Let's talk about JIMMY WEBB

D. Very little really...some of the 80's stuff is a bit iffie and the general rule of thumb is to avoid anything by artists you already hate. The Mantovani version of Macarthur park is grim, as is the Nina version of Phoenix from her golden hour album.

I've got over 300 different versions of Jimmy Webb tracks on all formats so I guess you could call me a fan!

He's a genius...simple as that. If pop is slowly eating itself, Jimmy Webb (or the best part of him) remains at the back of the freezer, yet to be discovered and devoured...

(yeow xp - "the last unicorn" - kenny loggins??)

Great choice. Love the drums on that one. My vote goes to "Love years coming" by Strawberry Children though.

I've got the one-CD '70s collection _Archive_ and found it to be pretty hit-and-miss, so I didn't spring for the box set -- anyway, if
you're looking for a less expensive intro to his records, you might try _Archive_.

i've seen some heralds.

So, Webb stacks up how, in everyone's opinion, I am wondering, against: Brian Wilson, Jobim, Bacharach, Randy Newman? Now me, I think Jobim is better than any of 'em.

bacharach obv. the much greater songwriter than webb or newman, which says nothing against webb or newman.

I have ...And Someone... which is quite a good overview of his best-known stuff, and Archive, on which I agree with Jeff that's it kind of meh (though "Piano" is one of his best "songwriters" songs). He didn't really develop his voice as a singer until later on. Ten Easy Pieces, in which he performs a lot of his more widely-known stuff mostly solo, is for the most part incredible — the version of "Galveston" that opens it is positively Schubert-ian in its conception and execution.

i really love comparing the george martin-produced "the highwayman" to the version by the highwaymen - you get candy-coated strings with martin, and that 80's country drum sound with messrs. cash, jennings, kristofferson and nelson....

http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/drf300/f383/f38380r9k0d.jpg

Pretty sure it's him -- Jimmy liked to go by "Jim" for a bit in the 70's, and that's his scene.

that glen campbell youtube of him doing wichita lineman in '07 (?) is great. nice guitar solo by glen. although, i hate to say this but... did glen have a stroke? his voice has that oddly clenched quality you sometimes hear in the speech of people who have suffered from strokes.

the comments (all 300+ of them!) on that youtube are funny. though, i must say, nostalgia is a fucking disease. dig:

I am 40-year-old mother of 4 and I was raised on this beautiful music...memories of how it used to be. Such a good simple time..no cell phones, no ipods, no remote controls, no cable...only HeeHaw on Saturday evenings and my dad cooking dinner. Wish my kids could go back in time and experience this wonderful time.

ah yes, the "simple" times of the mid-1970s....

S. Macarthur Park by Donna summer, Tony Christie, Four tops, Vic damone, Waylon Jennings, Grimethorpe colliery band. Wicheta Lineman, By the time I get to Phoenix, Galveston, Up, up and away. Both fifth dimension albums (esp paper cup, carpet man but most of the others too) , If you see me getting smaller I'm leaving, both Richard Harris albums (the yard went on forever and the aforementioned Macarthur park), loads of other great Glen Campbell stuff (check out the two early 70's albums for some hidden gems) Quite a few of his solo albums right up until the mid/late 70's have songs of real merit. Loads of other great stuff...Sinatra did some great versions of his songs, as did fellow genius Neil Sedaka. Glen Gregory does a pretty good version of Wichita lineman, as do, bizarely, the Kings singers, also, David Snell from his album, Harp transplant and Johnny Harris from his album, Movements although both are very hard to find. John Denvers version of By the time I get to Phoenix is better than you'd think, Isaak Hayes version is barely recognisable but superb and Kurt Edelhagen's version is odd but haunting and actually changes the song radically while still keeping its essence.
D. Very little really...some of the 80's stuff is a bit iffie and the general rule of thumb is to avoid anything by artists you already hate. The Mantovani version of Macarthur park is grim, as is the Nina version of Phoenix from her golden hour album.

