Margaritaville - Where and when did he write it?

[jbfins]

I just read the Southern Living article in which JB says that he wrote the song driving down the Overseas Highway. I recall reading that he wrote it in an airport.

Am I wrong?

[Tiki Torches]

I just posted this in the Related Artists section as a follow up to a thread I posted there a while back about Austin photographer Scott Newton. The first time I saw this photo, it appeared in the issue of Texas Monthly devoted to Outlaw Country which ran last year (but not with this caption). Perhaps Buffett has told the story so many times that he can no longer remember the actual facts surrounding it's origin.


Jimmy Buffett used to hang around Austin a lot. This was in 1974, at Liberty Lunch. It had been the old
Calcasieu lumberyard and still had lots of their stuff around. This wasn’t the day he wrote “Margaritaville”
[which, according to legend, happened one afternoon at an Austin bar], but it was supposedly the same trip.
The guy to his left is Roger Bartlett, who Buffett invited to join his band that day. He said, “You can be my first
backup guy, my first Coral Reefer.” He’d clearly given this a lot of thought. I sent Buffett a copy of this photo
to sign for me, and he wrote, “Hide this photo.” I realized, of course, that now he’s got his own brand of beer.

[Tiki Torches]

There's also this from the Songfacts page:

Buffett wrote this song in Key West, Florida after he finished a tour with his group, the Coral Reefer Band. They had just toured Texas, and Buffet spent some time drinking Margaritas in a Mexican restaurant with a friend before going back to Key West. When he got there, he sat at the Old Anchor Inn watching gridlock on the roads - and used it as inspiration as he composed the song.

From Wiki:

This song was written about a drink Buffett discovered at Lung's Cocina del Sur restaurant on Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas, and the first huge surge of tourists who descended on Key West, Florida around that time; he wrote most of the song that night in Austin and finished it while spending time in Key West.

[melon]

Guess we should just ask him. Personally im just glad it got written. Lol

[jimsig]

What is this Margaritaville song you speak of, not sure I am familiar with it?

[jbfinscj]

What is this Margaritaville song you speak of, not sure I am familiar with it?

It's a song?!? What hasn't that man done with Margaritaville

[melon]

Obviously there's nothing he won't brand....haven't you heard? He traded his guitar for a chair in a cement shrouded office? Lmao.

[LiveandletLiver]

We should just be thankful it wasn't the "Pina Colada Song" that started the Empire.

[melon]

^^^ Absolutely! Lol omg.

[Elrod]

I stayed in the bunkhouse at Captain's Corner dive shop on Ann Street for a couple of weeks when I took my rescue class. A walking tour stopped by every afternoon and pointed toward one of the rooms in the back of the compound.

After it happened a few times, I asked what they were pointing at. The guide said it's where Jimmy lived when he wrote Margaritaville. Not sure if there's any truth to it, but it's another possibility.

[sonofabeach]

I think the Austin story is in The Parrot Head Handbook as well.

[F1NZUP]

He mentions in one of his live songs that he started the song in Austin and finished it in Key West.