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<\/p>\nThere isn\u2019t much in filmmaker John H. Cunningham\u2019s Occupational Hazard that card-carrying Jimmy Buffett fans won\u2019t already know. But it\u2019s one hell of a ride.<\/p>\n
Buffett was charismatic and clever, a singer\/songwriter who turned his beach, boats and bar music into a billion-dollar lifestyle industry.<\/p>\n
He was a top concert draw for decades, always accompanied by a group of musicians he\u2019d cheekily dubbed the Coral Reefer Band.<\/p>\n
Occupational Hazard (the title comes from Buffett\u2019s song \u201cA Pirate Looks at 40\u201d) will have its bay area premiere May 3 at the Sunscreen Film Festival. Subtitled The First Coral Reefers, it chronicles the names, faces (and foibles) of the band members in the 1970s and early \u201880s, Buffett\u2019s formative years.<\/p>\n
Buffett died in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the last things Jimmy said, to friends and family, was \u2018Keep the party going,\u2019\u201d Cunningham explains. \u201cI like to say this is where the party got started.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his easygoing humor and carefree attitude, the well-read, intelligent and fiercely ambitious Mississippi native was made for Key West, where he relocated in 1971 and quickly made friends with local literati, outcasts and oddballs.<\/p>\n
There were no legions of Parrothead faithful, liquor brands, restaurants, bars or RV resorts. No Margaritaville Holdings LLC. No bestselling novels.<\/p>\n
There was just the music. And the band. In those days, the image created itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople love or hate Jimmy Buffett based on the last 20, 30 years of who he was, and the big business aspects of things,\u201d Cunningham relates. \u201cBut we really wanted to go back to the beginning, the whole origin story. And obviously it was a very different time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also respected his business acumen and what he built, but at the same time I loved the pureness of those early times. And the sense of humor, the fake band members, he always had a great sense of humor. And he never really fit a genre per se.\u201d<\/p>\n
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An early TV appearance: Harry Dailey, left, Buffett and Roger Bartlett.<\/p>\n
The first-ever Coral Reefer, guitarist Roger Bartlett, stayed with Buffett through 1977 (he departed the band just before the singer\u2019s one and only Top 40 hit, \u201cMargaritaville\u201d).<\/p>\n
Bartlett, currently a resident of St. Petersburg, is the only surviving member of that early incarnation of the outfit.<\/p>\n
That might well be because the Coral Reefers, as explained in the film, were serious about their alcohol and drug intake. \u201cThey always had a reputation for being a hard-partying group,\u201d says Cunningham. \u201cBut you think of the Led Zeppelins, the Stones, the Who, the bad boys; in the film (road manager) Bob Lieberman says \u2018We were just as bad as they were. We were just floating under the radar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Bartlett is extensively interviewed, alongside vocalist Deborah McColl and keyboardist Michael Utley, both of whom were in the band during Buffett\u2019s first flush of success.<\/p>\n
Missing in action are Coral Reefer legends Greg \u201cFingers\u201d Taylor (harmonica), Harry Dailey (bass), Phillip Farjado and Kenny Buttrey (drums). \u201cThese guys have passed on,\u201d Cunningham explains, \u201cso that was another thing, if somebody doesn\u2019t tell this story, than all that information\u2019s gone. And there are a lot of bands you could tell similar stories about.\u201d<\/p>\n
McColl was one of the last people interviewed for the documentary. \u201cYes, the partying and craziness was just part of the gig,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it was also a wonderful time musically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Observed Cunningham: \u201cThe thing about a documentary is, you don\u2019t know the storyline until you have all the interviews done. And the things she shared, in her story, became critical to the overall storyline.\u201d<\/p>\n
McColl (and Dailey, and others) were ultimately dismissed from the Coral Reefers, according to the film, when their prodigious drug intake rendered them unreliable.<\/p>\n
Buffett, Cunningham observed, \u201cwas always a really genuine guy. What I loved about it was, these are the guys who got fired, a lot of them. And they still love him. They look back on those days, and it wasn\u2019t the huge audience, we\u2019re-making-millions kind of days, this was traveling in vans and buses. It got to be airplanes and stuff. But they still love him and respect him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Record producer Norbert Putnam describes how long it took him to convince a skeptical Buffett that adding Caribbean steel drums was a good idea. (The sound became a key element of Buffett\u2019s music.)<\/p>\n
Fellow singer and songwriter Keith Sykes details the uneasy recording sessions for the Volcano album on the island of Montserrat.<\/p>\n
Jeff Bridges narrates Occupational Hazard, and country superstar Kenny Chesney, a Buffett collaborator, is among those interviewed. Mac McAnally, Buffett\u2019s onstage right-hand man for the final 30 years of his life, speaks eloquently of his late friend.<\/p>\n
But the real star power comes from Buffett himself, via vintage interview and concert footage. These were the days when every one of his signature songs, from \u201cCome Monday\u201d and \u201cCheeseburger in Paradise\u201d to \u201cFins,\u201d \u201cChanges In Latitudes\u201d and \u201cVolcano\u201d were being created.<\/p>\n
The self-financed documentary is screening at four Florida film festivals, after making its debut in California.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in Santa Barbara,\u201d recalls Cunningham. \u201cWe did two shows out there, with a Q&A afterward. A couple people came up to us after the show, and one of them said \u2018You know, I never liked Buffett. My parents listened to it, they brought me up on it \u2026 but I was curious, so I came.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd after seeing those early years, I\u2019m more interested.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers screens Sunday, May 3 at 2:30 and 5 p.m., with John H. Cunningham (director) and Ted E. Haynes (producer).<\/p>\n