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"Margaritaville" is a 1977 song by Jimmy Buffett. The song was a huge hit when it was released and is still popular today. It topped the Billboard charts at No. 1 in the "Adult Contemporary" category and at No. 8 for "Pop Singles." This song is mostly responsible for giving Buffett the beach bum persona he has had since the song's release. It is also the name of several licensed products.
The song is more or less a narration of the singer's life for the past season. He sings about laid-back living in a drunken haze in a beach community. "Margaritaville" is the mental state he exists in during this period, induced—presumably—from the perpetual imbibing of margaritas. This is best illustrated in the last verse, when the singer goes for a walk, cuts his heel and returns home to ease his pain with the eponymous alcoholic beverage. The singer says that some friends surmise that he is reeling from a failed romance. But the singer concludes, at the end of the song, that he is not a victim of lost love, but of his own laziness.
The song's opening gives a vivid descriptive of the singer's lifestyle in the beach town of Key West:
- Nibblin' on sponge cake,
- Watchin' the sun bake,
- All of those tourists covered with oil.
- Strummin' my six-string,
- On my front porch swing,
- Smell those shrimp they're beginnin' to boil.
The song's chorus best summarizes the theme of the song:
- Wastin' away again in Margaritaville,
- Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt.
- Some people claim that there's a woman to blame,
- But I know, It's nobody's fault; (Hell, it could be my fault); (It's my own damn fault);
There is also a "lost verse" to this song, as described by Buffett, which he often adds in when performing in concert, which was reputedly edited out before the record was released in order to make the song more airplay-friendly.
- Old men in tanktops,
- cruisin' the gift-shops,
- Checkin' out chiquitas, down by the shore
- They dream about weight-loss,
- wish they could be their own boss
- Those three-day vacations can be such a bore
Merchandising
As Buffett's best-known song, Margaritaville has been used product licensing tie-ins:
- Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, a casual dining restaurant chain with locations in Cancún, Mexico; Key West; Las Vegas; Montego Bay,Jamaica; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Negril, Jamaica; New Orleans; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; Orlando
- Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, a chain of stores selling Buffett-themed merchandise with locations in Charleston, S.C.; Key West; Las Vegas; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; New Orleans; Orlando; and Jamaica.
- Margaritaville frozen seafood
- Margaritaville Chicken Wings
- Margaritaville margarita mix (Mott's)
- Margaritaville tequila
- Radio Margaritaville, a radio station that broadcasts on the Internet and Sirius Satellite Radio.
External links
"Margaritaville"