“You had to be there” by Jimmy Buffett (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

• Album name: “You had to be there”
• Artist name: Jimmy Buffett
• Year: 1978
• Number of discs: two
• Label: ABC Records
• Collection: Selman
• Buy it:
  • Amazon (Vinyl): $39.99
  • Amazon (CD): $50.47

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

Jimmy Buffett and I go way back! I remember my parents playing his music on a very frequent basis (when I was far too young to understand the lyrics – not that anything in his songs is that complex); it was him, the Beatles the Beach Boys, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young and maybe a few others that were synonymous with music to me.

I have never listened to Jimmy Buffett on my own, however – not once in my entire adult, music-listening life – and don’t think I’ve even heard any of his songs in decades. I still remember and know a lot of his hits, though.

What I expected

Definitely all the classic Jimmy Buffett hits.

What it was actually like

I was a bit let down by this record.

A bunch of the classic hit songs that I expected were included, like Son of a Son of a Sailor, Pencil Thin Mustache, Margaritaville, Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes and Come Monday, so that was great.

Where, however, was Cheeseburger in Paradise? I don’t even like cheeseburgers and I never have, but to paint a picture of the significance of this song to my life, imagine that you’re four or five years old and your parents blast that song all the time and sing along to it. The line between “music” and “children’s music” gets blurred, doesn’t it? And that leaves an indelible mark, doesn’t it? Omitting it from this record was a weird and bad decision.

And where was Brown Eyed Girl? I never even heard of the name “Van Morrison” until I was probably a senior in high school, so to me, Brown Eyed Girl was always a Buffett song (even though, if I’m being completely fair, Morrison did it way better). The real answer, of course, is that Buffett didn’t even record the song until five years after this album was released, so fine – but it still leaves a gaping hole.

Besides the classics, I was not that impressed with the remaining material, either.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me