Day #21 – Livingston Saturday Night

Day #21 – Livingston Saturday Night

Livingston is a city in southwestern Montana, in Park County, and is surrounded by gorgeous vistas of mountains and rolling foothills. Its most recent population is around 8300, which might not seem like much, but that makes it a city by Montana standards. It lies along the upper Yellowstone River and is considered the northern gateway to Yellowstone Park. Besides the film Rancho Deluxe, which Jimmy was involved in, other films have been made there, such as A River Run’s Through It (1992) and The Horse Whisperer (1998), both directed by Robert Redford.

Bozeman, Montana probably more well known and certainly more populated and home to one of Montana’s universities (Go Cats!), is Livingstons neighbor to the west, lying only thirty minutes away. While that is not far by car, the interstate traffic can slow to a crawl, or even stop, while going through what is a pretty harrowing mountain pass where high winds, ice, snow and white outs can make the short milage take hours. I swear, I don’t think I have ever crossed through that pass without some kind of crappy weather causing a ruckus.

It doesn’t seem like Jimmy was much of a fan of cold or winter weather, which might help the Livingston area appeal to him. While everywhere in Montana gets cold in the winter, Livingston is in what I consider the “banana belt” of the state and is much warmer than where I live in the “nearly Canada northeast”. But even though Livingston is slightly milder in temperature, the winds over there will try to take your clothing right off of you. You have been warned! However, I don’t know how much time he spent in the area in the winter, I know that spring and summer in Park County are gorgeous.

***

Original post from 9/22/2023

Day #21 – Livingston Saturday Night

In 1975, JB had the opportunity to work on a movie soundtrack. The movie was called Rancho Deluxe and it was set in the Livingston Montana area. It has become a cult classic dark comedy that deals with cattle rustling ranch hands.

The movie was written by Thomas McGuane, an author of both books and screenplays, who became a friend of Jimmy’s in Key West, and invited Jimmy to contribute to the music of the film. As much as you think of Jimmy being a beach bum, he also had a lovely relationship with the Rocky Mountains. Two years after the movie was made, Tom McGuane married Jimmy’s sister Laura and the men were family ever since.

Co-writing credit on the song goes to Keith Sykes, a longtime member of the Coral Reefer Band. Sykes actually went to Montana State University in Bozeman and so probably knew the area and local entertainment situation quite well.

I knew the song before I ever seen the movie because it made the compilation album Boats, Beaches, Bars and Ballads; but it was birthed for the Rancho Deluxe film. Jimmy is in the movie, of course playing the lead singer of a bar band. In his Parrothead Handbook, JB says his performance had “a lot to do with what I learned that summer in Montana”. It’s probably a pretty good imitation of many of Jimmy’s live performances!

So, the song Livingston Saturday Night is “rockin’ and a rollin'” dose of fun and the live version on the Rancho Deluxe soundtrack is a “pop another keg” Tony Lama good time. (In case you were wondering, I’m totally using lyrics from the song.) The song was such a good time, Jimmy resurrected it for his 1978 album Son Of A Son Of A Sailor, a calmer studio recorded version.

I’ve listened to both versions over the years but after listening to them back to back last night, I realized that they are quite different lyrically, which I found interesting. Jimmy was known for changing the lines of song to fit a mood or location, but I never realized how much he did it with this one.

I’m sharing the 1978 studio version of Livingston Saturday Night. Hopefully you enjoy a little bit of Montana pop culture in the song. The link is in the comments below. 

***

I was just a baby when Jimmy was experiencing movie making in Livingston, Montana, and while today it might not quite be the town that is portrayed in Rancho Deluxe, or in the song Livingston Saturday Night, it is beautiful, independent, still has a touch of the wild and it is a bit quirky. Probably those were some of the things that appealed to Jimmy during his time there. I am certainly grateful that Jimmy touched base in Montana, and that it left a little bit of itself in his heart as well as his music.

Stacy

Please enjoy Livingston Saturday Night. I have included the link below. Enjoy!

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