After the single's rerelease in 1977, the track received airplay on the progressive FM album-oriented rock radio stations, and became one of his best-known songs and something of an unofficial anthem for the skate community after the cover by The Circle Jerks was featured in the 1986 film Thrashin'.

Many of the tracks are autobiographical, encompassing bittersweet tales about coming of age as an artist in the big city ("Ghost Writer"), of racial separatism ("Why-O"), of interracial romance ("I May Not Be Your Kind"), and of overcoming conflict at home ("Cool Down Boy").

The title was triggered by an incident at Shea Stadium where Jeffreys, enjoying the game and feeling carefree, stood to go get a hotdog when a voice shouted "Hey buckwheat, sit down!"

The casual epithet was a jolt and it spurred a number of memorable songs, including "Don't Call Me Buckwheat," "I Was Afraid of Malcolm" and "Racial Repertoire."

[4] After taking a lengthy hiatus to regroup and raise his only child, daughter Savannah, now "an impressive composer and singer herself"[5] Jeffreys began to perform again in the summer of 2001, and on December 6 he joined Bruce Springsteen at his legendary Christmas show in Asbury Park and began to also perform annually at the Springsteen supported The Light of Day Foundation shows to fund research for Parkinson's and other neurological conditions.

With his band loosely referred to as "The Coney Island Playboys" on September 4, 2003, Jeffreys joined Jon Langford, Lenny Kaye and Ivan Julian in a benefit concert for Alejandro Escovedo, recovering from hepatitis C.[6] Jeffreys was featured in the 2003 documentary The Soul of a Man, directed by Wim Wenders as the fourth installment of documentary film series The Blues, produced by Martin Scorsese.

Co-produced by Larry Campbell and with players Steve Jordan, Brian Mitchell, Pino Palladino, Duncan Sheik and Junior Marvin it yielded the song "Coney Island Winter", performed on The David Letterman Show.

On April 20, 2019, Jeffreys announced on his website that "I’ve decided to hang up my rock and roll shoes" and that in the future he would continue to write but would not perform regularly.