I've got over 300 different versions of Jimmy Webb tracks on all formats so I guess you could call me a fan!

He's a genius...simple as that. If pop is slowly eating itself, Jimmy Webb (or the best part of him) remains at the back of the freezer, yet to be discovered and devoured...

― Kris England, Thursday, 5 May 2005 19:35 (4 years ago) Permalink

This was me years ago and I still love Jimmy Webb.

12 Easy Pieces is great and the Jools Holland live performances which are on Youtube are well worth a watch. So fragile, it seems the songs are going to collapse completely at any time but they never do.

Xpost. I meant 10 easy pieces.

"If These Walls Could Speak" as done by Amy Grant on her Lead Me On album is one of my favorite songs ever.

I am the hugest JW fan but let's just all be honest with ourselves and admit that MacArthur Park is a pile of shit and this is what people think of when they think of Jimmy Webb which is really sad. Did Richard Harris record anything worth listening to?

This might be a good time to remind people that all of the 5th Dimensions albums are available on mp3 whereas in the CD era they were hard to find!! Now there is no excuse for not having albums like "The Magic Garden"!

MacArthur Park still sucks. Stop pretending you like it.

I'd recommend his book Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting.

http://tnjr60204230231.widec.jpg

let's talk about this jimmy instead!

damn. little jimmy dickens but my picture didn't show up

sort of agree re. macarthur park.

"sort of"?? I listened to that thing over and over again and I am convinced it has no redeeming value. It is truly awful. I don't even think you can convince me that parts of it have merit. Especially the Richard Harris record, it is one record I am sorry I have. It doesn't even have comedic value. I wonder if anyone can defend it.

re: Harris, and worthiness - "The Hive" is awesome.

Whatever happened to Zumpano?

is jody beth rosen still around? i bet she would defend it.

xp

the association was offered macarthur park before any other act, but they turned it down. too bad, probably could have come up with something a lot more exciting than r. harris

Is there a Jimmy Webb boxset? There should be.

Rhino Handmade had one in a limied edition (as they do), but I just went to their web site (ha ha) and it looks as if it's long gone....

yup, i managed to download that sucker, though.

what do people think of his solo records anyway?

i must say his voice is an acquired taste i haven't fully acquired.

!!

Hang in there, and (if you're like me) you'll start to appreciate the records for the flawed gems that they are. His limited vocal range actually becomes one of his greater assets.

the comments (all 300+ of them!) on that youtube are funny. though, i must say, nostalgia is a fucking disease.

Youtube comment boxes in general are absolutely filled with the worst excesses of nostalgia. People could be talking about Shed fucking Seven and still it will be all, "Music just isn't the same anymore...This was back when moral certainties still existed etc etc..."

hey, his first proper solo LP (words and music) is kind of super-awesome. his voice really needs to grow on you, and i still recognize that it's not a great instrument. but man do those songs stick the fuck in your head.

from the amy grant thread:

she has a gorgeous reading of jim webb's "if these walls could speak."

that song is indestructible. i can imagine a version erring on the side of the gloppy, but even glen campbell's late-'80s version is pretty solid. why hasn't more been written about this phenomenal song? why haven't more covered it?

When I think of how "music isn't the same as it used to be" I don't think of Jimmy "Weirdo" Webb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2eKB_fZryY

skip first 2:00, boring schmaltzy intro

weird that she twists this song into some stuff about J.C. i think jim webb is actually an athiest. go figure.

seriously that's a fucking beautiful song

can i get a witness?

I tell ya, Roberta Flack's version of Do What You Gotta Do is solid gold genius.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/arts/music/18webb.html?ref=arts

Talking about his new album and his life

i don't know how many folks on ilm know me anymore, but if you do, you know that i won't steer you wrong when it comes to musical recommendations. and HOLY SHIT that webb 1970s solo stuff is amazing. just amazing. seriously. in sort-of ranked order:

1. words and music
2. land's end
3. letters
4. and so: on
5. el mirage

but seriously they are all masterpieces.

hell, i've even learned to like 'suspending disbelief.' but what you really want are the ones listed above. holy shit.

