When did Jimmy really take off?

landshark04 · Post by **landshark04** » December 29, 2004 11:52 pm

what I mean is - when did Jimmy start playing big venues and stuff like that?......this is probally a stupid question but I'm only 16 and have only been into Jimmy for about 2 years now.

CaptainP · Post by **CaptainP** » December 29, 2004 11:54 pm

Last Tuesday.

Just kidding....mid-to-late 70s, I'd think, but I'm not the right person to answer this.

aquaholic · Post by **aquaholic** » December 30, 2004 6:16 am

early 70's is real close..........as a teenager in Miami.........he got more press down there..but I remember in the mid 70's he made the cover of ROLLING STONE

Y-NO-9-O · Post by **Y-NO-9-O** » December 30, 2004 7:03 am

In the mid 70's he started playing venues like the Fox in Atlanta and Gusman Hall in Miami, etc, those seat a couple thousand each. In 1977 he opened for the Eagle's Hotel California tour and I would say that was the beginning of the large venue era. After that he could fill a place that would seat ____teen thousand.
That is my recollection being from the South Florida region also. I could be wrong.

Fragile Magic · Post by **Fragile Magic** » December 30, 2004 9:02 am

I first saw JB at The Cellar in Washington, DC in Feb. of 1976 on a visit with college friends...full house that night! By the next fall/winter I attended concerts at the Carolina Coliseum on the campus of USC and the Clemson Coliseum. Yearly late 70's and early 80's shows were at Carowinds, always to a full house!!!

rednekkPH · Post by **rednekkPH** » December 30, 2004 9:16 am

Hopefully before the end of the runway.

ph4ever · Post by **ph4ever** » December 30, 2004 9:46 am

Venues back then were a little different than now. I first saw Jimmy at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, TX back in the early 70's - like 73 or 74 I think. While it wasn't big as far as the amount of people it would hold it was big because of the variety of musicians that played there.

rednekkPH · Post by **rednekkPH** » December 30, 2004 9:52 am

ph4ever wrote:While it wasn't big as far as the amount of people it would hold it was big because of the variety of musicians that played there.

Well Connie, considering that was before they had electricity, let alone amplifiers, the venues had to be small enough for everyone to be able to hear

Boomerang Ross · Post by **Boomerang Ross** » December 30, 2004 5:01 pm

rednekkPH wrote:Hopefully before the end of the runway.

SchoonerWharf · Post by **SchoonerWharf** » December 30, 2004 7:30 pm

See I disagree even though I wasn't old enough to listen to Jimmy in the 70's. I think Jimmy went huge in the early 90's. He certainly had a loyal following and sold out shows and was a star. But I also remember going to see him in spring 1992 and calling aboiut three weeks before the show and getting actual seats. Couple years later, you had to win a lottery to be sure to get seats. That era took him into the mainstream and the "cool" show to see.

FarsideCobbPH · Post by **FarsideCobbPH** » December 30, 2004 7:42 pm

I'm not sure when he first flew in an airplane!

photogal · Post by **photogal** » December 30, 2004 9:22 pm

Well I know in 77/78 he was the opening act for the Eagles so.......as far as selling out big venues I would go with mid to late 80's. Depends on what you mean by becoming big. Tricky question.

landshark04 · Post by **landshark04** » December 30, 2004 9:29 pm

photogal wrote:Well I know in 77/78 he was the opening act for the Eagles so.......as far as selling out big venues I would go with mid to late 80's. Depends on what you mean by becoming big. Tricky question.

what i mean is when did he start selling out big venues?

landshark04 · Post by **landshark04** » December 30, 2004 9:29 pm

photogal wrote:Well I know in 77/78 he was the opening act for the Eagles so.......as far as selling out big venues I would go with mid to late 80's. Depends on what you mean by becoming big. Tricky question.

what i mean is when did he start selling out big venues?

bananaman · Post by **bananaman** » December 30, 2004 9:39 pm

If by big venues you mean like amphitheaters and full-sized colliseums; I would say sometime in the late eighties. But I'm not sure.

RinglingRingling · Post by **RinglingRingling** » December 31, 2004 11:39 am

aquaholic wrote:early 70's is real close..........as a teenager in Miami.........he got more press down there..but I remember in the mid 70's he made the cover of ROLLING STONE

I have a picture of that...

well.. ok. a picture of me next to the framed cover at Dick's in Dallas.

finsup2k · Post by **finsup2k** » December 31, 2004 12:09 pm

rednekkPH wrote:Hopefully before the end of the runway.

Rimshot.

a1abob · Post by **a1abob** » January 1, 2005 12:26 pm

First time I saw Jimmy was in Miami at Gusman Hall in '76. Saw him in Vegas at Caeser's palace in 78 and it was sold out. He got real big after A1A was released.

carolinagirl · Post by **carolinagirl** » January 1, 2005 4:51 pm

SchoonerWharf wrote:See I disagree even though I wasn't old enough to listen to Jimmy in the 70's. I think Jimmy went huge in the early 90's. He certainly had a loyal following and sold out shows and was a star. But I also remember going to see him in spring 1992 and calling about three weeks before the show and getting actual seats. Couple years later, you had to win a lottery to be sure to get seats. That era took him into the mainstream and the "cool" show to see.

See, you don't know... I lived it. Everybody was singing Jimmy Buffett songs and he was all over the radio when I was in college beginning in 1976. I first heard "My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink..." from a co-worker in the college cafeteria when I was 19 or 20; she was singing at the top of lungs cleaning up after a banquet, only she changed lyrics to "and I don't love George Wallace." Said she just couldn't say she didn't love Jesus. We thought it was hilarious. 'Course that was when Wallace was running for President. I thought what song is that!?! Absolutely everybody knew who Jimmy Buffett was. We had a guy come through the lunch line every day who looked like him and everyone called him JB. This was at Winthrop College near Carowinds... My brother saw Buffett at Clemson Univ. when he was an act for the student union circuit in about '74. He had hit it big right after they'd booked him, and he couldn't cancel even though the auditorium only seated 200 or so. He only played big convention centers after that.

VB for Buffett · Post by **VB for Buffett** » January 1, 2005 5:51 pm

I thought you said,"When did Jimmy really take it off?"