Jimmy Buffett- "Volcano"
Where were you when St. Helens blew?
Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to “Volcano” by Jimmy Buffett
Note: We don’t have a whole lot of musical traditions in my family. On Thanksgiving, my wife & kids have to endure “Alice’s Restaurant” at least once (or rather my attempts at singing it). Sometime in the next few weeks after that Otis Redding’s version of “Merry Christmas Baby” gets a spin, and that’s about it for the year…with one exception.
Growing up, we hardly had any traditions- musical or not. In fact, about the only time I can remember us doing anything even remotely collective had to do with this song. This started in 1980, in the lead up to Mt. St. Helens’ eruption, when the song was played as a bit of gallows humor. Anytime it played, we’d all just sort of start singing along. No other song before or since can make that claim.
If you can’t control something you might as well sing about it, right?
This article first on Medium in 2021, then again on these pages. It was a family tradition back in the day, and now it’s one at On Repeat as well. Enjoy!
P.S. In the time since this first ran, my mom moved. I’m not sure the Sanka can came with her, but I’d like to think it’s still in a box waiting to be unpacked.
Living under a looming threat and widespread mask use was a new phenomenon for most of us. But for those of a certain age living in the Pacific Northwest, it evoked memories of 1980.
Living in the shadows of the Cascade Mountains, it’s easy to forget that it’s a volcanic range. Easy, that is, until Mother Nature reminds you.
And so it was in late 1979/early 1980 with Mt. St. Helens.
At first, the eruptions were nominal enough; some steam here, a small landslide there. Later as they grew in scale, ash began to rain down on downwind communities, and painter masks became de rigueur fashion.
This culminated with a cataclysmic eruption on May 18th, 1980, which permanently changed people’s lives — and left the landscape unrecognizable.
On that day, just five words let the world know it was about to be changed forever. Volcanologist David Johnston had been camped on the mountain’s flank to monitor the increasingly dangerous situation.
The morning of May 18th, in a radio call to the USGS office, he announced the eruption to the world, his last words being, “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!
Buffett had a different mountain in mind when he wrote “Volcano.” He was talking about the Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat.
But radio stations in places like Portland, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington, put it in their rotation as a part of a gallows humor approach to the impending disaster everyone knew was coming but didn’t know when — the calypso style offering a sunny contrast to the (literally) gray pall cast over the area.
The lyrics listed out some possible places one might escape to:
But I don’t want to land in New York City
Don’t want to land in Mexico (no no no)
Don’t want to land on no Three Mile Island
Don’t want to see my skin aglow (no no no)
Don’t want to land in Commanche Sky park
Or in Nashville, Tennessee (no no no)
Don’t want to land in no San Juan airport
Or the Yukon Territory (no no no)
Don’t want to land no San Diego
Don’t want to land in no Buzzards Bay (no no no)
Don’t want to land on no Ayotollah
I got nothing more to say
Four decades on, the song remains a staple at Buffett performances—and in my house on every May 18th.
If you have friends who grew up in Oregon or Washington, don’t be surprised if pictures of Johnston are on their timelines today.
And for many of those same people, a coffee can full of volcanic ash remains on a shelf in their garage as a souvenir — a reminder of when life got sketchy, and nothing was left to do but sing about it.
Listen:
Volcano, by Jimmy Buffett| Volcano, 1979
Click the record to listen on your platform of choice.
What’d you think of this one? Where were you when St. Helens blew?
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
P.S. As of Nov. 2021, there is still a Sanka can full of ash in my mom’s garage.
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An earlier version of this originally appeared here.
Unlike Jimmy's wish, I was and will be in San Diego
I wasn’t even a project in 1979 (or 1980, for that matter) (I might have said this last year lol) but what a great story!