Songfacts®:

• Buffett wrote this song about his grandfather, James Delaney Buffett, who was a huge influence on his life. Buffett's grandfather was a sailor born in the town of Rose Blanche in Newfoundland, Canada, later moving to Glace Bay in Nova Scotia and eventually settling in Mobile, Alabama. His death in 1970 also inspired Buffett's early tune "The Captain and the Kid."
• This was the only song Jimmy Buffett performed in his only appearance on Saturday Night Live (May 13, 1978). He had to do it sitting down with his leg propped up in a cast after breaking it in a softball game earlier that week. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Julian - Oakland, AR
• Buffett said of the song: "I saw a picture of my grandfather after he had come back from a trip to Nova Scotia. He was born there but left when he was a young man and didn't return until he was 84. He was standing on dock staring at an old sailing schooner, and the look on his face told the story of where he had come from and where he had been. I have always been very proud of my heritage as a sailor and wrote this for the men who taught me the skills."
• In the lyrics, Buffett claims to have "Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks, and I learned much from both of their styles." According to the biography Jimmy Buffett: The Man From Margaritaville Revealed by Steve Eng, the singer grew up reading the classics on the insistence of his mother. One that stood out was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, an adventurous tale about a boy who tussles with pirates on the quest for buried treasure.
• Son Of A Son Of A Sailor was Buffett's highest-charting album of the '70s, peaking at #10 in the US.