Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

Jimmy Buffett has a following larger than one could easily imagine in Japan. Based in Key West, Florida, he is not only a singer-songwriter but also a successful businessman behind restaurant chains and clothing brands. His records embody the laid-back Southern seaside lifestyle: relaxed folk-country with a pleasantly breezy resort atmosphere. Yet beneath them runs a free-spirited and sometimes socially satirical perspective. That is part of the secret of his popularity. He was also a friend of Jerry Jeff Walker and Steve Goodman.

He debuted in 1970 and put out an album almost every year. His seventh, this record, produced his biggest hit, the Top 10 ‘Margaritaville,’ which also gave its name to his restaurant chain. The album title means, roughly, that a change of latitude brings a change in one's attitude to life. Norbert Putnam's laid-back production celebrates a leisurely, unhurried natural life. This, then, is a dream of the American common man. Enviable, yet somehow impossible to resent, Buffett is.