I’ve seen a good few Webb tunes on here lately and also the comment that it was time for (I’m sure another) appreciation thread – so I thought I’d kick it off.
I Keep It Hid has one of those classic transcendent Webb soaring choruses – this is a live version by Linda Ronstadt, a bit shakey but those vocals…that chorus….
H.P. Saucecraft says
Nice clip of Jimmy and Glenn doing Galveston –
H.P. Saucecraft says
If you have tears to spare … spare them here …
timtunes says
Later period Webb next, Carly Simon from the cheesy but still good Film Noir album, which Jimmy co-produced – the title track with characteristic WEbb bits, but a beautiful surge at 1’16”
H.P. Saucecraft says
Anyone calling Carly cheesy is going to have to deal with me … just sayin’ …
timtunes says
Have you heard the kitchen sink strings?
H.P. Saucecraft says
Oh, I don’t mind them. They’re even appropriate, given the theme of noir soundtrack interpretations. Van Dyke Parks got hammered for his similar approach to The Two Jakes score, which I think is brilliant.
timtunes says
Fair do’s – only Webb arranged/produced but I love the arrangement of ‘Everytime We Say Goodbye’ on that album
timtunes says
Jimmy also co-produced this great album with The Supremes – god that chorus….
timtunes says
From Watermark, Crying In My Sleep
H.P. Saucecraft says
From Suspending Disbelief, Adios …
timtunes says
Waylon Jennings
garyjohn says
It’s long but it’s worth it. Isaac.
timtunes says
Awesome choice – despite it’s length never ever get tired of that version
garyjohn says
Agree Tim, incredibly evocative.
timtunes says
Probably my favourite Jimmy tune sung by the best singer of his songs – i just love the ‘I’ve loved you better that your own Kin did’ line
timtunes says
Linda & Jimmy, a heavenly combination
count jim moriarty says
And to top it off, Jimmy sung by Linda with backing vocals arranged and sung by Brian Wilson. Heavenly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls31FT-gvLo
timtunes says
and that Adios becomes a bit more poignant given LR’s current predicament
timtunes says
An interesting cover by Harry Nilsson of Webb’s Campo de Encino (….I don’t think Rhinestone Cowboy mentions that he ‘wants to wipe out VD’)
which a Nilsson blogger has this insight on
This song describes the caricaturized, affluent life of Jimmy Webb during the early 70s at his hacienda in Los Angeles – divided between his sessions of new age therapy, poolside barbecue, sports cars, vegan diets, prolific sex and artistic cynicism. The version proposed by Jimmy Webb is tongue-in-cheek, ironic, distanced. Harry Nilsson’s, by contrast, has a somewhat hallucinogenic quality. His vocal variations color the melody with an Italian reminiscence, as if it were a recollected opera piece. His tormenting alternation, between the two C major and C major 9 chords, all along the verse casts the description in the grizzly tints of a waking dream. The song stops being a sociological chronicling of a successful artist’s biography, detailing like a menu the elements of his quotidian life, and instead invokes the delirious haloed fantasy of someone imagining this pop star life. It is rare for an interpretation to change so drastically the meaning of a song.
garyt says
JW isn’t renowned as a singer, but he acquits himself well on this, a cover of a Harry Nilsson song from a tribute album
garyt says
Best British songwriter alive sings one of his later classics with the master himself:
timtunes says
The Magic Garden – The Fifth Dimension
timtunes says
Goosebumps served by Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfB_CD0ZfEI
Feedback_File says
After the classic Glenn Campbell tracks this may be my favourite JW interpretation
timtunes says
nice version
timtunes says
A prog McArthur’s Park?
mrxsg says
This clip was on a BBC2 program / series? about song writers in the early 90’s.
Jimmy Webb was featured doing this beautiful version of ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’
Unfortunately, the footage I found, doesn’t have the part before he starts, telling the story of how he wrote the song.
If you can watch this all the way through without getting a little something in your eye, then you’re a stronger person than I.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJoi2QpbiF4
mrxsg says
lets try again.
https://youtu.be/sJoi2QpbiF4
mrxsg says
OK. No idea why the video isn’t showing up.
timtunes says
Nice one
That linked to this one with Jimmy – the singing bank manager – and eventually the Lovely Linda (6’20”)
ianess says
Tim- I wasn’t aware till now that ‘Do what you wanna Do’ was one of his. The Four Tops version is stunning, with incredible vocals – ‘it’s my own fault for whatever happens to my heart..’
timtunes says
Yes, they are great lyrics – I like the whole soul-bearing nature