Day #6 – Nautical Wheelers
Day #6 – Nautical Wheelers
This is one of those songs… lyrically charming and musically charming. I did not know about the square-dancing group until my last visit to Key West in May of 2022. When I realized, I felt like an ah-ha moment, that made the three-quarter time references finally made sense. I love that I am still learning stuff, especially fun facts about these songs and Jimmy’s career.
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-Original post from 9/7/2023-
Day #6 – Nautical Wheelers
When JB first came to the Keys, he played music for drinks at several Key West bars, one of which was The Chart Room at the Pier House resort. A good friend named Tom Corcoran bartended there and hooked Jimmy up with the gig. The place was full of colorful Key West characters that naturally landed in one of his songs.
This cast of characters included a square-dancing group called the Nautical Wheelers and several friends who, on at least one occasion and after many drinks, got into a midnight regatta with less than stellar sailing boats, so less than stellar that one broke up and started to sink while the rest of the midnight crew came to rescue their compadre.
Jimmy penned a beautiful song about that incident and several of the colorful Key West locals involved in that doomed boat race on his album released in 1974, called A1A.
This song is dear to me for the beautiful line “cause everyone here is just more than contented to be living and dying in three-quarter time”.
I have included the link to Nautical Wheelers below. Please enjoy its unique lyrical magic that Jimmy was so great at – painting a scene with words and putting it to music!
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This one is near and dear to my heart. I suppose one could say that about all of the songs that I am sharing. This is a simply beautiful song!
Stacy
Please enjoy Nautical Wheelers. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
