December Buffett Buffet: Brahma Fear

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With today’s song in my monthlong salute to late Jimmy Buffett I’ll probably get vehement disagreement from our #1 Parrothead NJ Chic. Tough. Let’s hit the wayback machine for today’s song. Oh, and Linda? There’s steel guitar in this, so be warned. Brahma Fear Probably my favorite Buffett album cover: Jimmy sitting on a wreck of a boat named the Good Luck. The title comes from the opening line: “I’d like to ride a rodeo but I’ve got brahma fear.” Brahma bulls, as they were called back then, were the mean some-bucks (to tone down Sheriff Buford T. Justice) used for eight seconds of torture. If you see stereotypical rodeo footage it’s usually of bull riding. (And if you wonder why they have one hand in the air, one of the rules of bull riding is you can’t touch the bull or hold on with two hands, just one.) Yeah, I agree with Jimmy on this one: “I’ll just stick to aeroplanes, gently pop my ears.” While this one usually doesn’t get mentioned in the Buffett canon for being a favorite, I’ve always loved that line “I’m somewhere below the spotlight.” And this is the first song this month to highlight the great harmonica work of the late Greg “Fingers” Taylor. Yes, the Coral Reefer nation has lost two members in the past three months. Fingers died just before Thanksgiving from complications of early-onset dementia. Maybe not the “greatest,” but this is a good indication of the entire package that was Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band. Brahma Fear Written by Jimmy Buffett From Living and Dying in 3/4 Time, 1974 It gives me such a glow: