Jimmy Buffett

In 27 years of recording his own songs, Jimmy Buffet has managed only one top-10 hit: 1977's ""Margaritaville."" Yet the dreamy Utopian visions projected by the song--a lovable sot's reflection on Key West living--have proved so enduringly appealing that Buffet has, in spite of his marginal chart success, earned both a Grateful Dead-style following (""Parrot Heads"") and, based on a Midas merchandising touch with ""Margaritaville"" gewgaws, a niche among Fortune's highest-paid entertainers of 1995. Backed by assiduous primary and secondary research (though denied an audience with his subject), Nashville-based music scholar Eng (The Satisfied Mind: The Country Music of Porter Wagner) chronicles Buffet's evolution as a musician, entrepreneur and political activist. We hear from long-forgotten bandmates and dive-bar acquaintances, and from Buffet himself through Eng's prodigious unearthing of the musician's interviews with relatively obscure periodicals like Colorado Homes and Lifestyles. Unfortunately, Eng suffocates his narrative with wildly extraneous trivia, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and unfunny asides. It's the rare fan who will care what the singer's alma mater served at a banquet held 50 years before Buffet's enrollment. The same applies to Eng's unsupported opinions on everything from the nature of creativity (""Art largely comes from the subconscious"") to modern political history (the CIA created LSD, etc.). Parrot Heads willing to peck through such material will find a densely detailed, largely sympathetic rendering of their hero, balanced by Eng's atypically harsh conclusion that Buffet's career ultimately ""contributed to the tourist homogenization of Key West."" Discography; photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)