JW is coming to Cambridge next month - any idea whether he's worth catching live these days?

Amateurist, tell me what you think of the solo records. I LOVE Webb and think Ten Easy Pieces is brilliant -- but his voice was very different in the 70s, and I actually found myself struggling a bit with the Archive compilation. "Piano" was the only song on it that gave me an "aha!" moment -- the rest was...hard to digest.

Tell me more...

I just picked up And So: On last week. It's the first of his solo records I've heard. It's incredible. So many great songs, plus some very nice backing vocals from his sister Susan Webb, and some pretty brilliant arrangements (the instrumental section at the end of "Laspitch" stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it). Looking forward to delving further into the solo catalog!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NatwX3N5f6Q

God this arrangement just kills me every time. Glen Campbell's overproduced version never sat right with me, but this solo Webb version from Five Easy Pieces stirs at my soul. the whole album does really.

Both versions of Galveston are beautiful to me -- but Jimmy's accompaniment on his own version is almost like some Schubert lied.

NY Times review of him live(I'm not a big fan of Stephen Holden reviews but this isn't bad). In my neck of the woods he's going to be doing a show with Raul Malo

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/arts/music/jimmy-webb-at-feinsteins-at-loews-regency-review.html?ref=music

Jimmy Webb may have been performing his greatest hits for decades, but you could never call his show at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency on Wednesday evening an example of phoning it in. A more accurate description of his treatment of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “MacArthur Park” and “All I Know” would be impassioned deconstruction. There were many moments when Mr. Webb, who turns 65 on Aug. 15, suggested the singer-songwriter equivalent of a famished wolf howling in the wilderness. Instead of embracing the niceties of a polished pop crooner, he eviscerated his own songs, laying out their raw emotions — mostly a young man’s desperate romanticism — with such intensity that I wondered how anyone could feel so much.

His pianism floridly illustrated the songs. “But she’ll just hear that phone keep on ringing,” was embellished with telephonic piano frills. The unwavering devotion to his sweetheart (or is it to God?) of the protagonist of “Wichita Lineman” was asserted in his insistent repetition of the words, “the Wichita lineman is still on the line” strung out for what seemed like minutes as he tapped out a signal that he joked was Morse code for “Send me beer.”

“MacArthur Park” got the full operatic treatment, in which the psychedelic imagery of “the cake out in the rain” that nowadays singers often omit, was restored. You were in the heart of the storm, watching all that “sweet green icing flowing down.”

Interspersing the songs were Mr. Webb’s hilariously salty yarns about his experiences as a pop Wunderkind in his late teens and early 20s, hanging out with Frank Sinatra, Richard Harris and Glen Campbell. A riveting storyteller in the cowboy campfire tradition, he is someone you could listen to for hours.

Mr. Webb confessed that he is still stung by the perception of him in the 1960s as being on the wrong side of the cultural divide when the lyrics of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen were obsessively parsed for deeper meanings while his were not.

Listen to his song, “Highwayman,” an ’80s pop-country hit for the super-quartet of Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. This first-person monologue of a soul incarnated as a highwayman, sailor, construction worker, ship captain and ultimately “a single drop of rain” is as deep as it gets.

Mr. Webb confessed that he is still stung by the perception of him in the 1960s as being on the wrong side of the cultural divide when the lyrics of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen were obsessively parsed for deeper meanings while his were not.

jimmy webb is brilliant but this sentence encapsulates why his stage banter is kind of insufferable. the way he intellectualizes his own music is just so... prosaic.

