Come Monday

 

 

Is there a song you remember where you were the first time you heard it?

I remember where I was the first time I heard Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday".

First, a little explanation is in order.

I was raised in Cobb County, Georgia.  More accurately, I was raised in the eastern part of Cobb County.  If you take a right coming from Atlanta at The Big Chicken (a KFC restaurant that looks like a chicken), you are in East Cobb.

In the early '70s, Atlanta was a happening place. Atlanta had a swinging nightlife and four professional sports teams if you didn't look at their records: The Braves, Falcons, Hawks, and Flames.

Marietta, the largest town in Cobb County, was conveniently located near Interstate 75, which theoretically would take you to Atlanta in a short period of time, depending upon your definition of "short period of time". However, calculating how long it would take you to get from Cobb County to anywhere in Atlanta was impossible. It relied on many factors: rain, snow, the threat of snow, Led Zepplin at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. various days before a holiday, school starting, school ending, and how many auto accidents happened that day.

This made Marietta a place to live and by 1973, East Cobb was busting at the seams. The Cobb County School Board decided to build a new high school. But, before that school opened (named "Walton" after John-Boy Walton, a popular character on a TV show), my high school (Wheeler) was forced to use Split Sessions. Split Sessions meant the upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) had to go to school in the morning and the lowerclassmen  (sophomores and freshmen) went to school in the afternoon.

I was a freshman in 1974, and this meant I could watch Johnny Carson and wake up around 8:00 (9:00,10:00) the following day. 

I had a clock radio set to wake me up with the tunes played on WFOM 1230. I heard these words one morning: "Headin' up to San Francisco for the Labor Day Weekend Show. I got my Hush Puppies on".

It was "Come Monday," and it was the first time I ever heard shoes mentioned in a song that were not blue suede.

 

 I soon learned that "Come Monday" was sung by Jimmy Buffett.  Before Jimmy Buffett, there wasn't an artist like Jimmy Buffett. He sounded country but the songs had a rock feel. Buffett sang a lot about the ocean, the beach, and boats, but he wasn't like The Beach Boys. Buffett was like the guys that worked and lived in the various beach towns in the South.

"Come Monday" was on his second major album, "Living And Dying In 3/4 Time", and the album cover features Buffett sitting on a grounded boat named "Good Luck".  This is an example of Buffett's good-natured wit. Wit was in short supply at that time of the '70s.

The album starts with "Pencil-Thin Mustache", a nostalgic boomer ditty about writing fan letters to "Sky King's Penny".  I wonder if anyone under 60 understands that lyric?

 

I bought the "Come Monday" 45 and the song on the B side was "The Wino And I Know".  The first line: "Ice cream man is a hillbilly fan, got 78s by Hank Snow".  Nobody in 1974 sang about Hank Snow, not even on the country stations.

The second verse of "The Wino And I Know" puzzled me: "Cough fey strom at the Cafe Dumong, donuts are too hard to touch. Just like a fool at Sweet Billy's School, I ate till I eat way too much".

 

Much later, I learned the lyrics were: "Coffee is strong at the Cafe Du Monde, donuts are too hot to touch. Just like a fool when those sweet goodies cooled, I ate till I eat way too much."  Oh well. It was my introduction to Jimmy Buffett and his songs about food.

 

That little 45 made me a Jimmy Buffett fan even when few of my classmates knew him.  A few years later, Buffett released "Changes In Attitudes, Changes In Latitudes," which included his biggest song, "Margaritaville".

 

Looking for that lost shaker of salt after stepping on a pop top sent Buffett from being a singer-songwriter to a vast corporation.  In 2017, Buffett, who hasn't had a hit record since the Carter Administration*, had a net worth of $550 million.

But I still like the Jimmy Buffett** of 1974, who wrote this song about his girlfriend. He married that girl.

 

 

*Yes, I know about "Five O'Clock Somewhere".  I consider that an Alan Jackson song. Shut up. 

  

**I know several people who have met Jimmy Buffett. The story is the same. "I walked into a bar and there was Jimmy Buffett". One friend, action writer Allen Gregory said he was limping into a bar and Buffett stopped him and asked what happened.  Gregory told Buffett that he had stepped on a pop top. The rest is history.