Rancho Deluxe: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]

 (9 customer reviews)

I was ecstatic to see this get rereleased on CD. I spent about five years trying to find it, and I think it was worth the wait. There is a lot of instrumental stuff here, butit happens to be some of the best music Buffett has ever made (excluding the mysterious "Some Gothic Ranch Action"...what was that about?) "Ridin' in Style" will get your toe-a-tappin, and you'll wish the song weren't so damn short. The theme songs are fantastic, and the definitive version of "Livingston Saturday Night" is here, dirty lyrics and all. The CD is a bit short, though, but it's a must for a Buffett completist and, musically, is just a fantastic album.

Having failed to find commercial success in Nashville, Buffett relocated to Florida and began forging his emblematic sound on 1973's "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean" and a pair of albums in 1974. The following year he temporarily dropped the beachcomber persona to return to the folkier sound of his earliest works (e.g., 1970's "Down to Earth"), with an even twangier steel-and-fiddle country bent.

No matter the musical direction, though, Buffett's trademark wit and storytelling abilities are always in play. "Livingston Saturday Night" (which he'd remake, with softened lyrics, a few years later), "Countin' the Cows Ev'ry Day" and the title track are all infused with Buffett's slice-of-life observations. "Cattle' Truckin'" is a light country-swing tune and "The Wrangler" features some eight-bar piano, harmonica and guitar blues. The shorter instrumental tracks harken back to his earlier folk-country sounds, rather than the Caribbean-influenced music that was becoming...Read more

Rancho Deluxe is a forgotten movie. Released in 1975, it starred a young Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterson and was dubbed as a modern western. The film flopped, as did the soundtrack by Jimmy Buffett. It is the only movie score that Mr. Buffett has done (although he has subsequently written songs for movies like Fast Times At Ridgemont High) and the subject was perfect for his persona at the time. The soundtrack is nicely repackaged and remastered by MGM and contains snippets of dialogue along side Mr. Buffett's mix of country & folk. Good stuff.