Margaritaville
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- This article deals with the Jimmy Buffett song "Margaritaville." For the restaurant chain and stores named for the song, see: Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.
"Margaritaville" is a 1977 song by Jimmy Buffett from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. He wrote it in Key West, Florida after touring Texas with his group, the Coral Reefer Band.
The song was a huge hit when it was released and is still popular today. It topped the Billboard charts at #1 in the Adult Contemporary category and at #8 for Pop Singles, as well as #13 on the Hot Country Songs chart. It is also the name of several licensed products (see below).
The song is essentially a narration of the singer's life for the previous season. He sings about laid-back living in a drunken haze in a beach community. "Margaritaville" is the mental state in which he exists during this period, induced—presumably—from the perpetual imbibing of margaritas. This is best illustrated in the last verse, when the singer goes for a walk, cuts his heel and returns home to ease his pain with the eponymous alcoholic beverage. The singer says that some friends surmise that he is reeling from a failed romance. The singer concludes at the end of the song, however, that he is not a victim of lost love, but rather of his own design and absolution.
The song's opening gives a vivid descriptive of the singer's lifestyle in the beach town of Key West:
- Nibblin' on sponge cake,
- Watchin' the sun bake,
- All of those tourists covered with oil.
- Strummin' my six-string,
- On my front porch swing,
- Smell those shrimp; they're beginning to boil.
The song's chorus best summarizes the theme of the song:
- Wastin' away again in Margaritaville,
- Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt.
- Some people claim that there's a woman to blame,
- But I know (it's nobody's fault); (Hell, it could be my fault); (It's my own damn fault);
There is also a "lost verse" to this song, as described by Buffett, which he often adds when performing in concert, which was reputedly edited out before the record was released in order to make the song more airplay-friendly.
- Old men in tank tops,
- Cruisin' the gift shops,
- Checkin' out chiquitas, down by the shore
- They dream about weight loss,
- Wish they could be their own boss
- Those three-day vacations can be such a bore
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[edit] Merchandising
As Buffett's best-known song, "Margaritaville" has been used in a number of commercial ventures and product licensing tie-ins including:
- Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, a casual dining restaurant chain, tourist destination and chain of stores (shops) selling Buffett-themed franchise merchandise in Jamaica and the U.S.
- Margaritaville frozen seafood
- Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker
- Margaritaville Chicken Wings
- Margaritaville margarita mix (manufactured by Mott's)
- Margaritaville tequila
- Radio Margaritaville, a radio station that broadcasts on the Internet and Sirius Satellite Radio.
- Margaritaville Soles of the Tropics Footwear
Margaritaville is also the password that, according to TV's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Gil Grissom in series 5 episode 9 (Mea Culpa) the CSI Las Vegas department use to access the Journal of Forensic Sciences back issues online.
[edit] Parodies
Comedian Mark Eddie parodied this song as "Marijuanaville" on his 1995 album Rock-N-Roll Comedy Cuts. (MP3)
Wrestlers Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock sang the song together on a 2001 episode of WWE Raw.
In the 2004 film Club Dread, Bill Paxton's character Coconut Pete sings a song very similar to Margaritaville called "Piña Coladaburg".
[edit] Covers
- Alan Jackson covered the song on his 1999 Under the Influence album. The cover featured Buffett singing along on the last verse; it also peaked at #63 after receiving play as an album cut.
[edit] Lyric Dispute
There is some dispute as to whether Buffett sings, "Wasted away again in Margaritaville" or "Wastin' away again in Margaritaville". When the studio recording is slowed down, it appears he says "wasted". However, played at the normal speed is difficult to verify. The original unedited lyrics, that appear on the sleeve to the Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes LP, clearly read "wasting" misspelled as "waistin'". Also, most guitar tablature and sheet music read "wastin'" as well. Buffett has never made a statement on the dispute.
