| "A Pirate Looks at Forty" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Jimmy Buffett | ||||
| from the album A1A | ||||
| A-side | "A Pirate Looks at Forty" | |||
| B-side | "Presents to Send You" | |||
| Released | February 1975 | |||
| Studio | Woodland (Nashville, Tennessee) [1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:57 | |||
| Label | Dunhill D-15029 (US, 7") | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Jimmy Buffett | |||
| Producer(s) | Don Gant | |||
| Jimmy Buffett singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
| Audio | ||||
| "A Pirate Looks at Forty" by Jimmy Buffett on YouTube | ||||
| "A Pirate Looks at Forty" (live,1978) by Jimmy Buffett on YouTube | ||||
"A Pirate Looks at Forty" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. It was first released on his 1974 album A1A and "Presents to Send You" is the B-side of the single.
Buffett wrote the song about Phillip Clark,at the Chart Room where Buffett first performed after his move to Key West,Florida. [3] The song contains the bittersweet confession of a modern-day,washed-up drug smuggler as he looks back on the first 40 years of his life,expresses lament that his preferred vocation of piracy on the high seas was long gone by the time he was born,and ponders his future.
For radio play,the song was shortened by deleting the fourth verse for the single release. Cash Box said the song has "an almost reggae progression,fine guitar playing and lead solo,[and] moving lyrics". [4] Record World said that "This limitless piece of demographic dauntlessness should ship him out of port under more steam than anything since 'Come Monday.'" [5] The song is one of Buffett's more popular,and is part of "The Big 8" that he played at almost all of his concerts,and always during the second set. [6]
| Chart (1974) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 | 101 |
Jack Johnson has been known to cover this song in many of his smaller concerts. It was officially released on the soundtrack to The September Sessions in 2002. [7]
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez performed the song during their 1982 reunion performance at the Peace Sunday rally in Pasadena,California.
Dave Matthews alongside Jack Johnson performed the song at Kokua Benefit Concert at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu in 2008. Dave Matthews Band performed the song to open their show at The Gorge Amphitheatre the day after Buffett's death in 2023.
Songwriter/Musician T.J. O'Neill collaborated with long-time friend Stick Figure on the song which was his first single in 2019. It also featured reggae artists KBong and Johnny Cosmic. The music video was shot live on location at a resort in Mexico with thousands of fans surrounding the singers while performing. [8] [9]
David John Matthews is an American musician and the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band (DMB). Matthews was born in Johannesburg, and moved frequently between South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States while growing up. He started playing acoustic guitar at the age of nine.
Johnny Rivers is a retired American musician. He achieved commercial success and popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s as a singer and guitarist, characterized as a versatile and influential artist. Rivers is best known for his 1960s output, having popularized the mid-60s discotheque scene through his live rock and roll recordings at Los Angeles' Whiskey a Go Go nightclub, and later shifting to a more orchestral, soul-oriented sound during the latter half of the decade. These developments were reflected by his most notable string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, many of them covers. They include "Memphis", "Mountain of Love", "The Seventh Son", "Secret Agent Man", "Poor Side of Town", "Baby I Need Your Lovin'", and "Summer Rain". Ultimately, Rivers landed 9 top ten hits and 17 top forty hits on US charts from 1964 to 1977.
"Long Black Veil" is a 1959 country ballad, written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin and originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is the first live album by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records on May 6, 1968. After his 1955 song "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge of producing Cash's material. Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems, and was looking to turn his career around after several years of limited commercial success. Backed by June Carter, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three, Cash performed two shows at Folsom State Prison in California on January 13, 1968. The initial release of the album consists of fifteen songs from the first show and two from the second.
The September Sessions: The Tomorrowland Story Brought To Life In Brilliant 16mm Film is a 2002 documentary surf film directed by singer/songwriter Jack Johnson. Often called September Sessions, it is the second of The Moonshine Conspiracy film series. It was filmed in 16 mm.
Reggie Grimes Young Jr. was an American musician who was lead guitarist in the American Sound Studio house band, The Memphis Boys, and was a leading session musician.
