What's the story....

[captenuta]

behind Ringling,Ringling?

[sunseeker]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

[txaggirl91]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

dang - you beat me to it! was going to add a comment about the "big balls"

[mermaidindisguise]

there's a story.... wait - let me go make some popcorn - I am useless forthe rest of the day anyway!!

[RinglingRingling]

behind Ringling,Ringling?

Jimmy was on a roadtrip, probably about the time of Rancho Deluxe and visiting LaLa. Her ranch (with her husband Tom McGuane) is up in the Crazys, and it is just short jaunt down to Ringling.

[RinglingRingling]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

I prefer "eccentric"... and yes.. with 200mm balls.

[mermaidindisguise]

damn - I didn't even have time to make the popcorn.....

[RinglingRingling]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

dang - you beat me to it! was going to add a comment about the "big balls"

[captenuta]

behind Ringling,Ringling?

Jimmy was on a roadtrip, probably about the time of Rancho Deluxe and visiting LaLa. Her ranch (with her husband Tom McGuane) is up in the Crazys, and it is just short jaunt down to Ringling.

It's as simple as that I guess. Thanks for the quick response.

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

Not sure what the above comment has to do with it ?

[RinglingRingling]

behind Ringling,Ringling?

Jimmy was on a roadtrip, probably about the time of Rancho Deluxe and visiting LaLa. Her ranch (with her husband Tom McGuane) is up in the Crazys, and it is just short jaunt down to Ringling.

It's as simple as that I guess. Thanks for the quick response.

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

Not sure what the above comment has to do with it ?

it's also one of the 4 Montana songs. Livingston Saturday Night, Miss You So Badly, and Great Filling Station Holdup are the other three. (there is some question on TGFSH, but it was written about the same time he was in MT for the movie, and there is a bar in downtown Bozeman named the Crystal that could have worked for the line "we were sittin' in the Crystal, 'bout as drunk as we could be".

[Dutch Harbor PH]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

I prefer "eccentric"... and yes.. with 200mm balls.

I don't know.....Metric Balls????Jeshhhh! More important than the size is the material....Steel???Iron????Brass???? Aluminum?????
And the all important question of how you came by them.....?

[chippewa]

Ringling? He's kind of a big deal.

I'm gonna use that link everyday if I get the opportunity...

[RinglingRingling]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

I prefer "eccentric"... and yes.. with 200mm balls.

I don't know.....Metric Balls????Jeshhhh! More important than the size is the material....Steel???Iron????Brass???? Aluminum?????
And the all important question of how you came by them.....?

depends on who you talk with...

some would tell you I got them from outside a pawn shop. others, well.. others are just speechless:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ringlinri ... pg&.src=ph

[conched]

behind Ringling,Ringling?

Jimmy was on a roadtrip, probably about the time of Rancho Deluxe and visiting LaLa. Her ranch (with her husband Tom McGuane) is up in the Crazys, and it is just short jaunt down to Ringling.

Well, dang! I was typing out a long ole answer and RR just says it so succinctly, I'll let it go at that. NOT!!

La La is Laurie, Jimmy's sister. Tom McGuane is Laurie's husband (maybe.) He left Key West to the peace and quiet of Montana and Paradise Valley.

Jimmy wanted to be a country star. He didn't get the role he wanted, but got a short role in Rancho Deluxe for about a minute, performing on Livingston Saturday night with Tom McGuane on mandoline.

I'm sure their life was very peaceful and they did a lot of trout fishing.

I'll type more if anyone is interested and really doesn't know the story.

Jimmy has never written any liner notes about Ringling Ringling that I know of so I always thought the lyrics for the song spoke for themselves.

Also, the songs for Livin and Dyin in 3/4 Time were quickly done to get an album out fast after Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash in September of 1973 and ABC needed to promote their new star.

It's been written that Jimmy's life was more of WHIRLWIND than a WALTZ.

Jimmy commented that he wrote practically all of L&Din3/4T, which was released in February 1974, while lying around out in Montana.

WSC&PC was released in June 1973 and just four months later they had Jimmy back in the studio recording L&D, which was one month after Jim Croce's death.

Too much info?

