Editor Reviews:

Amazon.com essential recording:
Buffett caught a major wave on his commercial breakthrough, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, and he rode it straight through the follow-up, Son of a Son of a Sailor. Buffett posits himself as a lovable rogue in the semiautobiographical title track, recounts a party out of bounds on "Fool Button" and delineates the perfect meal on "Cheeseburger in Paradise." Other songs find him checking in from a variety of ports of call, including Aruba ("African Friend"), Paraguay ("Cowboy in the Jungle"), somewhere in the Caribbean ("Mañana") and even Montana ("Livingston Saturday Night"). Think of Son of a Son as something of a Parrothead operations manual. --Daniel Durchholz

Rating : - His Commercial Peak
By the time "Son of a Son" is released Buffett has become a huge star, headlining big arenas across the country and cultivating his legion of "parrot head" fans. His last album "Changes In Latitudes" was a lot to live up to, and although "Sailor" is not quite as good it does come very close. Buffett managed two more huge hits from this album, the title track and the novelty song "Cheeseburger In Paradise". The album charted in the top 10. Buffett writes every tune on this one and the results for the most part are very good. "Livingston Saturday Night" is an aggressive rocker that was also in the "Rancho Deluxe" and "FM" soundtracks. "Coast Of Marseilles" is a nice lost love song. "Cowboy In The Jungle" ranks right up there with Buffett's best with its parrothead philosophical chorus of "roll with the punches". "Fool Button" is a cool rocker. "Manana" is one of my all time favorite Buffett tracks and the album closer "African Friend" is another winner. The only song that really does not work for me is "The Last Line" which is a bit of a throwaway track. This album would find Jimmy at his commercial peak and things would start going downhill sales wise from here on out until his more recent big country comeback. "Son Of A Son" remains essential Buffett.