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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Mca
Salesrank: 6093
Released: October 25, 1990 |
| Our Price: $5.92 |
| Used Price: $4.94 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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A-1-A Track Listing:
1. Makin' Music For Money
2. Door Number 3
3. Dallas
4. Presents To Send You
5. Stories We Could Tell
6. Life Is Just A Tire Swing
7. A Pirate Looks At Forty
8. Migration
9. Trying To Reason With Hurricane Seasons
10. Nautical Wheelers
11. Tin Cup Chalice
Editorial Review:
Jimmy Buffett's albums are almost always happily hedonistic, but every now and then even he admits that there's hell to pay for all the high jinks. On A1A, an album named for the coastal highway that ends just blocks from the singer's onetime home in Key West, Florida, that realization comes in the form of "A Pirate Looks at Forty" and "Trying to Reason with the Hurricane Season," which acknowledge the onset of a king-size hangover. Buffett offers some hair of the dog on "Presents to Send You" and "Life Is Just a Tire Swing," however, and there's a nice selection of other tracks as well, including the lovely waltz "Nautical Wheelers" and "Door Number Three," a hilarious if somewhat dated song about the long-lost game show Let's Make a Deal. --Daniel Durchholz
A-1-A Reviews:
If You Like The Cover You'll Love The Album 
2008-02-11 - Simply put this is Buffett's best album. "A Pirate Looks At Forty", "Presents To Send You", "Nautical Wheelers" and "Migration" are my favorites but everything on here is outstanding. I know people have to change over the years but like other reviewers have said Buffett's sound diverged from my tastes after Changes In Latitude Changes In Attitude.
A1A is a record for beer, cookouts, pickup trucks, having a good time.
A1A CD
2007-10-17 - This is my all time favorite album. A1A is where the carribbean meets Nashville, introduced by the smooth songwriting and singing of Jimmy Buffett. A1A is the album that creates lifelong Jimmy Buffett fans.
Fairly mediocre... 
2007-07-28 - ... not as exciting as his earlier "before the beach" work, not as fun as his later "beach" work, and nothing to get particularly excited about. Just average semifolk.
Before Jimmy Buffett was a trademark
2006-12-08 - I was fortunate to have an older brother who turned me on to this music before I knew what it was, or wasn't. Most of my friends didn't have such a luxury and believe Jimmy Buffett is about cheeseburgers and volcanos and shark fins and tequila. The previous list not being a bad combo, but I wish those friends could have seen the unspoiled terrain that I was able to experience. Albums like this will always be near and dear to me. I love all of Jimmy's early stuff...and I say early meaning basically anything before he became a commodity and/or comfortable. In my view that resides somewhere around Floridays. To some/most part it's Jimmy's fault that he's viewed the way he is to non-parrotheads, but I truly cherish his music most when he was on the lower half of the ladder.
The Key West Album 
2006-11-07 - By this time Jimmy was immersed in the laid back counterculture that was Key West in the mid-70's. The title of the album refers to highway A1A that descends through the Florida Keys and ends in Key West (very close to where Buffett lived at the time). I have always called this the "Key West" album since about half the songs deal with the town and its residents. The album has 8 Buffett originals and 3 covers. This album is a bit of a mixed bag, but contains some of Buffett's best all time work. "A Pirate Looks At Forty" is an all time fan favorite that most people take as autobiographical, but was actually about a person Jimmy knew (Buffett was much younger than 40 when he wrote this). "Trying To Reason With The Hurricane Season" is another all time classic where you first start to see Buffett questioning the longevity of his hedonistic lifestyle. "Nautical Wheelers" is another cool song about an old Key west dance group. "Tin Cup Chalice" is another classic, where you can practically smell the salt air and see the sun setting on the Key West shoreline. The rest of the album is good, but nothing that really stands out. The first track, a cover of Alex Harvey's "Making Music For Money" is ironic in that it is kind of a put down of the kind of entertainer Buffett would eventually become. Many people consider this to be one of the essential Buffettt albums. Although there are others I like better this one certainly deserves its high reputation in the Buffett catalogue.
