Simple Pleasures (narration) - Jimmy Buffett

Okay, this next song is really, really buried treasure

in digging up all these lost songs for you to hear

A couple of them were buried so deep that

even I couldn’t remember writing them, much less playing them

Until Milton gave me some clues

Once I heard this story, it did unlock my own buried treasure

locked away deep somewhere in that way back machine part of my brain

The unique thing about simple pleasures is

that it really features Rick Hirsch on a lead acoustic solo

It also is a song that got it’s

inspiration more from Fred Neil than Gordon Lightfoot

I’d been turned on to Fred Neil by Bob Cooke who included several

of his songs in his sets in the Bayou Room days

Candyman which became a Roy Orbison hit, Other side of this life,

A little bit of rain, The dolphins

Were all coffee house standards that came from his classic album

Bleeker and McDougall and from Bob’s repertoire to mine

Then in the Summer of '69, the movie Midnight Cowboy came out

and featured Harry Nielson’s version of Everbody’s Talkin'

That became a radio hit

As a solo performer and in every band I have played in since that time

Everybody’s Talking has been part of my go-to list

I met Fred in Coconut Grove in 1971 when I went down to play in Miami

for the first time and was living with

Jerry Jeff but that’s a whole other story,

Fred was a great inspiration and became a good friend

We fished and played gigs together at the Flick in Coral Gables

and on many dolphin project

benefits in Coconut Grove in the early 70's

I stayed in touch with him in my comings and goings from Key West

and God knows where

Until he kinda dropped out of sight just after the millenium

Sadly he passed away alone on Summerland Key

the list of Fred’s proteges is long and loaded with famous names

I’m simply proud to be one of the singers that spent time

in the shadow of his great style

So this little Simple Pleasure, goes out to Fred Neil