Jimmy Buffett Album #13: One Particular Harbour
Back in the saddle, my friends. Or, on the dock, or whatever.
I, like Jimmy, have decided to phone in the rest of the decade, and will start here with One Particular Harbour. (One note: my simple goal for the rest of the 80s is to find just three songs that I want to listen to again. Just three, Jimmy.)
As we all probably predicted, OPH is not a standout album. However it does present the most likely candidate of all time for The Official Theme Song of the Brothers Buffett: “I Used to Have Money One Time.” Even more fitting than the title is its intricate refrain:
But who’s gonna tell a fool?
Who’s gonna tell a fool?
Who’s gonna tell a fool?
That he ain’t cool.
(This is the actual chorus.)
(And I ask you, readers: Who, if not you? I’ll take your silence/nonexistence as unilateral, eternal support.)
Here’s the other thing about One Particular Harbour: somewhere along the way Jimmy sort of lost the Gulf Coast: almost none of the songs here have anything to do with the sea, or islands, or manatees. Instead, Jimmy’s inserted steel drums into nearly every song as means of maintaining his oceanfront reputation. The drums are as pervasive as the background ladies were on Son of a Son of a Sailor, and just as inappropriately deployed. (But at least I got one thing right with my last JB-inspired song.)
Alright, the tracks:
“Livin’ It Up.” I actually love how this song starts, seamy and gritty and electric, full of 80s-era testosterone. (Or whatever hormone is appropriate for such a synth-laden track.) Listening to it you half expect Eddie Murphy to slide out from under a car into the middle of a shootout; or slide out from under a car and start breakdancing in the street; or slide out from under a car and just stand there, being Eddie Murphy, because that’s what this song sounds like: Eddie Murphy in a red leather jacket from 1983, back when he was cool.
(Also, he’s playing steel drums.)
“One Particular Harbour.” Ugh, the title track. Apparently people like this song, but I have an immediate and guttural reaction to songs in which western musicians trot out “authentic” chorales from native lands (or urban churches) to lend credibility to their recordings. I’m looking at you, Paul Simon. Or practically every other artist who needs to “challenge” or “explore” himself with his fourth album. In this case Jimmy features a Tahitian choir — in addition to actual Tahitian lyrics — to bolster his case. And the song is almost catchy, but really it only seems catchy. Because it lasts forever and they repeat the chorus like a hundred times, so you have no choice but to have it in your head because the song lasts that long.
Totally forgettable tracks: “Distantly in Love,” “California Promises.” A couple of others I already forgot. “Why You Wanna Hurt My Heart” sounds like Phil Collins, plus steel drums and another chorus of natives. Have I sold you yet?
Four of the eleven songs on OPH are covers, which to me seems like Jimmy’s attempt to spread the blame around. These include “Brown Eyed Girl” (yes, that one), a song I can barely listen to in general. Sorry, it’s not a bad song, it’s just tremendously overpopular for its actual inherent quality. Jimmy’s only contribution here is — I invite you to guess — yes, the addition of a substantial amount of steel drum. Seriously: this has become like the “More Cowbell” sketch from Saturday Night Live, only instead of Bruce Dickinson requesting cowbell, I envision Jimmy staggering drunkenly around the studio demanding “more steel drum.”
Coming soon to a T-shirt near you
(Incidentally, Van Morrison is with me on the unenthusiastic support of “Brown Eyed Girl.” His quote from an interview in TIME a couple years ago: “It’s not one of my best. I mean I’ve got about 300 songs that I think are better.”)
In addition to the covers, two other songs here sound like stone ripoffs of the same previous Jimmy song: “We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About” is a slightly faster, stupider “I’m Growing Older But Not Up” — with more steel drum — and “Twelve Volt Man” is a slightly slower, stupider version of the same thing. (“Twelve Volt” even has a baseball-themed verse, like the original. It, however, is the one particular song on One Particular Harbour that lacks steel drum.)
And then suddenly the album’s over. Just… like……….. that. And it’s time for the sweet, warm embrace of fifteen thousand new words from Warren.
I used to have a life one time.
(0 of 3, Jimmy.)
My song ratings from iTunes:
A “3″ means I would “harbour” the notion of hearing the song again.
Average iTunes Rating: 1.54
Stars on the Water [2]
I Used to Have Money One Time [2]
Livin’ it Up [2]
California Promises [1]
One Particular Harbour [1]
Why You Wanna Hurt My Heart? [1]
Honey Do [2]
We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About [2]
Twelve Volt Man [1]
Brown Eyed Girl [2]
Distantly In Love [1]
Categories: 2) Jimmy Buffett
