Front cover of the Hotspur CD, Live in Sausalito.Hotspur packaging; scan from Tom Proctor's Internet Archive upload.

KSAN Broadcast · 1974

Jimmy Buffett at the Record Plant, 1974

Alone in February, with Jerry Jeff in October: two KSAN broadcasts from the year of Living and Dying in ¾ Time and A1A

By Tom Proctor

February 19, 1974 · KSAN

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In February 1974 Jimmy Buffett was on the verge of the thing that had eluded him through three earlier albums (one recorded in 1971 and shelved until 1976) and years of little chart action: a hit. Living and Dying in ¾ Time, carrying the Top Thirty single "Come Monday," was his breakthrough, and this KSAN-FM broadcast from the Record Plant in Sausalito caught him right as it was happening: solo acoustic guitar, stories between the songs, in front of a small in-studio audience. Eight months later he came back with a band and Jerry Jeff Walker in tow, the arc of 1974 in two sessions.

Jimmy Buffett at Clemson in 1977 — Buffett in 1977, three years after the Record Plant sessions.Taps staff, Clemson University yearbook · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

February 19, 1974

The night. Buffett played solo, 11 tracks, recorded for broadcast on KSAN-FM, San Francisco:

KSAN Intro
Ringling Ringling
Come Monday
Pencil Thin Mustache
Peddlers And Pushers
Railroad Lady
They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More
Migration
God's Own Drunk
Brahma Fear
A Pirate Looks At Forty

Five of the songs came from Living and Dying in ¾ Time, including "Come Monday." Buffett told David Letterman in 1983 that he wrote "Come Monday" at the Howard Johnson's in Mill Valley, the same building that's now the Holiday Inn Express down the street from the Plant. "This is the song that kept me from killing myself in a Howard Johnson's," he said. "I was deathly depressed by the size of the room and the food next door. It was awful and I wrote this song and it hit. I paid the rent and got my dog out of the pound." He'd written it the previous fall after a Labor Day weekend show in San Anselmo, and this February 1974 recording captures him playing it at the Plant. The spoken intros did as much work as the songs. Per the booklet, "Pencil Thin Mustache" was written during a two-hour L.A. layover at the Continental Hyatt House, "a freak city down there." "Peddlers and Pushers" was his "first protest song in eight years," inspired by the gas lines of the early-1974 energy shortage, when the country feared it was grinding to a halt. He quotes the jazz standard "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" at the end of the first verse. "God's Own Drunk" was adapted from a monologue by comedian Lord Buckley, who had a strong underground following in the '50s. Drinking songs thread through the set; the booklet's essay quotes Buffett's 1974 Rolling Stone interview on drinking onstage versus off.

The rest of the set drew from the early records: "Railroad Lady" and "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More" from 1973's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean; "A Pirate Looks at Forty" and "Migration" from A1A (late 1974, peaked at #25).

The recording. The session was released on CD by Hotspur in 2010, Jimmy Buffett: Live in Sausalito, California 1974, part of the label's "Legendary Radio Transmissions" series, digitally remastered (MCPS credit on the back cover).

Jimmy Buffett Live at Sausalito CD back cover and track listing — Back cover and track listing, Live at Sausalito.Hotspur packaging; scan from Tom Proctor's Internet Archive upload.

About this recording.

The covers disagree: front reads "Live in Sausalito," back reads "Live at Sausalito." Both variants are worth recording so catalog searches don't miss the disc.
The flyer reproduced in the booklet, "FREE Folk Festival / JIMMY BUFFETT / Pale Blue & Redwood Landing / March 1st & 2nd / FRIDAY / At S.S.U. Cafeteria", has no year printed.
Per the booklet, "Peddlers and Pushers" never appeared on a Buffett album.

Hotspur booklet spread reproducing a Jimmy Buffett folk festival flyer — The folk festival flyer reproduced in the booklet has no year printed.Hotspur booklet; scan from Tom Proctor's Internet Archive upload.

Listen. Internet Archive, the full February 19 session, 11 tracks.

October 24, 1974

The night. Eight months after the solo session, Buffett came back to the Plant, this time with a band, and with Jerry Jeff Walker along. He was midway through a six-night run at the Boarding House in San Francisco, touring Living and Dying in ¾ Time. The personnel on tape: Buffett on guitar and vocals, Roger Bartlett on guitar and backing vocals, Bob Livingston on guitar, mandolin, and backing vocals, Jerry Jeff Walker on guitar, piano, and backing vocals. Fifteen tracks across about sixty minutes, including "A Pirate Looks at Forty," "Pencil Thin Mustache," and "Railroad Lady" with Walker. It was a very different animal from the February solo set: the touring bandleader instead of the broke kid with a guitar.

About this recording.

The date carries a dispute: some sources list October 18, but Buffett's own itinerary puts him at the Troubadour in Los Angeles that night, October 24 is the confirmed date.
Some sources list Coral Reefer Band members in the lineup; the Guitars101 Goody remaster notes explicitly identify that as misinformation.

Listen. Internet Archive, the full October 24 session.

Appendix

Marantz 2275 walnut-cased FM stereo receiver with backlit tuner dial — the Record Plant Radio player

Live sessions no commercials

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