SchoolGirlHeart wrote:changingchannels wrote:corporate gigs - check
So what? The band also gets a nice paycheck out of those gigs.
oversaturation of overpriced gimicky products - check
If people didn't buy them, they wouldn't be available, so someone must like the stuff
increasing number of cover songs in the live show - check
I'd prefer fewer covers too, but it's a creative call on JB's part to make his show what he wants it to be; we gotta take it or leave it....
misleading fans - check
There's way more to this story than we know....
recycled show - check
Of his hundreds of thousands of fans, maybe a few hundred or at most a few thousand see multiple shows. Most artists don't mix it up all that much. We notice JB's setlists because, unlike any other major artist, he broadcasts every show for FREE.
making albums where the majority of songs are not his - check
So what? George Strait is a bonafide superstar. Country Music Hall of Fame. ALL of his songs are written by someone else.
license to chill - check
Huh? Musically, I thought it was a tight album, and I liked it. If you didn't like it, that's okay, but musically it doesn't contribute to "jumped the shark" IMHO.
re-releasing sykbh on live dvds and cds - check
At the risk of repeating myself, if there were no market....
firing tc and amy - check
bringing landreth and payne instead of tc and amy - check
While I love TC and Amy (and Heather and Louisa), Jimmy made a creative decision to change the makeup of the band. This isn't new; it just hadn't happened for a long time. There have been a LOT of CRB members who have come and gone. The band has been changed quite a bit, mostly back when JB was in what some would consider the more creative periods of his career. In fact, according to the CRB page (
http://www.buffettnews.com/resources/coralreeferband/) there have been over
40 CRB members over the years, not counting special guests. Some left the band because they wanted to. Others were gone because Jimmy made creative changes....
lawsuits -checks
How many times does it have to be said? The law requires that he "vigorously defend" his trademarks, or he will lose them. That means lawsuits. It can't be helped....
I think Jimmy Buffett has become the polar opposite of what he sings about.
He is starting to remind me of a Vegas featured act like Tom Jones or Wayne Newton. You can now just wind him up and have him sing the same songs night after night, mainly for people who want to be able to say "I saw (fill in name of generic Vegas or Branson performer)".
The more I think about it - what about seeing Jimmy Buffett at Toyota Park in Chicago conjured up any feeling of a "change in latitude, change in attitude?" Being crammed in a parking lot like sardines? Seeing a guy walk out of a porta potty with his own feces smeared down his leg then be led into the venue by his college age friends? Paying $300 (non scalper price) to see Jimmy from 50 yards away in a row where the wasted people next to us went insane for songs like Brown Eyed Girl, Cheeseburger in Paradise but when he played Cowboy in the Jungle and Last Mango, they spent their time talking, taking pictures, getting in our way and getting up every five minutes to go buy more beer?
The more I think about it, the more irritated I become.
Good for you, Jimmy. You've gotten to that point where the acquisition of $ is a fun game. Sumner Redstone was once asked on Iconoclasts why, being worth billions, he so voraciously is looking for new deals to make more money. He answered with something about how, once you reach a point where you no longer have to worry about money for basic needs, it becomes a measuring stick to gauge your place in the world.
That may be fine and may provide a raison d'etre for the world's corporate raiders. However, Jimmy Buffett's appeal to me is as an artist - somebody whose songs like "A Salty Piece of Land", "When the Coast is Clear", "The Wino and I Know", "Migration" provide me with insights into the meaning of life and help me reflect and enjoy looking at my life through these musical prisms.
The Jimmy Buffett who is building casinos is not the artist who wrote "Distantly in Love". He has become a corporate icon who is shilling his tequila, shrimp, blenders, t shirts, restaurants, etc. Good for him that he has gotten to the point where money is only a measuring stick.
However, I feel like I'm "swimming in a roped off sea" when I go to his shows now. Just too bland, safe and predictable.
Anyway, that is my $.02 on the subject.
Good luck with those casinos, Jimmy. They should get you up to that billion dollar net worth that is likely your next goal. Instead of singing songs that have meaning or touch some of your long time fans, enjoy the 400 foot yachts and fleet of Gulfstreams that are the provence of billionaires. I understand Larry Ellison is still trying to sell his 458 foot yacht Rising Sun. Those casinos should get you to that level. Enjoy.
Some other facts about Larrys yacht The Rising Sun:
Length: 452.75ft (138 m) long
Cruising speed: 28 knots
Four diesels giving an output of 48 000 horsepower.
Production cost: US$200+ (In fact, it’s for sale.)
Total living space: 8 000 square meters.
Huge inside swimming pool
Extensive wine cellar
A cinema
Basketball court that doubles as a helicopter pad
Suites for 16 guests
82 rooms on five storeys
Space for private submarine
Larry Ellison is the ninth richest man in the world and founder and CEO of Oracle. He’s worth around $18 billion, so he can afford to have a boat of this magnituted - even if it costs over $13 million each year to just maintain it…