Buffett, Jimmy - Death Of An Unpopular Poet Lyrics

I really wished I stayed in Florida when I decided to work with animals around the 🌍 especially the alligators and crocodiles

I've been a Parrothead since the early 90s. This is in my top 5 Buffett songs. Reconnected with the song sitting on a seawall in Key Largo, so it will always be one of my favorites. Old Jimmy is soulful and cannot be beaten.

Still one of my all time favorite songs!

Anyone here from Four Winds 😂???

Need a Jimmy Buffett, unplugged, story tour

I’m naming my next dog Spooner, love this song

It's two o'clock in the morning, me and my old dog are sitting up enjoying Buffet's deep cuts. She's 13 and has been my constant companion since my last year of college.

I saw him play this live in a little club in Atlanta in 1972, when HE was still a poet, and not a worldwide industry...

This is real music, love the metaphors. Sad that crap like rap is so popular today.

so true

I once knew a poet who lived before his time
He and his dog Spooner would listen as he'd rhyme
Words to make you happy and words to make you cry
And then one day the poet suddenly did die.


But he left behind a closet filled with verse and rhymes
And through some strange transaction
One was printed in the Times
And everybody's searching for the king of underground
They found him down in Florida with a tombstone for a crown.

And everybody knows a line from his books that cost $4.99
I wonder if he knows he's doin' quite this fine.

'Cause his books are all best sellers and his poems were turned to song
They had his brother on a talk show though they never got along
And now he's called immortal, yes, he's even taught in school
They say he used his talents, a most proficient tool.

But he left all of his royalties to Spooner his old hound
Growing old on steak and bacon in his doghouse ten feet 'round
And everybody wonders did he really lose his mind
No, he was just a poet who lived before his time
Yes, he was just a poet who lived before his time.

His range of talent and fans is amazing.

True Buffett music!!!

Never heard this one before today. I like it.

One of his best works right here

His ballads can make the toughest of men shed a tear! They'll be nobody like Buffets EVER again when he's gone!!!

This one and Defying Gravity will be played when my ashes are scattered

My mother is a poet, writes beautiful poetry. She wants to get in touch with some country artists, and get her work out there. She doesn't want to be the unknown poet.

I love anything Jimmy does, but this early breakthrough album is his Crown Jewel.

Trying to decide if I want this one played at my wake, what a beautiful song

His songs you DON"T hear on radio are his great songs ,such as this one .

Amen, sir! The songs when Jimmy let the poet out were always his best.

This song always gets me.....powerful

This is the same man who sings "cheeseburger in paradise", unreal.

Mmm, poetry music, Ty again Jimmy :*)

The last time I heard this song was on my Dads LP, love this album!!

what a nicely chorded song

National Treasures...Jimmy Buffet, Declaration of Independence...etc...

Most 'Buffett fans' like his 'let's get drunk' tunes, but his REAL talent, and his greatest legacy will be his marvelous and soulful ballads... Lke this one!

Eric those songs are ok, but I’d much rather here Death oaUP, Cowboy itJ, TCChalice, HwtParis, etc.

My family was shocked when I played them one. I got "that's Jimmy Buffett!?"

I second that. This song, He went to Paris and The Captain and the Kid are the best. Although they all they make me tear up, they are soulful masterpiece songs.

Absolutely, agree!

I Have Found Me A Home too

This is easily one of my favorite songs ever period

I wish I had found his stuff back in the 80s. I liked the 70s stuff, also, but I was born in the mid-70s, so I would have cared less, then.

the song is for Jim Morrison!!!!!! The song "He went to Paris" too!! great!

Sounds good :) but here's an interview with JB:
High Times: Where did “Death of an Unpopular Poet” come from?
Buffett: I was watching Walter Cronkite one night, and he had a little blurb on there that Kenneth Patchen had died. That surprised me, because hardly anybody ever heard of Patchen except in small circles. He was one of my favorite poets. So I was thinking about him, and then I thought about Richard Farina. These guys contributed so much, but they died and we never appreciated them until afterwards. They starved their asses off and didn’t get to stick around to reap their rewards. If you’re going to go up there and try to make it, you’re not out there totally for aesthetic value. Let’s face it-you’re out there to secure your future anybody that says they’re not is totally false. I couldn’t say that money doesn’t mean anything to me. You have to pay your bills – I have to keep the band on the road. But you can still have a good time and write good songs. You don’t necessarily have to prostitute your music, as long as you know how to handle it, put it in perspective. Those guys had a good time, but I’m sure they were miserable a lot of times. The success that they wanted, they never knew they actually reached it.

just listen the song , is for Jim, "he went to paris", Jimmy respect so much to Jim

well, I guess one can interpret the song as they wish :) I guess I tend to believe what Jimmy Buffet said in his interview. It's still a favorite song of mine.

