Jimmy Buffett has written plenty of good time party songs, but my favorites are the sad ones. He has a way with a melancholy ballad, and often finds a way to give even upbeat material a strain of sorrow.

‘He Went to Paris’ is a highlight of Buffett’s 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, a record that leans more to the country side of his genre spectrum. It’s about the life of musician/artist Eddie Balchowsky, a war veteran who also shows up in songs by several other artists.

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