Jimmy Webb was, and to some degree still is an enigma. In the 60's when he was just starting to perfect his craft he created some of the most brilliantly constructed tunes around. The tradegy is that he is also one of the most overlooked songwriters of his generation.
Jimmy wrote his first song ('Up, Up & Away') whilst still in college. Over the course of the next ten years he would be rubbing shoulders with the likes of The Beatles, Richard Harris and a whole host of other 60's icons.
There is one story he tells about possibly his most famous composition, MacArthur Park, that gives some indication of just how important he was back in the day. The song, sung in unique style by the aforementioned Richard Harris (they went on to record two albums of music together), was a huge beast of a thing, full of unusual segments of different styles of music. This song was a massive hit in 1968 a couple of weeks prior to the release of Hey Jude. At the time Jimmy's song was unprecedentedly long. Hey Jude, when released, was one second longer. No coincidence according to Jimmy who had visited the Beatles at Abbey road around this time.
It must be conceeded that Jimmy's music is not loved by all, it is very much a love or hate thing. A perfect demonstration of this is the fact that MacArthur Park occassionally turns up in the 'Worst Song Ever' polls that are sometimes conducted. Some people just don't get him, and that's fine, it's all down to personal taste.
If you are a fan of Country & Western you'll also have a fair bit of room in your heart for Jimmy. He wrote most of Glen Campbell's biggest hits ('Wichita Lineman', 'By the time I het to Phoenix' & 'Galveston'), all of which are included here. When Jimmy was on the money, his writing couldn't be matched. He really was that good.
I was fortunate to catch Jimmy live in England last year. Although now in his early sixties he's still full of energy and fun (full of banter of his frolics with drinking buddy Richard Harris whilst in England and Ireland). He played to a small crowd of around 200 and for the most part everyone was transfixed to this rather unremarkable man sat at his piano. Jimmy's own voice is pretty good and he sings on the one song on this compilation (the rather pleasant 'Didn't We'). Even the most hard hearted of listeners would not begrudge Jimmy the opportunity to sing one of his own tunes.
If you don't think you know Jimmy Webb or his music, I'm willing to bet you'll be pleasantly suprised when you give this collection of songs a listen. Either you'll suddenly remember that you have heard a few of these songs before or you'll fall in love for the first time.
I'm quite envious of the person that stumbles onto MacArthur Park for the first time (specifically the Richard Harris version). It's such a crazy song that you just have to give it another listen almost immediately just to try and figure out what the hell is going on.
This collection isn't perfect. I'm quite willing to admit that as Jimmy entered the seventies he seemed to lose some of the initial spark that he had in his youth. I really don't get on with a number of songs on this CD (For example, 'Still Within The Sound Of My Voice' - Sung with vigour by Linda Ronstadt. Or the rather miserable, 'All I know' sung in Watership Down mode by Art Garfunkel'). But this demonstrates that Jimmy branched off into a lot of different musical styles, and by doing so would not please all of the people all of the time.
To me Jimmy should be held up there with Neil Diamond, and Bacharach & David when it comes to influential songwriters from the 60's. The mark of a good compilation to me is that it makes me seek out individual albums from the artist that appear on it. This is what happened with this one. I collected up albums and best of's from a number of the artists found here.
Track Listing:
1) Up, Up & Away - The Johnny Mann Singers 2) Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell 3) Do What You Gotta Do - Four Tops 4) Still Within The Sound Of My Voice - Linda Ronstadt 5) By The Time I Get To Phoenix - Glen Campbell 6) The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Judy Collins 7) It's A Sin (When You Love Somebody) - Joe Cocker 8) MacArthur Park - Donna Summer 9) Someone is Standin' Outside - Thelma Houston 10) Magic Garden - Dusty Springfield 11) All I Know - Art Garfunkel 12) Galveston - Glen Campbell 13) The Highwayman - The Highwaymen 14) Didn't We - Jimmy Webb 15) Where's The Playground Susie? - Glen Campbell 16) If Ships Were Made To Sail - Scott Walker 17) If This Were The Last Song - Bill Medley 18) MacArthur Park - Richard Harris
Total Running Time - 62.43
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How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Outstanding
How does it rate alongside the competition
Outstanding
Cover / Inlay Design and Content
Satisfactory
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