Sounds like he's better off just telling old stories between songs:

Interspersing the songs were Mr. Webb’s hilariously salty yarns about his experiences as a pop Wunderkind in his late teens and early 20s, hanging out with Frank Sinatra, Richard Harris and Glen Campbell. A riveting storyteller in the cowboy campfire tradition, he is someone you could listen to for hours.

although as the downloader of many jimmy webb live boots, i have to say that he repeats the same stories nearly verbatim (jokes included) at every concert. which is not a crime, but kind of takes the luster off a bit.

sleepin in the daytime

otm

yeah those jimmy webb solo albums are probably the best thing anybody released in the 1970s. hit after fucking hit. on "and so: on" alone there's ... met her on a place, all my love's laughter, marionette, one lady, if ships were made to sail, pocketful of keys, see you then. i mean goddam.

i like this lyric:

You must admit
We really had a nice time
There was moment after moment
Before love died
And if I never kiss your lips again
On this side
I'll see you then

also dude knows how to write a string arrangement.

actually i think it's "Really had a nice ride"

half of this dude's songs are break-up songs. actually probably like 75% of the songs from this era.

Yeah, I remain mostly just familiar with the 60s stuff. I'll certainly second you with regards to Amy Grant's "If these Walls Could Speak" though.

jesus chris Words And Music is pretty amazing right? insane and beautiful and amazing in equal measures

jimmy webb is performing IN macarthur park tonight! free concert.

Better bring an umbrella

LOL

the world is still sleeping on his 1970s solo records for some reason

up there with the very best IMO

Truth

I like Ten Easy Pieces from the 1990s better than any of his 70s records. It's not that they don't have their moments – "Piano" for instance is deadly. But a number of these records feature him trying on various vocal affectations (see "PF Sloan" from Words & Music or "If Ships Were Made to Sail" from And So: On) or laying on overwrought orchestral arrangements (the case on most of El Mirage). I don't think Webb began recording definitive versions of many of his own songs until his voice got a bit richer with age, he began to simplify his arrangements and he probably became a little more comfortable in his own skin.

i don't find them overwrought, or rather, i appreciate their overwroughtness.

and even among those records there are some stunning--not overwrought at all--arrangements, e.g. his own version of "when does brown begin," which wraps a faintly embarrassing lyric around one of the most extraordinarily beautiful pop-song melodies and arrangements i've ever heard.

See, I actually prefer the version of "When Can Brown Begin" he produced for the Supremes to the one on Letters.

Or "Christiaan No," a good song but where Glen Campbell's take is sublime, Webb's own is treacly somehow.

There's just something about these 70s records that should be amazing and...aren't.

This is my favorite version of "PF Sloan," BTW:

http://youtu.be/Y8cBEZG0S7Q

oh, the supremes one is at least as good, sure.

we'll have to agree to disagree about some other things.

Interviewed on Gilbert Gottfried's latest podcast. Halfway through it now and there's been some choice gossip about Nilsson and Lennon. And a bit of Jimmy & Gilbert duetting on "MacArthur Park."

s: Linda Ronstadt's version of "Do What You Gotta Do". Her vocals in that song are absolutely amazing. Additionally, she performed it in the way Jimmy Webb intended, and not like Nina Simone's inadequately upbeat version.

d: Brooklyn Bridge's 1968 version of "Worst That Could Happen". I never really liked the song's lyrics; it felt like Jimmy's lowest point in songwriting to me. Then when Brooklyn Bridge recorded it I couldn't believe how much attention it got. The backing vocals are awful and the band sound like a group of beginners. The only good part of the song is Johnny Maestro's voice.

I sort of like that one but yeah

scary revive

Another few good Webb songs are "Still Within The Sound Of My Voice" performed by Linda Ronstadt, "Sunshower" by Thelma Houston, "Skywriter" and "Another Lullaby" both performed by Art Garfunkel, "Once In The Morning" and "When Can Brown Begin" both by The Supremes, "Paper Chase" by Richard Harris, "Song Seller" by The Raiders, "Postcard from Paris" by John Denver, "It's A Sin When You Love Somebody" by Joe Cocker, "Which Way To Nowhere", "Speaking With My Heart" and "Hideaway" performed by the 5th Dimension, and finally "All My Love's Laughter" by Art Garfunkel.

That will keep you busy for a while lol.

I follow his social media page, sometimes some interesting stuff on there.

Yeah, it's very interesting reading about his relationships with other great musicians. I've been thinking of buying his memoir.

