Before Jimmy Buffett died last week at 76, he completed a new album called Equal Strain on All Parts, which will be released November 3rd. Its lead single is “Bubbles Up,” a song that Buffett’s collaborator Paul McCartney said is “probably the best” he’d ever sounded.
McCartney — who performs on an upcoming Equal Strain on All Parts single called “My Gummie Just Kicked In” — remembered the Margaritaville founder in a tribute post on Instagram earlier this week, reflecting on the first time he listened to the album and being taken aback by “Bubbles Up.” The tune’s title references how sailors can avoid drowning in a capsized boat by following the “bubbles up” to the water’s surface.
“I told him that not only was the song great but the vocal was probably the best I’ve heard him sing ever,” McCartney wrote. “He turned a diving phrase that is used to train people underwater into a metaphor for life when you’re confused and don’t know where you are just follow the bubbles — they’ll take you up to the surface and straighten you out right away.”
And leave it to the easy-listening icon to make an on-the-nose analogy sound so heartwarming. “Bubbles Up” is a simple, country-inspired ballad, and the clearness in Buffett’s voice belies the health issues he’d quietly been enduring while making the album.
McCartney went on in his post: “So long, Jim. You are a very special man and friend and it was a great privilege to get to know you and love you. Bubbles up, my friend.”
Stream “Bubbles Up” along with “My Gummie Just Kicked In” below.
This week’s episode of Consequence‘s The What Podcast honored Buffett’s carefree legacy. Listen to it here, or below.
