Day #1 – Changing Channels

Day #1 – Changing Channels

My original post was quite short. It was more about sharing the song that was an earworm in the night for me.

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-Originally posted 9/2/2023-

This was the song floating through my head after a very restless night of sleep, knowing JB had left the planet. It’s a beautiful song, and the emotion sums up change we all must face.

Be prepared FB peeps, this is Day 1 of a month (or more) of me sharing in honor of the man and his music. Take a listen, you won’t be disappointed, I promise!

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As I said, my original post was quite short. I think it was all I could manage to express at the time, through tears and disbelief. And I didn’t realize what I was building with this tribute in terms of sharing information about Jimmy and his music and his life. And about each individual song.

So, now, I would like to take the opportunity to explain this song a little bit more.

Changing Channels was released on JB’s 1989 album Off To See The Lizard, and it was cowritten by Jimmy and his longtime partner in music, Mac McAnally. If you have ever watched Jimmy play live, then you have no doubt seen Mac at his side, tall, wild red hair and beard, a gentle giant who has been gifted with music. Mac and Jimmy have been collaborators for years, but in the early 1990’s Mac started touring as part of Jimmy’s Coral Reefer Band, and I have never seen Jimmy live in concert without Mac at his side.

This album is interesting because most of the songs are related to a book Jimmy published in 1989, Tales from Margaritaville, a collection of short stories he had written. It was the first of many books Jimmy wrote. Jimmy was a writer, a born storyteller, and he did that in many ways, not just in songs, although that is no doubt his biggest form of expression.

“There’s an island in the ocean,

Where the people stay in motion,

Somewhere on the old gulf stream,

Do they live or did I dream.”

“They were changing’ channels,

Waitin’ for their sails to fill,

They were changing channels,

Always will.”

This song is soft and lyrical and feels almost sad, but not quite. It has a searching quality about it; it’s deep and beautiful, like the ocean. It’s about life, challenges, and changes that we face, and really, it’s about how we live on, adapting and changing ourselves as we go. At its most obvious, it is about changing channels on the television or radio dial, but it is metaphorically about so much more. I’ve read that Jimmy likened this song to the many changes in his music career and personal life, how he faced them and how he moved on.

This song also introduces us to Isabella, a character from his short story “I Wish Lunch Could Last Forever” but she shows up again in his stories as well as this song. Jimmy assures us she’s still “changing channels”.

As I said, in the early morning after… this song was stuck, stuck, stuck in my head. I don’t know why but I know that I needed to share it.

Stacy

Please enjoy Changing Channels. I have included the link below. Enjoy!

The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.