It’s his birthday today.

Interesting passage in the Webb memoir about how Lennon and Nilsson showed up at Webb's house early in the morning after the Troubadour incident, hoping that he would lie to the press about how he (Webb) was at the club the entire time and did not see Lennon ever lay a hand to the female photographer who documented the melee.

I got see Webb play a solo piano show here some years back, and iirc there were lots of Richard Harris stories. I wish I could remember them but I did find this when I looked:

The lyrics to MacArthur Park infuriate some people. “Someone left the cake out in the rain/ I don’t think that I can take it/ ‘Cause it took so long to bake it/ And I’ll never have that recipe again.” They think it’s a psychedelic trip. But everything in the song is real. There is a MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, near where my girlfriend worked selling life insurance. We’d meet there for lunch, and there would be old men playing checkers by the trees, like in the lyrics.

I’ve been asked a million times: “What is the cake left out in the rain?” It’s something I saw – we would eat cake and leave it in the rain. But as a metaphor for a losing a chapter of your life, it seemed too good to be true. When she broke up with me, I poured the hurt into the song. It was always around seven minutes long – not 22 as has been written.

Bones Howe, a fellow producer, had asked me to create a pop song with classical elements, different movements and changing time signatures. MacArthur Park, more of a suite than a song, was everything he wanted, but when we presented it to his new act, the Association, they refused to record it. It was the late 1960s and I was doing music for an anti-war pageant with some Hollywood stars, including Mia Farrow and Edgar G Robinson. Richard Harris and I started hanging out after rehearsals and drinking Black Velvets: 50% Guinness, 50% champagne. One night after a few, I said: “We ought to make a record.” He’d starred in the movie Camelot and sang every song in it beautifully. A few weeks later, I received a telegram: “Dear Jimmy Webb. Come to London. Make this record. Love, Richard.” He always called me Jimmy Webb.

I got a flight and stayed with Richard in Belgravia. Over the course of two days, we tore through 30 or 40 of my songs. I was playing the piano and singing. He was standing there in his kaftan, waving his arms and expressing excitement at some songs, not so crazy about others. The best went into his debut album, A Tramp Shining. MacArthur Park was at the bottom of my pile. By the time I played it, we had moved on to straight brandy, but Richard slapped the piano. “Oh Jimmy Webb. I love that! I’ll make a hit out of that, I will.”

I recorded the basic track back in Hollywood, with myself on harpsichord accompanied by session musicians the Wrecking Crew. We rehearsed it a few times, then played it right through, using the first take and adding the orchestra painstakingly later. When Richard did the vocals at a London studio, he had a pitcher of Pimm’s by the microphone. We knew the session was over when the Pimm’s was gone. I never could get him to sing the title correctly. He’d say: “Jimmy Webb, I’ve got it!” Then he’d sing: “MacArthur’s Park ...” It was wonderful to hear him growing in confidence. At one point, he said: “I think the vocals are a little loud. We need more orchestra.” A few months later, he was saying: “Jimmy Webb! The damn orchestra’s too loud!” He’d gone from wanting to hide his voice to wanting people to hear it.

At first, we felt like the guys who’d created the A-bomb: we were a bit afraid of what we’d done. I didn’t know I could write something like that. We had doubts about releasing it as a single, but when radio stations began playing it from the album in its entirety, I was asked to do a shorter version as a single. I refused, so eventually they put out the full seven minutes 20 seconds. George Martin once told me the Beatles let Hey Jude run to over seven minutes because of MacArthur Park.

It was a surprise when the song went to No 2 in America and No 4 in the UK. It’s since been recorded by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Aretha Franklin. Donna Summer’s disco version is my only American No 1, which was quite a thrill. I always knew the girl who inspired the song would hear it and know what it meant. A long time after I had written it, I found out she had moved to Lake Tahoe and become a dancer. When I came into some significant money, I hired a Lear jet, flew up there, and said: “I’m not going back without you.” We lived together for three years. Then it turned into a soap opera.

