Jimmy Buffett - Living And Dying In 3/4 Time (1974)

A1		Pencil Thin Moustache	2:47
A2		Come Monday	3:06
A3		Ringling, Ringling	2:32
A4		Brahma Fear	4:05
A5		Brand New Country Star	2:40
A6		Livingston's Gone To Texas	3:28
B1		The Wino And I Know	3:00
B2		West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown	2:34
B3		Saxophones	3:18
B4		Ballad Of Spider John	4:26
B5		God's Own Drunk	6:19

Acoustic Guitar – Jimmy Buffett
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Slide Guitar – Lanny Fiel
Arranged By [Strings And Horns], Backing Vocals – Bergen White
Backing Vocals – Buzz Cason
Bass – Tommy Cogbill
Congas, Percussion [Vibes] – Ferrell Morris
Drums, Other [Bodyguard] – Sammy Creason
Electric Guitar – Reggie Young
Harmonica – Greg "Fingers" Taylor
Horns – Billy Puett (tracks: B3)
Keyboards – Mike Utley
Pedal Steel Guitar [Pedal Steel] – Doyle Gresham
Producer – Don Gant
Producer, Backing Vocals – Don Gant

With his second album, 1973's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, Jimmy Buffett broke into the country LPs chart, courtesy of a minor hit single, "The Great Filing Station Holdup." That would seem to mark him as a promising up-and-coming country artist, with his third album, Living and Dying in ¾ Time, the next step. But Buffett exhibits an ambivalent attitude toward his career and the music business in general in the LP's songs, most of which he wrote. In fact, the best of them is "Come Monday," a melancholy ballad about being on the road and missing a loved one. "I spent four lonely days/In a brown L.A. haze/And I just want you back by my side," he sings plaintively. That theme has been explored so much by songwriters that it's hard to find a new way to go at it, and Buffett's success is indicative of his writing talent. He devotes that talent largely to talking about how much he dislikes Nashville, notably in such songs as "Brand New Country Star" (co-written by Vernon Arnold) and "Saxophones." In the former, he castigates a product of Nashville equally capable of going country or pop (which is odd, since he himself is hardly a traditional country musician), while in the latter he complains that he can't get radio play in his hometown of Mobile, AL. It may be that Buffett is determined to make it only on his own terms, and that those terms are more those of Texas singer/songwriters like Jerry Jeff Walker and Willis Alan Ramsey (whose "Ballad of Spider John" he covers here), or Gulf Coast blues artists like those he praises in "Saxophones," than of conventional country musicians. That's fair enough, but it makes it hard to complain that you're facing resistance. ---William Ruhlmann, AllMusic Review

Living & Dying in 3/4 Time is Jimmy Buffett's last recording that concentrates on country music. He would still keep a country flavor in his music, but this album contains none of the Caribbean rhythms or beach themes that would permeate his future work. The album opens up with the vaudevillian "Pencil Thin Mustache" which is one of his more enduring classics. "Come Monday" is a trippy folk number that deservedly became his first Top 40 hit. "Ringling, Ringling", "Brahma Fear", "Brand New Country Star" and "Livingston's Gone To Texas" all are in the country theme and take on subjects such as the circus, rodeo riding, the Nashville music scene and head out to the range. "The Wino & I Know" speaks of the wisdom of old drunks. "Saxophones" and "Ballad Of Spider John" are slight numbers, but the album closes out with Mr. Buffett's take of Lord Buckley's "God's Own Drunk". It is a perfect song for Mr. Buffett as it fits perfectly into his storytelling persona and he more speaks the story than sings it. ---Thomas Magnum, bestcountrysingers.com

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