Jimmy Buffett Album: “Fruitcakes”

This cd, I believe, is Jimmy's best 90's album. There is a nice mix of ballads, (love in the library, Delaney talks to statues), and upbeat songs, (everybody's got a cousin, Quietly making noise). Another reason to buy this album is to hear Jimmy's great remake of the Greatful Dead song Uncle John's Band. This is one of my favorite Buffett cds, and it is worth the price.

I have many fond memories of the summer of '94. I met my wife that summer, I went on a road trip to New Orleans with my best friend, attended my third Buffett concert, and theres this CD which I consider Jimmy's best release in the 90's. It had been five years since his last studio release which was good but nowhere near as good as Fruitcakes. Jimmy just sounded renergized and fresh on this CD unlike most of his 80's releases after Coconut Telegraph. "Uncle John's Band" is a great cover of the Dead song. "Everybody's got a cousin", "Fruitcakes", "Lone Palm", "Queitly Making Noise", "Vampires","She's Got You", "Sunny Afternoon" are really good. There is not a throw away song on this entire CD. Everytime I throw this CD in the player I am transported back to that great summer. I can almost feel the gulf coast breeze as my best friend and I travel down I-10 to N'awlins and I feel like I did when my wife and I first started dating. I know this is getting a little corny but this CD is like the soundtrack to a great part of my life. Thanks for the memories Jimmy.

If you read the reviews at this site of Jimmy's 90's releases, you will find a common thread that you need to allow these albums to grow on you. I'm still having a little trouble with Banana Wind, Beach House, and even Barometer Soup. (I'm still hesitating on Carnival.) But this one is definitely worth playing until you can't get enough of it! I love Lone Palm, Uncle John's Band, Six String Music, Love in the Library, Frenchman For The Night, and especially Quietly Making Noise. Catholic school veterans and childhood fans of classic monster movies will identify with Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost, as I do. She's Got You is about the only dismissable track here. This is maybe my favorite Buffett album after Somewhere Over China. Well, it's a close 2nd tie with Volcano and Floridays... Keep playing it, you'll love it! VagbndKing@aol.com

"Everybody's Got a Cousin in Miami" (written by Buffett and Michael Tschudin) opens with a little 'phone conversation' about Jimmy's cousin, who's the shady sort who operates out of a phone booth and can get anything for anybody. "Everybody's got a cousin in Miami/Everybody understands the impromptu/Dancing in the heat to the beat/That turns your clothing clammy/Everybody needs to have a dream come true..."

"Fruitcakes" (written by Buffett and Amy Lee) "Fruitcakes in the kitchen/Fruitcakes on the street/Struttin' naked through the crosswalk/in the middle of the week./Half-baked cookies in the oven/Half-baked people on the bus/There's a little bit of fruitcake left in every one of us..." Tied with "Vampires, Mummies, and the Holy Ghost" for my favourite on this album. Very conversational style delivering the lyrics on the subject of fruitcakes in this world.

"Lone Palm" (written by Buffett) "While out on the beach there are two empty chairs/that say more than the people who ever sit there/from under my lone palm I can look out on the day..."

"Six String Music" (written by Buffett and G.E. Smith) "You can get into Beethoven, you can groove on Jimmy Reed/But keep it simple stupid/All we really need/is six string music..."

"Uncle John's Band" (written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter) "Come hear Uncle John's band playing to the tide/Come on along or go alone/He's come to take his children home"

"Love in the Library" (written by Buffett and Mac McAnally) is of course a quiet song about falling in love with a girl he met in the library. :) "Love in the library, quiet and cool/Love in the library, there are no rules/Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime/I fell in love in the library once upon a time..."

"Quietly Making Noise" (written by Buffett and Michael Tschudin) Steel drums, brushes switching to snare after the opening, xylophone, not much guitar. "Not too soft not too loud/Just enough to draw a crowd/Quietly, quietly, quietly making noise..."

"Frenchman for the Night" (written by Buffett and Roger Guth) *Too* laid back for my taste, to the point of being almost suitable for Muzak. Acoustic guitar, very little piano, percussion toned down to using brushes. The total effect challenges my theory that percussion in modern music is mostly abused.

"Sunny Afternoon" (written by Ray Davies) "The tax man's taken all my dough/And left me in this stately home/Lazing on a sunny afternoon/And I can't even sail my yacht/He's taken everything I've got/All I've got's this sunny afternoon..." I can't help thinking he's about to sing "Desperation Samba" when I hear the opening of this song.

"Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost" (written by Buffett, Roger Guth, Peter Mayer, Jim Mayer) leads off with an organ solo, though not *quite* a ripoff of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (aka the Mad Scientists' Anthem) before preceding to the topic of the singer's therapy. "Talk about denial and dysfunctional things/Head's like a bell some days, it dongs and it dings.../Spend lots of money but I'm tacklin' my fears.../Vampires, mummies, and the Holy Ghost/These are the things that terrify me the most/No alien, psychopath or MTV host scares me like vampires, mummies and the Holy Ghost."

"She's Got You" (written by Hank Cochran) "Only thing different/Only thing new/I've got your picture/She's got you". (Jimmy actually sings "she" on the first chorus but changes to "he" later on.) Peppy song for a the-hussy-ran-off genre. "He or she? Gender bender to me..."

"Delaney Talks to Statues" (written by Buffett, Mac McAnally, and Amy Lee) A father's song for his young daughter.

"Apocalypso" (written by Matt Betton) is notorious in my family because Jimmy played it on the Letterman show when the album first came out, only to be hustled offstage to make time for a little kid who could name all fifty states. Who, us? Fans? *Grr*. The steel drums naturally get a place in the sun in this one. "They say this universe is bound to blow/But I say we crank up the calypso control/Apocalyp, apocalyp, apocalypso/We'll be dancing when we go..."

In my opinion, this is definitely the best Buffett album of the 1990's. It is solid throughout, and Jimmy wrote a lot of the really good songs here. I especially like "Quietly Making Noise", "Fruitcakes", "Everybody has a Cousin in Miami", and "Love in the Library". This album is so far superior to "Banana Wind", "Don't Stop the Carnival", and "Beach House on the Moon", that it's hard to believe that it came out of the same artist. But with this album, Buffett reminds all of us wannabe's that when he's on, he IS the best. Jerry Diaz KEY WEST-the band