Jimmy Buffett’s Final Album Featured His Only Bob Dylan Cover, Alongside Emmylou Harris, a Backing Singer on the Original

For Decades, Jimmy Buffett and Bob Dylan retained a mutual respect for one another’s work. Dylan even called Buffett one of his favorite songwriters in 2009, alongside Warren Zevon, Randy Newman, John Prine, Guy Clark, and “those kinds of writers,” he said. Dylan also called “Death of an Unpopular Poet” and “He Went to Paris,” both released in 1973, among his favorite Buffett songs. In 1982, Dylan also covered Buffett’s 1974 classic “A Pirate Looks at Forty” live with Joan Baez during the Peace Sunday concert at the Rose Bowl.

Both met soon after the Rose Bowl performance when Dylan invited Buffett on his schooner, Water Pearn, off the island of St. Bart’s. “I was walking by the marine-supply store,” recalled Buffett in 2009, “and I heard a voice say, ‘Hey, Jimmy, that’s a nice-looking pair of shoes. And it was Bob Dylan. He was seeing a girl that I knew on the island, and I knew a couple of guys that worked for him on the road. And he invited me out on the boat, and we sat there and talked.”

Buffett continued, “We got stoned all day long. I’m thinking, man, we have a bond here.”

Though five years later, Buffett had a different experience reunion with Dylan, who was playing with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Paris. “I go backstage, Dylan was sitting there,” said Buffett. “He had these gloves on. He’s got his hoodie on. I said, ‘Bob, how doin’?’”

In response, Buffett got an “eh” from Dylan. “He never said a word,” added Buffett. “I sat there, ate my meal, and said, ‘Well, have a good show. See you later.’ That was it. I haven’t seen him since.”

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‘Equal Strain on All Parts’

Despite their odd final meeting, Dylan remained a favorite songwriter of Buffett’s—along with Gordon Lightfoot, Zevon, Prine, and Clark—but he would wait decades to cover one of his songs. Released after Buffett’s death in 2023, his thirty-second and final album, Equal Strain on All Parts, closes with his only Dylan cover, a rendition of his 1976 Desire track “Mozambique.”

At the time of its release, the Southeastern African nation had just gained independence from Portugal, but didn’t deliver the kind of song the country may have desired at the time. Also credited to co-writer Jacques Levy, Dylan’s “Mozambique” wasn’t an intentional trivialization of the previous colonization of the country, nor an anthem for the newly sovereign nation—except for the line, Among the lovely people living free—but instead runs as a breezier story of an island getaway where love is in the air.

I like to spend some time in Mozambique
The sunny sky is aqua blue
And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek
It’s very nice to stay a week or two

There’s lot of pretty girls in Mozambique
And plenty time for good romance
And everybody likes to stop and speak
To give the special one you seek a chance
Or maybe say hello with just a glance

Lying next to her by the ocean
Reaching out and touching her hand
Whispering your secret emotion
Magic in a magical land

And when it’s time for leaving Mozambique
To say goodbye to sand and sea
You turn around to take a final peek
And you see why it’s so unique to be
Among the lovely people living free
Upon the beach of sunny Mozambique

Though Dylan never performed “Mozambique” live again since 1976, Buffett revived the song on Equal Strain on All Parts, revisited the song with Emmylou Harris, who also appeared on the original version.

Together, they transform Dylan’s song into a more laid-back, calypso escapade through the African nation. Buffet’s version is just as sunny, yet replaces the original violin, played by Scarlet Rivera, with some steelpan drum. 

Photo: Julie Skarratt