[conched]

About Jimmy living in Montana:

Livingston became a colony of rough-cut, highly competitive male artists. At the center of this scene were Tom and Becky McGuane, who were both sexual magnets: Tom was big and tough, a bar fighter, yet he was also insouciant in a way that drew both men and women to him; and Becky was blond, extremely petite but busty, with a native insight into men. People wanted to be around them. Sam Peckinpah, the film director, came there, and actors Warren Oates and Jeff Bridges and novelist Jim Harrison. Richard liked this crowd. He was still famous, and Tom was getting to be. Gatz Hjortsberg was beginning to sell his scripts. Russell Chatham's paintings were catching on, especially with the Hollywood set. "Everybody was hitting at the same time," Becky recalls. For a while, there were twenty-seven people living and writing at the McGuanes' ranch, including Jimmy Buffett, who was sleeping in the barn and composing songs that turned up on the radio, it seemed, only weeks later.

The early Seventies were, as the local bookstore owner John Fryer recalls, "a rude time, when nobody had any manners. And nobody cared." Livingston got a reputation for its wild parties and sexual openness. The McGuanes split up; Tom went on to marry Margot Kidder, the actress, and then Laurie Buffett, Jimmy's sister. Becky married Peter Fonda. "Then things began to settle down," says Fryer. "Maybe things did get a little quiet around here for Richard." The Fondas bought the ranch next to the McGuanes': Tom raised horses; Peter raised alfalfa; and they all raised children.


From Brautigan Archives

[East Texas Parrothead]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

Pitch perfect, Shannon.

Love you, R2. Mean it!

[Quiet and Shy]

About Jimmy living in Montana:

Livingston became a colony of rough-cut, highly competitive male artists. At the center of this scene were Tom and Becky McGuane, who were both sexual magnets: Tom was big and tough, a bar fighter, yet he was also insouciant in a way that drew both men and women to him; and Becky was blond, extremely petite but busty, with a native insight into men. People wanted to be around them. Sam Peckinpah, the film director, came there, and actors Warren Oates and Jeff Bridges and novelist Jim Harrison. Richard liked this crowd. He was still famous, and Tom was getting to be. Gatz Hjortsberg was beginning to sell his scripts. Russell Chatham's paintings were catching on, especially with the Hollywood set. "Everybody was hitting at the same time," Becky recalls. For a while, there were twenty-seven people living and writing at the McGuanes' ranch, including Jimmy Buffett, who was sleeping in the barn and composing songs that turned up on the radio, it seemed, only weeks later.

The early Seventies were, as the local bookstore owner John Fryer recalls, "a rude time, when nobody had any manners. And nobody cared." Livingston got a reputation for its wild parties and sexual openness. The McGuanes split up; Tom went on to marry Margot Kidder, the actress, and then Laurie Buffett, Jimmy's sister. Becky married Peter Fonda. "Then things began to settle down," says Fryer. "Maybe things did get a little quiet around here for Richard." The Fondas bought the ranch next to the McGuanes': Tom raised horses; Peter raised alfalfa; and they all raised children.


From Brautigan Archives

Wow conched...some great history there!!

As far as I've seen Tom is still Jimmy's brother-in-law. On another note, according to the Trails of Margaritaville Tour in Key West, the first place Jimmy lived in Key West was Tom McGuane's house...about a half block up from the old courthouse.

And R2...? Gets his name from a place directly downstream of the Crazy's?? Not much to say there....

[conched]

Off topic post about Tom McGuane and Laurie:

Tom McGuane on Ranching, Writing and Rattlesnakes
By Hal Herring, 7-10-06


www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/9790/

If it seems like a long way from the smoky bars of Livingston and postcard scenes of the Yellowstone where the legendary wildness of McGuane and his friends played out in the 70's and early 80's, stamping an entire generation's perceptions of the place and the state, that's because it is.

[comtnfish]

behind Ringling,Ringling?

Jimmy was on a roadtrip, probably about the time of Rancho Deluxe and visiting LaLa. Her ranch (with her husband Tom McGuane) is up in the Crazys, and it is just short jaunt down to Ringling.

It's as simple as that I guess. Thanks for the quick response.

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

Not sure what the above comment has to do with it ?

The "above comment" has to do with the person answering you....

((((R2))))!!

[parrotpartygod]

he's a fairly nice guy...a little odd....but nice....

I prefer "eccentric"... and yes.. with 200mm balls.

eccentric or treat!?!