Let's talk about JIMMY WEBB

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