Just a girl who loves Jimmy Buffett and wants to share his music, stories and lifestyle with the world!
This song was a result of a summer or two or three that Jimmy spent in Montana in the early seventies. It is a song that has certainly made its mark on Ringling, Montana, and it has made its mark on me as well. I can’t say what kind of mark it has made on Jimmy Buffett or his career, but according to setlist.fm, he has played this song 50 times in live shows, which isn’t to shabby, considering that is more song plays than the current population of Ringling.
False Echoes led me to think about stories and memories, and both are funny things. If told a story, we can all hear different parts of it more clearly than others, or not at all. Time and memory and attention can alter these details, until the story changes and changes some more. I want to take a small look into the song lyrics and a couple ships that might tie to this song.
Jimmy has written more than one song influenced by the island of St. Barts in the Caribbean, but Chanson Pour Les Petits Enfants was his first, and no doubt most tender. What was it about this island that captivated him so?
I love that this song talks about curiosity, but also hints about the never-ending questions we all have in life, child or adult. “Teach your children to go fishing with their minds” is something I touched on in my original post, but I want to investigate the concept more. Jimmy himself strikes me as a person who was incredibly curious, and I imagine he was a child full of questions. And maybe there were never enough answers for him? And in that way, I think he went searching for his own answers, and he found them in his songs, his experiences, his travels, and his friendships.
I am not certain if Jimmy or Delaney had any idea the impact that these video interviews would have on Jimmy’s fans, but they certainly did. I for one loved watching them all before, but after Jimmy’s passing, they have a whole deeper meaning for me, and I am so grateful to this father and daughter team for providing us with such a special and personal series.
This song will get you every time you hear it. I imagine even for people who have no idea who Jimmy or Savannah Jane Buffett are, this is one of those heart-warming songs, connecting to a father and daughter’s special bond. I am my Dad’s oldest, and his only daughter, so I understand that bond deeply.
My Google search on Pascagoula today told me that I am 1 day and 10 hours away from Pascagoula, Mississippi … by flight! Which is not at all correct if a person shops better than Google is trying to shop for me. I might even be able to drive it in 34 hours if I only stopped to get gas and pee. I swear, Montana is not at the end of the world!
Today is a big day in Jimmy Buffett’s world, even though he might not be with us on the physical plane of this big round ball we call Earth, he is certainly with us in spirit. Today is the release day of Equal Strain On All Parts. We have been able to hear several of the songs from the record already, and we already know that there is one song that already has captured the hearts of his fans, which is Bubbles Up. It already ties to us in an emotional way that maybe equals the emotional attachment we have to He Went To Paris, which for me, has always been deeply sentimental.
Mañana turns out to be a very special day for Parrotheads everywhere, because tomorrow, November 3rd, is the day that Jimmy’s album Equal Strain On All Parts is officially released! I have been waiting for it since summer when I heard the first stirrings on RadioMargaritaville, when I first heard My Gummie Just Kicked In. Then, September 1st kicked me in the gut, and I knew that things would never be the same. But right now, we have a gift coming mañana and I am so grateful for that.
In the sense of this song, I define gypsy as a free-spirited person or one who lives a nomadic existence, or raids pantries full of food and booze. In concert, Jimmy has introduced this song as “the scariest song you’ll hear tonight” with his trademark sense of humor and gentle drawl. I never got the chance to housesit for Jimmy Buffett, so I can’t promise if I might not have acted a bit like a gypsy myself. Cheers to whomever inspired the writing of this vastly entertaining song.