Last night, The NYC Composers Meetup arranged a concert/Q&A with songwriting legend Jimmy Webb (way to go, Preston!). He’s still writing great music, after scoring hits with Glen Campbell (Witchita Lineman, By The Time I Get To Phoenix), and The Fifth Dimension (Up, Up, And Away).
When I entered the small theatre (The Cell, W 23rd), I walked down to the front row, which was full, aside from a few bags on a seat at the end where I was standing. Jimmy Webb was standing nearby, and noticing my new Shoot The Messenger t-shirt underneath my coat, said ‘Wow, that’s cool.’ Being a little distracted looking for a seat, I thought he was making a sarcastic comment on the name tag I’d just stuck on my chest, so I said nothing.
Noticing my scanning eyes, Jim said ‘would you like me to move those bags?’ I said ‘that would be great,’ after which he moved them to a nearby table. On return, I said to Jim ‘Wow, you’re a great host’ to which he replied ‘Hi, I’m Jim,’ as he held out his hand, and shook.
What a nice welcome! (I’d actually met him briefly 19 months earlier, at the ASCAP Songwriting Conference in LA). So I took my seat in the front row, my Jimmy-made seat, and was enthralled for about 90 minutes, as the man told great stories in between playing piano and singing some of his greatest hits.
During the break, I approached Jim, and started a discussion about song promotion. At one point, I asked him what was the gutsiest thing he ever did to promote his songs. He responded by telling how he went to the offices of Motown with a cassette tape (age 19, the only white person in the place), and was almost laughed out by the secretary. She took note of his slenderness, suggested he eat better, and took pity on him. Within a few minutes, he heard his tape playing in the back.
From this, Jim scored his first royalty check–for a song on a Supremes Christmas album–and his first hit tune, “Honey Come Back,” which Glenn Campbell would re-release in 1970. He also went on to do The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb.
It was about this point in our talk when I suggested he document all these great stories in an autobiography. Jim said he was waiting for the right publisher. Someday.
He had already told amazing stories of palling around with Richard Harris, his collaborator on MacArthur Park, including how MP came to be recorded.
Jim met RH at a political fundraiser (for Bobby Kennedy?), where they became fast drinking buddies, singing songs around a piano afterwards. RH took a real shine to him.
Some time later, RH hosted Jim at his sisters’ place in London for a few weeks. On the first night, RH asked him to play some of his songs on an upright piano in the apartment. Jim pulls out a folder of charts, and went through several of (what he thought were) his best songs, only to have RH show little excitement. ‘What else ya got, Jimmy Webb?’ (RH always called him by both of his names.)
Now Jimmy Webb was at the ‘bottom of the pile,’ as he tells it. He plays RH MacArthur Park, and RH is floored. ‘That’s the one, Jimmy Webb, yes!’ The rest is …
Some pre-history: the reason the MacArthur Park was at the bottom of the pile was because the Association (Windy, Cherish, Along Comes Mary) had rejected it, after giving Jim carte blanche to write anything he wanted for them. This commission had come through producer Bones Howe.
Trivia question: what brought Jimmy Webb to the attention of the Association? Jim said, but I can’t remember.
You know your song’s made it when Wierd Al Yankovic does it.
Today, Jimmy Webbs’ catalogue of songs ranks second in total airplay only to the songs of Lennon and McCartney. (reference)
In sum, a most inspiring and memorable night.