"Highway 61 Revisited" is the title track of Bob Dylan's 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited. It was also released as the B-side to the single "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" later the same year. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song as number 364 in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Stick Figure is an American reggae and dub band founded in 2005 In Duxbury Ma. The group has released eight full-length albums and one instrumental album, all of which were written and produced by frontman and self-taught multi-instrumentalist Scott Woodruff. The live band consists of Woodruff, keyboardist Kevin Bong (KBong), drummer Kevin Offitzer, bassist Tommy Suliman, guitarist, keyboardist, and guitarist/backup vocalist Johnny Cosmic and percussionist Will Phillips. Cocoa, an Australian Shepherd, often joins the band onstage and has accordingly been nicknamed Cocoa the Tour Dog.
Colin Patrick Harper, better known by his stage name Collie Buddz, is a Bermudian reggae artist best known for his single "Come Around".
A1A or A-1-A is the fifth studio album by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett and the third major label album in Buffett's Don Gant-produced "Key West phase". It was initially released in December 1974 as Dunhill DS-50183 and later re-released on Dunhill's successor labels ABC and MCA.
You Had to Be There is a live double album by the American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. It was originally released in October 1978 as ABC AK-1008/2 and later re-released on ABC's successor label MCA. It is the first of Buffett's many live albums and his tenth album overall. The original vinyl print album included a fold-out poster showing many photos taken during the 1978 Cheeseburger in Paradise Tour.
Jimmy Buffett sound board live albums are a series of live albums by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett recorded directly from the sound board without further editing thus resembling bootleg recordings. The albums were recorded at various concerts throughout the United States and represent typical Buffett live shows of their era with most of the albums recorded during Buffett's 2003 Tiki Time Tour. They have been released on compact disc on Buffett's own Mailboat Records distributed by RCA.
Live in Auburn is a live album by the American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett and is one of number of Jimmy Buffett sound board live albums recorded directly from the mixing console without further editing, thus resembling bootleg recordings.
Live by the Bay is a 1986 direct-to-video concert film of American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band. It was released in 1986 by MCA Entertainment. The 87-minute film was recorded from back to back concerts in Miami, Florida on August 16 and 17, 1985, at Miami Marine Stadium and is the first concert video released by Buffett. Miami Vice star Don Johnson introduced Buffett to the crowd. A brief rain shower during the middle of the Friday night show prompted Buffett to retreat to his sailboat and caused a majority of the final video release to feature the Saturday night show. After the rain cleared on Friday, the band played Little Feat's "Dixie Chicken" to demonstrate the equipment still functioned before Buffett returned to the stage.
Off to See the Lizard is the seventeenth studio album by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. Initially to be called Stranger than Fishing, it was released in June 1989 as MCA 6314 and was produced by Elliot Scheiner and Buffett. The album is the first to feature much of the Coral Reefer Band. Following the release of this album, Buffett paused his normal output of one album every year or two and did not release another album until 1994's Fruitcakes.
"Volcano" is a song performed by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. It was written by Jimmy Buffett, Keith Sykes, and Harry Dailey and released as a single on MCA 41161 in November 1979. The song was first released on his 1979 album Volcano and reached No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as peaking at No. 43 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.
"Paralyzed" is a 1956 song recorded by Elvis Presley for his album Elvis. The song was recorded on September 1, 1956, and has been well received by music critics. The song was written by Otis Blackwell, with Elvis receiving a songwriting credit.
"The Race Is On" is a song written by Don Rollins and made a hit on the country music charts by George Jones and on the pop and easy listening charts by the unrelated Jack Jones. George's version was the first single released from his 1965 album of the same name. Released as a single in September 1964, it peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1965. Jack's version topped Billboard's Easy Listening chart and reached number 15 on the Hot 100 the same year. The two recordings combined to reach number 12 on the Cashbox charts, which combined all covers of the same song in one listing and thus gave George Jones his only top-40 hit. The song uses thoroughbred horse racing as the metaphor for the singer's romantic relationships.
"Big River" is a song written and originally recorded by Johnny Cash. Released as a single by Sun Records in 1958, it went as high as #4 on the Billboard country music charts and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks. The song tells a story of the chase of a lost love along the course of Mississippi River from Saint Paul, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana.
"I Still Miss Someone" is a song co-written by Johnny Cash and his nephew Roy Cash, Jr. and originally recorded by American country music singer Johnny Cash. He first recorded it in 1958 as the B-side to "Don't Take Your Guns to Town".
