Gimme Buffett

This sleepy little island community (which is proud to be the #1 producer of farm raised clams in the U.S.A.) off the Gulf Coast of Florida became a little more famous once Jimmy Buffett sang about it in the opening line of “Incommunicado” (on the album “Coconut Telegraph”):

Travis McGee’s still in Cedar Key
That’s what John MacDonald said.
My rendezvous so long overdue
With all of the things I’ve sung and I’ve read
They still apply to me, they all make sense in time.

To learn more about Cedar Key, start by finding them on a map or seeing what the Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce has to say.

So, who is Travis McGee? He’s the main character in a 21 book series published between 1964 and 1985 by American mystery writer John D. MacDonald. One of Buffett’s favorite authors, “John Mac D” would reappear seven years later in “Prince of Tides” (on the album “Hot Water”):

Paperback novels make young girls dream and
Judy’s spending quieter days in the stream
With Goodman, Giovinno, and John Mac D
They were such good friends to me.

If you want to see why Jimmy’s such a fan of McGee and MacDonald, here’s the Travis McGee series in its entirety:

1. The Deep Blue Good-by (May 1964)
2. Nightmare in Pink (May 1964)
3. A Purple Place for Dying (June 1964)
4. The Quick Red Fox (October 1964)
5. A Deadly Shade of Gold (February 1965)
6. Bright Orange for the Shroud (September 1965)
7. Darker Than Amber (June 1966)
8. One Fearful Yellow Eye (January 1967)
9. Pale Gray for Guilt (February 1968)
10. The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (January 1969)
11. Dress Her in Indigo (September 1969)
12. The Long Lavender Look (October 1970)
13. A Tan and Sandy Silence (January 1972)
14. The Scarlet Ruse (July 1973)
15. The Turquoise Lament (June 1974)
16. The Dreadful Lemon Sky (September 1975)
17. The Empty Copper Sea (January 1978)
18. The Green Ripper (June 1980)
19. Free Fall in Crimson (December 1981)
20. Cinnamon Skin (June 1982)
21. The Lonely Silver Rain (August 1985)