Love how Richard Harris always addressed him as "Jimmy Webb."

happy birthday, jimmy webb

the richard harris story is great

jfc at that last paragraph

Here is a fact I learned from Gergely Hubai's book on rejected film scores, "Torn Music":

Jimmy Webb was originally contracted to write the soundtrack to "Love Story". What he turned in featured a composition for oscillator-repitched car horns. They decided not to go with it.

He later reused the recording as the intro to "Music for an Unmade Movie: Songseller".

scary revive

― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Saturday, 15 August 2020 01:08 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Whenever I see an old artist thread revived, I assume they’ve either died or been accused of sexual misconduct. Glad to see Jimmy fits neither category.

re: that last one... um
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Webb&oldid=971178788#Relationships_and_family

I keep finding myself saying "well that all sounds about right" in response to some really gross stuff which is probably insensitive, but, well that all sounds about right

Um indeed.

Well, it was the 60s and 70s...

"Up, Up and Away" creepy af now with that knowledge

I've theorised in my head before about the meaning of that song, knowing about his history with marijuana.
I decided to stop thinking about it that way though, because I realised it's supposed to be perceived as a soul-pop feelgood song and not a drugs song about a guy getting high.

I have a server on Discord for discussions about Jimmy Webb. I'll leave the invite here in case anyone wants to join. https://discord.gg/dst3AWC

Another good Jimmy Webb song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OitDIBHO0ew

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/725709361455956010/725709642176659486/webb-campbell-nilsson.jpg

I, for one, would love to know what Harry was going on about here.

They all look like they're about to hop into a Cadillac and head out to Malibu to teach that nosey Jim Rockford a lesson.

Lol.

lmao

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5oAh4CbpvjgGAoWVVfwdf8?si=998NIcpsTcW_3lOcBXAMGw

I don't know how many of you use Spotify, but tell me what you think of my choices.

Another good song written by Jimmy here
https://youtu.be/CFq8RnPiM6Q

I think this place is dead again...

I love "Saturday Suit" but I think I'd take Art Garfunkel's breezy melancholia over Cass's, which (though still vg obv) feels a bit overdone by comparison. I am always a sucker for an electric piano.

Yeah that version is great. I just thought I'd share Cass Elliot's version because of how underrated/unknown it is.

Oh yeah, I was very pleased to hear that version, I didn’t know it existed.

Jamie, your solo Webb playlist is really nice, with just a couple of glaring omissions. I would have included "Met Her On a Plane" from And So: On, which I think is an utterly perfect recording of one of the greatest psychedelic country songs--the truest "Cosmic American Music" by anyone not named Gene Clark. I also would add "Crying In My Sleep" from Land's End (his best album imo). It definitely goes hand in hand with "Just This One Time" from the same album--sad-bastard music par excellence, with some of his most emotional vocal performances.

I'm glad you included so many tracks from Suspending Disbelief, which is one of the only Webb albums I'm not familiar with, along with Angel Heart. I'm really digging it so far. Any thoughts on Angel Heart? Looks like the only album not represented on your playlist.

One fun thing about Jimmy Webb albums from the 70s is that they're full of amazing industry-clout flexes, despite their utter commercial failure. Like, "NBD, just having Joni Mitchell sing backup on a few songs, getting my buddy George Martin to produce" lol.

I'm glad you looked at it! I didn't add "Met Her On A Plane" because I was never really that fond of the vocals and humming in it. I just thought it was a bit exaggerated. I see why it can be much liked though; the lyrics are very poetic and the piano is really nice. "Crying In My Sleep" I never really grew to love that song because to me it feels slightly self-pitying, but I guess we all look at lyrics differently. And I think "Just This One Time" has to be one of his most powerful songs.
Suspending Disbelief is one of my favourite Webb albums. The production is amazing (thanks to George Massenburg and Linda Ronstadt) and the song lyrics are so meaningful. It shows just how much Jimmy had grown as a songwriter at that point and how well he can connect with listeners through music.
Angel Heart, on the other hand, has some really drawn-out and tiring songs on it. At least the first 2 times I listened to Angel Heart all the way through I was zoned out for half the time. I haven't really analysed the lyrics in the songs yet though, and that might change my opinion in the future.
Again, thanks for responding. I might change the playlist around if my taste changes and I start discovering more tracks I like.
And yeah, he was very all-in in the 70s lmao. Did you know he had Ringo Starr and Elton John's backing band accompanying him on his album Land's End?

