country, bluegrass, jazz and rock and roll. One of his first record producing hits was a little novelty song in 1960 called Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini, performed by Paul Hanford, although the Martin/EMI produced version was never as popular as the American version by Brian Hyland. Even though the American version was more successful than the British version, it showed George Martin’s wide range of music interests and abilities.
By the early sixties, Martin was working with several skiffle bands from Liverpool, one of which was Gerry and the Pacemakers, and he produced three hit records for them. At this time Martin was working with Brian Epstein, who was managing multiple Liverpool bands and had several more he was interested in managing. The two men were auditioning several young Liverpool bands, and one of them showed great promise. By early 1963, Epstein had gotten a little-known band called The Beatles signed at EMI by Parlophone Records with George Martin as producer. This article is not at all about The Beatles, but sometimes when the right cast of characters comes together, magic happens. As it did for The Beatles, Brian Epstein and George Martin, and the world of music was forever changed.
Even with all the success that George Martin and The Beatles brought to Parlophone/EMI Records, record producers were grossly underpaid at that time, and no matter of negotiation helped, so in 1965, George Martin resigned from Parlophone and with several other record produces, formed the music production company called Associated Independent Recording, better known as AIR. This move was shocking to the music industry, but Martin felt it was time that record producers were getting some credit and money from the vast profits they were making for the studios and record companies.
The Beatles continued to work with George Martin, as a hired and commissioned music producer, remaining in their comfort zone of EMI studios on Abbey Road, and produced some of their greatest album work, including Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (commonly knowns as The White Album), Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road.
In 1978, George Martin vacationed on Montserrat with his family and was inspired to open a music studio in the tropical paradise, thinking the atmosphere and island’s isolation would be beneficial to dealing with the stress of making a studio album. And so, AIR Studio Montserrat was born. A documentary called Under The Volcano was produced that really goes into the magic of the Montserrat recording studio, and the tragedy on the island when it was ravaged first by a hurricane and later by its towering volcano, once dormant but no longer so, leaving half of the island unusable, including George Martin’s island dream studio.
But before the studio was destroyed by mother nature, wonderful music was made there. Recording artists such as Black Sabbath, Duran Duran, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Sting, Gerry Rafferty, the Little River Band and Rush recorded at this iconic island studio. Oh yes, and Jimmy Buffett.
In 1978, Jimmy Buffett met George Martin and was not only interested in working a studio affiliated with the great music producer, as they were currently doing with You Had To Be There, but to actually record a studio album, in Jimmy’s beloved Caribbean and in a studio created by Martin, what reason was there to say no?
So, in May of 1979 Jimmy and his band showed up in Montserrat and the album Volcano was born. With island flair under the shadow of the then dormant Soufriere Hills volcano, a different sound was born for Jimmy’s album. When it was released, people were not sure what to make of this album that had a quite different flavor than Jimmy’s previous “Key West phase” music. While Volcano might have had an unsure beginning with critics and fans, it has since stood the test of time and has become a beloved Jimmy Buffett album. It really seemed like the album covers bright artwork, with almost neon colors, was representative of the music that was on the album itself and is as bright as the calypso music sound that Jimmy was chasing.
This was certainly in Jimmy’s wilder days, and he lived up to his reputation. Some great stories have come out of those recording studio sessions, including bringing in a steel drum player, Jackie Dangler, who might have been potentially a political refugee from Trinidad hiding in the jungles of Montserrat. Apparently, the manager of the recording studio was not happy about that, but Jimmy and crew snuck in the pan drummer while the manager was away fishing.
Then there was the “dead cow” incident on the island, involving Jimmy’s good friend James Taylor and James’ brother’s, Huey and Alex. The cow was paid for as was the golf cart, the “guilty” brother was whisked off the island and James hung around to sing some background vocals on Jimmy’s album, including for Lady I Can’t Explain.
There may have been “difficulties” with the studio run barroom, prompting Jimmy just to offer to buy the bar, but Jimmy later had said, that he and his band weren’t there just to party, they were there to record a serious studio album that was representative of the life style that Jimmy was currently living, which at that time was on the Euphoria II on the nearby island of St Barts. And he has gone on to call it one of his favorite albums, and to express great thanks to George Martin for putting a studio in paradise and allowing him to record there. The studio was as much a part of the creative process as the island itself, just as George Martin had intended.
The song Volcano was completely inspired by Montserrat and its towering volcano. Almost as if Jimmy had a way to see into the future, foreshadowing the explosion of the volcano that eventually destroyed half of the island, including George Martin’s tropical hideaway studio.
Several of the songs had mostly been written by the time Jimmy and the band arrived on the island, and I have always felt like Lady I Can’t Explain had to have been one that was ready to record on arrival. It is a song that sounds like Jimmy’s music from Son Of A Son Of A Sailor or Changes In Latitudes Changes In Attitudes. It has that Key West Jimmy Buffett vibe, and it sounds like it could have been knocked out in a Nashville studio, not on a tropical island. However, it was recorded on Montserrat on the Volcano album that gifted Jimmy’s fans with Fins, Volcano and Boat Drinks, all classic Buffett songs and concert staples.
There is something about Lady I Can’t Explain that a person can really understand. Maybe not every line, but we all have done things, have said things, or acted in ways that are seemingly unexplainable. But the song, like many of Jimmy’s, has the potential of hidden meanings. Such as who he is singing too, and why she loves him and forgives him, but won’t let him forget things. Probably his beloved Jane, as they were newly married at that time. It seems like an apology song, but maybe it’s not. Certain, vague things that the song doesn’t highlight but the memories no doubt exist. And the ability to try to put it all behind you and move forward, potentially just to do it all over again.
“So, I’ll just keep on movin’, When the forecast calls for rain, You just keep on bein’, Lady I can’t explain, No, no, the lady I can’t explain…”
Lady I Can’t Explain is a song that sounds like “classic” Jimmy Buffett to me, with its up-tempo sound and catchy, yet vague lyrics. On an album that Jimmy dedicated to his wife Jane, and newborn daughter Savannah Jane, it’s as song that rings true to the life Jimmy was currently living, trying to find a balance between family and fame, and how sometimes things happen that just can’t be explained.
Stacy
Please enjoy Lady I Can’t Explain. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
1979 Studio Version:
2011 Live Album Version:
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
Other links that might be interesting:
Album Of The Week – Jimmy Buffett – Volcano (untitledblog.co.uk)
Jimmy Buffett Talks Montserrat’s Air Studios & ‘Under the Volcano’ Doc (billboard.com)
Jimmy Buffett on wild times at the Caribbean’s most rock’n’roll studio | The Independent
