When Ray Charles recorded his groundbreaking album Fashionable Sounds In Nation And Western Music, in 1962, he turned to a number of the founding fathers of nation songwriting for the track alternatives. In addition to picks from the indispensable Hank Williams (“Hey, Good Lookin” and “You Win Again”) there have been classics written by Curly Williams (“Half As Much”), Don Gibson (“I Can’t Stop Loving You”) and Eddy Arnold And Cindy Walker (“You Don’t Know Me”). Charles celebrated nation music all through the remainder of his profession, and by the point he got here to file the album Volcanic Motion Of My Soul, in 1971, there was a extra up to date, and equally indispensable, songwriter to interpret: Jimmy Webb. Charles minimize variations of Webb’s “See You Then” and “Wichita Lineman.”
Hearken to one of the best of Jimmy Webb on Apple Music and Spotify.
It’s honest to say that Americana, a melting pot of basic nation, people, bluegrass, Celtic music, Southern rock, and Delta blues, has its personal equal of The Nice American Songbook – The Nice Americana Songbook, if you’ll – and pre-eminent among the many titan songwriters of that style is Webb. He was a musician who may additionally do what Irving Berlin had: compose the enduring music to his personal sensible lyrics.
Webb has in contrast the craft of songwriting to that of a prized Swiss watchmaker, and it’s no shock that he grew up loving Twentieth-century Songbook requirements. Webb significantly admired Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, and Cole Porter, and says that songwriting is so ingrained in his thoughts that typically he even “thinks in rhymes”.
Born in Elk Metropolis, Oklahoma, on August 15, 1946, what makes Webb’s music so distinctive is that he has at all times prided himself on being what he describes as a “cross-genre writer”. Webb was simply as open to taking affect from the unique stars of nation music – giants equivalent to Woody Guthrie, Lefty Frizell, Marty Robins, Bob Wills, Roy Acuff, Buck Owen, and Loretta Lynn – as he was to studying from a people singer-songwriter equivalent to Joni Mitchell. (He mentioned that for 3 years he was “hypnotized” by the standard of her work.)
One other formative affect on Webb was Motown. Webb ignored the recommendation of his Baptist preacher father, James Layne Webb, who warned him that “this songwriting thing is going to break your heart,” and took a job as a younger man working for Jobete Music, the publishing arm of Motown.
Webb says Motown “was my college”, a spot the place he realized the nuts and bolts of songwriting and the finer factors of developing hooks in songs. Amongst these he wrote was the one “This Time Last Summer”/”Please Don’t Flip The Lights Out,” recorded by Danny Day – a pseudonym for songwriting legend Hal Davis. If he ever produced “airy fairy” songs, he recalled, he was introduced sharply again to actuality by Davis, who would say: “OK, kid, but what’s the message of the song?”
That capability to inform a narrative, to infuse a track with deep which means, is on the coronary heart of the perfect Americana songwriting. As Willie Nelson – the person behind so many classics, together with “Crazy” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” – as soon as mentioned, “You can’t make a record if you ain’t got nothin’ to say.”
Into this class additionally comes the magnificent Merle Haggard, whose 38 Billboard No.1 hits embody “The Fightin’ Side Of Me,” “Kentucky Gambler” and “Mama Tried.” Nation star Vince Gill mentioned, “Merle is the Poet Of The Common Man. Through words and music, he tells his life story, which is, in many ways, America’s story. The one common thread through all of it is truth. His songs truly are the standards.”
Jimmy Webb takes delight in his tales being about blue-collar guys who did extraordinary jobs: “They came from ordinary towns. They came from places like Galveston and Wichita.” His songs can be the right soundtrack for an American street journey.
Although Webb can be a singer, his most well-known hits have come from seminal renditions by different artists. On songs equivalent to “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston Bay,” Glen Campbell’s voice married to Webb’s lyrics had been sensational. Motown had been unable to make Webb’s track “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” work for soul singer Paul Peterson, in order that they let Webb take the rights to the track with him when he left the corporate. Within the arms of Campbell, it grew to become a triumph. “Glenn could come up with great intros and solos, and he was very good at commercializing my songs,” mentioned Webb.
Webb had his first main hit in 1967, when The fifth Dimension’s recording of “Up, Up And Away” gained a number of Grammys. He acknowledges the significance of his work with that band and in addition the debt he owes to Frank Sinatra, who recorded 4 of Webb’s songs and at all times gave him full credit score. As Webb recalled, “My name became known because guys like Mr. Sinatra would go on stage and say, ‘Now I’m going to do a song by Jimmy Webb.’”
Nevertheless, not all of Webb’s songs are in regards to the widespread man. The almost eight-minute-long zany delight “MacArthur Park” – a track a couple of cake not noted within the rain – was a success for rambunctious actor Richard Harris, whom Webb had met at an anti-Vietnam battle rally with actors Mia Farrow and Edward G Robinson. Webb recorded the track in London, in a recording session fueled by a gallon bucket of Pimm’s. The track was later a best-selling disco monitor for Donna Summer time, a rustic hit for Waylon Jennings and a famous jazz recording for Stan Kenton.
kanThe record of performers who’ve lined Webb’s songs reads like a Who’s Who of prime musicians: Nina Simone, Tom Jones, Smokey Robinson, R.E.M., James Taylor, Artwork Garfunkel, Nick Cave, Isaac Hayes, Sammy Davis Jr., Nanci Griffith, Tony Bennett, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Barbra Streisand and Joe Cocker (with a positive model of “The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress”). Sadly, contractual issues prevented Elvis Presley from recording “MacArthur Park,” although Webb says his bootleg copy of The King Of Rock’n’Roll singing that track is considered one of his prized possessions.
There has at all times been cross-pollination inside nation music, one thing exemplified by the work of Nelson, Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Money – a quartet who would all be thought of masters of The Nice Americana Songbook. Revered file producer T Bone Burnett says Money has “the stature of Walt Whitman or Ralph Waldo Emerson”, however the man who wrote “Ring Of Fire” additionally had immense respect for Jimmy Webb.
The quartet named their nation supergroup tour The Highwaymen after considered one of Webb’s well-known songs, which was written in England whereas Jimmy Webb was mulling on the legend of robber Dick Turpin. The track was the right automobile for them, containing 4 verses, with every particular person capable of play a distinct character, virtually like a theatrical manufacturing.
Webb gained a Grammy for his track “The Highwayman,” describing it as a “big turnaround” to have a success within the 80s, a time when a brand new set of other nation musicians was starting to make their mark.
Nation music is usually derided as being based mostly round simplistic songs about heartache, consuming, and ailing pets, however, at its best, the songs may be delicate and evocative delights. Webb, together with giants equivalent to Townes Van Zandt, Gram Parsons, Rodney Crowell, John Harford, John Prine, Dolly Parton, and Man Clarke, may be thought of songwriters of the very highest order. Generally, like Robbie Robertson and The Band, with masterpieces equivalent to “The Weight,” they’ll have an enduring affect on fashionable music.
Americana has continued to evolve up to now half-century, when gifted writers equivalent to Nanci Griffith, Rosanne Money, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Ryan Adams, Gretchen Peters, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Lyle Lovett, Lori McKenna, and Jason Isbell have come to the fore. There are additionally scores of different gifted Americana writers who deserve wider recognition, together with Richard Shindell, Danny Schmidt, Robby Hecht, Dar Williams or Rita Hosking.
However in the case of offering inspiration, we have to look little additional than Jimmy Webb, who remains to be enjoying, writing and – hopefully – prepared to offer new entries in The Nice Americana Songbook.
Searching for extra? Uncover why Jimmy Webb is God.
