Blame It On New Orleans (narration) Lyrics - Jimmy Buffett

Listening to these tracks brings up a lot of memories about 

the source of the lyrics of these early songs 

Most of them come from the fact that when I returned to Mobile 

after several years of living and playing in New Orleans 

I had started writing songs 

New Orleans will do that to you 

Though my first recordings were done in Mobile 

the songs that I carried into the 

studio had their origins in New Orleans 

When I landed there in 1968 I was just a year behind 

being a Jesuit alter boy 

I was still a virgin and I wanted 

not to be either of those things anymore 

So to borrow from a recent song title by Mack McNally, 

Blame it on New Orleans 

Sounds fair, I do 

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New Orleans to all of us who grew up on the Gulf Coast 

is a place where, if you had any eccentricities 

And you weren't thinking the way other people in the South were 

in those days 

New Orleans was the place to be 

It had made its mark on me long before I even picked up a guitar 

in my freshman year in college 

I had family roots that ran deep from Pascagoula to Gulf Port 

to New Orleans to Mobile 

So when I left there and returned to Mobile to continue playing 

clubs for a living, 

I was armed with old childhood memories and a fresh 

French Quartered venture that I had turned into lyrics and songs 

that wound up being the material that interested Milton and Travis 

and when I got back to Mobile 

And I think these early recordings clearly show my evolution as a 

performer and a song writer 

Photos 

You start emulating someone, like I did Gordan Lightfoot 

and then you open up to other inspiring singers and songwriters 

Who's music was the sound of the 60's 

Dylan, Tim Harden, Bobby Charles from Abbeyville, 

Alan Toussaint from New Orleans, 

Judy Collins, Joan Baez and Fred Neil down in Miami 

They were now the roadsigns on my song line 

All those wonderful adventures I had in New Orleans as a 20-year-old 

became my musical roots 

Yeah, blame it on New Orleans I say 

I'm not sure New Orleans wants to take the blame 

Many of the ingredients in that big pot of musical gumbo 

I was cooking up would eventually be served up 

In 2011 I was given the unique honour 

of being the Jazz Fest poster boy 

in a painting that depicted my busking days 

on the corner of Royal and Charter streets 

When I saw the painting for the first time 

I thought it pretty much summed up things because 

From 1967 through 2011 and still to this day 

New Orleans has had the most effect on me 

as a songwriter, performer and novelist as any place 

I ever lived or travelled to during my time on this planet 

Oh with maybe the exception of that week I spent 

in Timbuktu and in Mali in Bamako with the Bucktooth Brothers 

exploring the musical culture of West Africa 

And someone says, What about Key West? 

That's a whole 'nother story 

We'll get to that one later 

But right now, here's another story that was simmering in my pot 

for a longtime and finally is getting served up on Buried Treasure 

This is called Rickety Lane