About The Song

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville is a 1977 song by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, released on his seventh album, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. The term “Margaritaville” was reportedly inspired by a margarita Buffett consumed at a Mexican restaurant in Austin, Texas. “Margaritaville” peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and went to number one on the Easy Listening chart in 1977. It also peaked at No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs chart and number 14 on the Pop Singles year-end chart that year.

The song is often viewed as a metaphor for the desire to escape the worries and stresses of everyday life. The song is about a man who has given up his job and his home in Texas and is now living in a perpetual state of relaxation and leisure in Margaritaville. The song’s lyrics speak to a desire for freedom and a break from the pressures of everyday life. While it may seem like a simple song about drinking and partying, the deeper meaning can be found in the protagonist’s escape to Margaritaville as a metaphor for the human desire to overcome stresses and pressures.

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Lyrics

Nibblin’ on sponge cake
Watchin’ the sun bake
All of those tourists covered with oil
Strummin’ my six-string
On my front-porch swing
Smell those shrimp
They’re beginnin’ to boil

Wasting away again in Margaritaville
Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim
That there’s a woman to blame
But I know it’s nobody’s fault

Don’t know the reason
Stayed here all season
With nothing to show but this brand-new tattoo
But it’s a real beauty
A Mexican cutie
How it got here I haven’t a clue

Wasting away again in Margaritaville
Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim
That there’s a woman to blame
Now I think, “Hell! It could be my fault.”

I blew out my flip-flop
Stepped on a pop top
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home
But there’s booze in the blender
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on

Wasting away again in Margaritaville
Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim
That there’s a woman to blame
But I know, it’s my own damn fault

Yes, and some people claim
That there’s a woman to blame
And I know, it’s my own damn fault