Really too bad Jimmy went so commercial. I feel like his last decent album was Son of a Son of a Sailor.

We just lost our old dog Booner

prayers

Beautiful, I love the unknown.

PLAY THIS ONE AT MY FINAL GOING AWAY PARTY

I'm on Spooner Hemingway MacPhail III from this great song! Thank you, Sunshine Smith.

Always heard it was about Kenneth Patchen .

love him

I am really sick of Gianforte political ads prefacing my youtube music. I will not vote for him.

My dad named my dog spooner after this song.

Named all my dogs over the years and still do today ( in care of my wife now) beneficiaries to my life insurance because of this song.

This was one of the songs that made me fall in love with him back in 1977. I liked his work before, but this album really did it for me.  

+Julie Bond-Abreu

Did you ever hear the Harry Chapin song "Carrie's Coming"?  a great song in the same vein. I always wonder where they get these ideas from.

Chris Gordon Chris, I don't mean to be one of those guys but its "Corey's Coming". My brother came home from his first Com. diving job in 1977 with three Buffett 8track tapes. Shortly afterward this former rock n roll hippie found Harry Chapin and John Prine. They have all traveled with me ever since.

No one tells a story like Jimmy Buffett God I love this song!

Anyone know who the 'poet' was he was writing about? 

Was it Hemmingway? 

I doubt it because he wasn't really a poet per-se, and no mention of a 'Brother'.

I'm guessing it's someone Jimmy knows but we don't.

Great stuff as always, from one of the greatest American song writers, singer, players.

It was about no one.

Just a poet, like many who never published,

Who lived before their time.

Look around you - there are dozens, from factory to office workers, to bums, to the heartbroken. They tick along and live their lives. And are unpublished.

I'm 37 an a huge buffet fan. I promise he is before his time. has Jim ever had a dog named spooner?

I think it may be about many writers. All those who wrote their masterpieces and died before they achieved the recognition they'd earned.

The poet was Kenneth Patchen, who died 1/8/72. Known for his grudging persistence. Buffett found a copy of his work on Jerry Jeff Walker's bookshelf and dug him.

Kenneth Patchen

oh man!!!  I used to listen to this one over and over.  It is such a particularly special time in my life--and I discovered Jimmy Buffet along the way.  Years can go by while I am listening to other things and putting up with my kids' horrible rap music, and then one of these gems will come along and ... well, it just takes me back.  Fabulous

love this song

R.I.P. Isle of bones

Great Tune!!! Awesome Delivery!!!

Incredible Tune.

Something in my eye...

I named mine Hoagy after the one in one of his novels.

@jensdnaceworld LOL not just no but HELL NO

@brett0497 WHAT??

Beautiful song.Reminds me of my dear old English Bull Terrier Ruby
Died age 13 ,9 years today

Still miss her .A loyal and faithful friend

@geeter68 no shit i thought it was metalica derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

ONe of the best Buffet songs. Props to my ECU girls who turned me on to Mr Buffet before he was famous etc. The old Buffet.

No wonder Dylan likes this number, it's almost like it was written with him in mind

I know Hemingway was pretty popular in his lifetime, but this still reminds me of all the six-toed cats he left behind. :P

And the Key West-Jimmy Buffett connection makes it even better.

ShekiahRosay this song has nothing to do with Hemingway.

@dizzarch1 Can't argue with an endorsement like that.

Bob Dylan said this is one of his favorite Buffett songs. I'd have to agree.

@zezimarules1 this is my favorite buffett song. i first heard it when i was in 6th grade about 15 years ago. I got a dog shortly after.and named her Spooner and she was the best dog/best friend i could ever ask for. She died 2 years ago. i miss that ol' dog growin' old on steak n bacon like crazy

this IS jimmy buffett

I've named three of my Goldens "Spooner"! Soon a third :)

What a song man! Love it. I can sure relate. One of my favs of Jimmys.

me 2. hated to hear him sound so commercial

I wish he had stopped making music after his first few albums.

My dog's favorite song me to sing to him in bed.

i think ur lying...u r jimmy buffet