Sorry for the late response, I don't really use this website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB81zWfxZGs
The band in this is amazing.

I've had 5:30 Plane stuck in my head all day. Such a good song.

Wichita Lineman is the song of his i love most

I still have problems with Webb as a solo artist in the 70s but I’m listening to this playlist and liking it.

Some funny things I’m observing: both And So: On tracks are ... kind of wild jammy guitar fests? I somehow never noticed this. Meanwhile, the production on the Land’s End tunes is kind of typical 70s but for some reason the tom toms are positively thunderous (I still can’t get with his vocal on ”Just This One Time,” it’s way outside his range – unfortunately I find Glen Campbell’s version on Reunion weirdly bombastic).

“Where the Universes Are” I didn’t really know, great tune.

There’s always a good excuse to share my favorite version of P.F. Sloan, the Cassell Webb version from the late 80s: https://youtu.be/Y8cBEZG0S7Q

The chorused (Dean Parks?) guitar and slapping backbeat on “Too Young To Die” are kind of shocking when they first hit. This is a great example of how he grew into his voice.

Tales from the Crypt, LOL (actually, a pretty good instrumental!)

Paul Gaugin in the South Seas – I’ve never heard this. Wow.

Thanks for sharing!

If you like the Clientele then you'll like their version of "Where The Universes Are", which sounds just like The Clientele.

https://mergerecords.bandcamp.com/track/where-the-universes-are

https://genius.com/Jimmy-webb-old-wing-mouth-lyrics

Okay I found a song on the Angel Heart album that I actually like! Very true message to this and I recommend looking into this.

Another very underrated Webb song, sung by Mary Kent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_oYv4eyWCo

Okay I found a song on the Angel Heart album that I actually like! Very true message to this and I recommend looking into this.

Yup, best song on that record by a mile. Great backing vocals from McDonald and Loggins too.

What do you all think of Jimmy's The Naked Ape soundtrack album? I've heard the movie's not that great but I think the music is great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5WXAUcAUrc

Does this link work for anyone? http://dianyingxin.com/watch/zd-acApBrfA?fbclid=IwAR2fO0b7fkJr0YFzijpHA1zPqJXRZUF9oFUq7nS8MGi6Q2Kb74FX03KA33g
It's supposed to include Jimmy singing Didn't We with K.T. Oslin in 1993 (according to Jimmy's Facebook page), but the link doesn't work for me. If anyone could maybe convert it to .mp4 and send it here, or reupload it to YouTube, I would really appreciate it.

I have to admit some of the stuff I’ve read about Jimmy’s personal life is pretty disturbing. I saw a few years ago that Sally Field discussed how he forced himself on her when she was passed out one time. But I just discovered that his first wife was a cover girl he met when she was 12 and married her where she was 16 or 17 and pregnant. And despite being married for 22 years he didn’t mention her in his memoir.

Yes it was the 60s and 70s and kill yr idols and all but this all bums me out.

Yes, I knew there was something a bit weird about his marriage but I couldn't remember what it was. A stalker-ish obsession with an ex-girlfriend seems to be present in a lot of his 60s songs.

I did a high school student exchange with one of his kids. He was never around and I never met him but I visibly remember the dark cloud that passed over people’s faces when his name was mentioned.

I love this cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81pP7zCMgI8

Wait, so you are saying you stayed in his kid’s room? In the house of his ex-wife?

Ooooh, had never read about his dark cloud personal life aspects before

xpost I guess so? I wasn’t aware he had a famous dad at the time but put it together later

Def changes that Gaughin tribute on that 10's album of his for me.