“He Never Wanted To Be In Cold Weather” – Jimmy Buffett’s Frequent Collaborator, Mac McAnally, Says “Boat Drinks” Was Written After Jimmy Stole A Cab To Get Out Of Boston

The best songs are based on a true story, and this is a great one.

Jimmy Buffett sadly passed away at 76-years-old in September of 2023, and it was a huge loss for music lovers all over the world, but especially his diehard fans the Parrotheads, who shared his love for the water and warm weather.

It’s no secret that Buffett was the ultimate beach guy, who spent most of his time in St. Barths, where he owned a home, and spent a lot of his time. A lot of his music focused on beach life, and he did not play about it… in fact, Buffett’s frequent collaborator Mac McAnally appeared Drifting Cowboy Podcast, where he recalled a how Buffett’s song “Boat Drinks” came to be.

Buffet was in Boston in February of 1979 at a sports bar one of the Bruins players, Derek Sanderson, owned. He saw an ad for cheap flights to somewhere in the Caribbean, and he needed to get there as soon as possible, because as Mac simply put it, he hated being cold.

He walked out of the bar, saw a line of cabs, but the first one had no driver. So he got in and drove himself to the Boston airport, bought a flight to an island somewhere, and somehow escaped the consequences… it’s a story from a different time, obviously, but it’s clear how bad he needed to be at the beach:

“He’s got a song called ‘Boat Drinks,’ and it’s about not wanting to be in cold weather, and he never wanted to be in cold weather. But he was in Boston, and one of the Bruins had a sports bar, and he’s sitting in the sports bar and it was freezing, and it was snowing. An ad came on about cheap flights to the Caribbean, and he’s just like, ‘I’m going.’

So just like that song says, that’s what was happening. He decided he was going. Back then, you could just go to the airport and get a ticket somewhere. So he said, ‘I’m going to the airport.’ He went out to get a cab, there was a cab line right outside the bar, but the front cab, the driver wasn’t in and the door was standing open. Jimmy stole the cab. He got he got in the cab, and he drove it to the Boston airport, got out of it, left it running with the keys in it just like he found it.

Went in, bought a ticket to St. somewhere, I don’t know which island he went to, but he bought himself a ticket. With zero consequences. He didn’t get busted for anything, nobody knew it was him that did it. He just stole the cab and left it at the airport, and bought a plane and went to the islands. And got to write a song about it that people sing, you know, all the time and don’t know exactly the origins of.”

I think we’ve all dreamt of doing something like that, but to actually put it into action then get away with it… he was a different breed:

@dillon.weldon Jimmy Buffett stole a cab! #jimmybuffett #macmcanally #margaritaville #countrymusic #foryou #fyp ♬ original sound – Dillon Weldon

In the 1992 box set Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads, Buffett explained himself that he left cab fare on the seat, and even though his friend tells a slightly different story, we’ll just have to take his word for it:

“It was February in Boston, and I was cold and wanted to go home. Rum and tonic was the antifreeze, and the newspaper was full of ads for warmer climates. I was in a place owned by Derek Sanderson, who was a very famous player for the Boston Bruins in the ’70s. I came out of the bar and couldn’t find a cab except for the one that was running in front of the nearby hotel.

There was no driver in it, and I was too cold to care about the consequences. There is an old Navy expression which says, ‘Beg forgiveness, not permission.’ I hopped in and drove back to my hotel. I did leave the fare on the seat.”

The lyrics to the song go exactly how the story is told:

“Lately, newspaper mentioned cheap airfare
I’ve got to fly to Saint Somewhere
I’m close to bodily harm

20 degress and the hockey game’s on
Nobody cares, they are way too far gone
Screamin’, ‘Boat drinks’
Somethin’ to keep them all warm”

“Boat Drinks” was released in 1979, but despite the fact that it was never an official radio single, it is one of his most popular songs that Buffett always played in concert… I never knew it was all a true story, though, and he stole a cab to get down to the Caribbean and the rest, as they say, is history… turn it up:

“Boat Drinks”

The post “He Never Wanted To Be In Cold Weather” – Jimmy Buffett’s Frequent Collaborator, Mac McAnally, Says “Boat Drinks” Was Written After Jimmy Stole A Cab To Get Out Of Boston first appeared on Whiskey Riff.