Another clip about Margaritavile
Posted: September 10, 2011 11:03 pm
Found this clip about Jimmy and Norbet Putnam.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep03/a ... putnam.htm
I had known Jimmy Buffett for a few years when he was in Nashville," says Putnam. "He used to hang around Quad a lot. Me and David had a sort of open bar policy — anyone could come into the studio and drink for free as long as they didn't bother the clients, and on any given night you'd have people like Guy Clark and Mickey Newbury and Jerry Jeff Walker hanging out there drinking. Jimmy was writing songs and also doing interviews with artists for some magazine he wrote for. He was one of the guys in the hall when I needed a bunch of vocalists to make the chorus real big on 'The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down' for Baez. So he was one of about 20 drunks I dragged in there to make the chorus sound real big. He was signed to Barnaby Records at the time, which was owned by Andy Williams. Some time later, I was in Julian's [a legendary but long-gone four-star restaurant in Nashville] and Jimmy came in and said 'I gotta talk to you.' He ordered me a bottle of Kristal, which was my favourite champagne, so I figured we had at least that in common. He said he wanted to do something more progressive and he wanted me to do it with him. And he wanted to use his band, the Coral Reefers. I thought, this is tragic — I had just been through this with the New Riders [see box]. A bunch of coked-out musicians behind Jimmy singing songs about his grandfather and the ocean. But after a few more drinks the idea didn't sound so bad any more. I went to see them at the Exit/In club, and I told Jimmy, 'Look, if you want to make records about the ocean, you have to get next to the ocean.' I had done that with Fogelberg — he wrote about the mountains, so I recorded him in the mountains [Caribou Ranch Studios, where the 1977 Nether Lands and 1979 Phoenix albums were recorded]. So we booked time in Criteria Studios in Miami. But after the New Riders, I brought ringers in from the start, like Kenny Buttrey on drums and Teddy Irwin in from New York on guitar.
One day in the studio, he comes in and starts telling me about a day he had in Key West. He was coming home from a bar and he lost one of his flip-flops and he stepped on a beer can top and he couldn't find the salt for his Margarita. He says he's writing lyrics to it and I say 'That's a terrible idea for a song.' He comes back in a few days later with 'Wasted Away Again In Margaritaville' and plays it and right then everyone knows it's a hit song. Hell, it wasn't a song — it was a movie."
It was also Buffett's commercial breakthrough record, from 1977's Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes LP. Putnam kept him near the water when he went back into the studio to produce Buffett's follow-up record, Volcano, at AIR Studios in Monserrat in 1979; Putnam also produced Coconut Telegraph, Somewhere Over China, Songs You Know By Heart — in all about half a dozen Buffett records.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep03/a ... putnam.htm
I had known Jimmy Buffett for a few years when he was in Nashville," says Putnam. "He used to hang around Quad a lot. Me and David had a sort of open bar policy — anyone could come into the studio and drink for free as long as they didn't bother the clients, and on any given night you'd have people like Guy Clark and Mickey Newbury and Jerry Jeff Walker hanging out there drinking. Jimmy was writing songs and also doing interviews with artists for some magazine he wrote for. He was one of the guys in the hall when I needed a bunch of vocalists to make the chorus real big on 'The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down' for Baez. So he was one of about 20 drunks I dragged in there to make the chorus sound real big. He was signed to Barnaby Records at the time, which was owned by Andy Williams. Some time later, I was in Julian's [a legendary but long-gone four-star restaurant in Nashville] and Jimmy came in and said 'I gotta talk to you.' He ordered me a bottle of Kristal, which was my favourite champagne, so I figured we had at least that in common. He said he wanted to do something more progressive and he wanted me to do it with him. And he wanted to use his band, the Coral Reefers. I thought, this is tragic — I had just been through this with the New Riders [see box]. A bunch of coked-out musicians behind Jimmy singing songs about his grandfather and the ocean. But after a few more drinks the idea didn't sound so bad any more. I went to see them at the Exit/In club, and I told Jimmy, 'Look, if you want to make records about the ocean, you have to get next to the ocean.' I had done that with Fogelberg — he wrote about the mountains, so I recorded him in the mountains [Caribou Ranch Studios, where the 1977 Nether Lands and 1979 Phoenix albums were recorded]. So we booked time in Criteria Studios in Miami. But after the New Riders, I brought ringers in from the start, like Kenny Buttrey on drums and Teddy Irwin in from New York on guitar.
One day in the studio, he comes in and starts telling me about a day he had in Key West. He was coming home from a bar and he lost one of his flip-flops and he stepped on a beer can top and he couldn't find the salt for his Margarita. He says he's writing lyrics to it and I say 'That's a terrible idea for a song.' He comes back in a few days later with 'Wasted Away Again In Margaritaville' and plays it and right then everyone knows it's a hit song. Hell, it wasn't a song — it was a movie."
It was also Buffett's commercial breakthrough record, from 1977's Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes LP. Putnam kept him near the water when he went back into the studio to produce Buffett's follow-up record, Volcano, at AIR Studios in Monserrat in 1979; Putnam also produced Coconut Telegraph, Somewhere Over China, Songs You Know By Heart — in all about half a dozen Buffett records.
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