In remembrance of Jimmy Buffett, who passed away on September 1, I think you’ll like the following piece I posted in April of 2019 on Jimmy and his friend Jerry Jeff Walker and the Key West “Pirate,” Phil Clark.
Make sure you have a chance to appreciate where you’re going and where you’ve been.
Jimmy Buffett put on a pop-up show Monday in Austin, TX in preparation for his summer tour “I Don’t Know”. A client of mine is driving up to Nashville, TN for tonight’s sold-out show at the Ascend Amphitheatre. Here’s a great video of Buffett and Jerry Jeff Walker. Walker (Mr. Bojangles) was the person who gave Buffett refuge in Coconut Grove, FL after he fled Nashville. It was in Walker’s Packard that they drove to Key West for Buffett’s first visit. It was there where they met Phil Clark, the “Pirate” in “A Pirate Looks at 40.”
The real pirate’s name was Phillip Clark. He was one of the most unforgettable characters I met when I first lived in Key West, back in the days before it turned into a boutique. When I finished the song, I knew I had done him justice, and it is a fitting eulogy to an old friend. He died a few years ago under an alias, washed up on a beach near San Francisco. They flew his body back to Key West where some of his ashes were scattered at sea, and some still sit above the cash register in the Full Moon Saloon.
P.S. RIP Jerry Jeff Walker, Mr. Bojangles, who helped a young Jimmy Buffett follow his dreams. Jerry Jeff passed away in October of 2020.
