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Jimmy Webb

Jimmy Webb

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Jimmy Webb: Pizza on the Park, London ***

Live Review by Keith Cameron, The Guardian, 28 October 1999

WHEN THE Boo Radleys wrote a song called 'Jimmy Webb is God' they presumably weren't gripped by a vision of the Lord playing a gig ...

Audio interviews

Jimmy Webb (2005)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 23 March 2005

The Great American Songwriter looks back at his strict Baptist upbringing; the catastrophe of his mother's death; his love of complex chords, and how that has gone missing today; his love of Burt Bacharach and the Beatles; his early LA experiences and becoming a music copyist; the importance of Pet Sounds; his nostalgia for grace, and on his fabulous luck as a songwriter.

File format: mp3; file size: 87.5mb, interview length: 1h 31' 10" sound quality: ****

List of articles in the library

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Jim Webb: Flood Of Grammys — Songwriter Hits the Top at 21

Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 24 March 1968

AT THE AGE of 9, Jim Webb took up the organ, a utilitarian move since his father was (and is) a Baptist minister in Oklahoma ...

Richard Harris Talks About Jim Webb

Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 13 July 1968

On transatlantic phone to NME's Keith Altham ...

Richard Harris: A Tramp Shining (Dunhill)

Review by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 20 July 1968

RICHARD HARRIS-JIM WEBB LP MUST BE BEST SELLER ...

Jimmy Webb Writes For The Lonely

Profile and Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express Annual, December 1968

IT IS VERY difficult for me to be objective about Jim Webb because there are some composers or artists who hit a chord of sympathy ...

Richard Harris: 'He Still Wants To Be A Pop Star..!'

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 15 March 1969

Richard Harris Talking Of His Boy Jim Webb ...

"Jimmy Webb Is A Country Boy", Glen Campbell tells R.M.'s Lon Goddard

Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 3 May 1969

"JIMMY WEBB," explained smooth voiced Glen Campbell, somewhere south of Wichita, but still on the line, "is a likeable easy going country boy. One of ...

Did Jim Webb Really Need Richard Harris?

Report and Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, October 1970

WORK ON the theory that ‘talent will out’ – and Jim Webb, fantastically consistent young American composer, would have made it anyway. In fact, though, ...

Jimmy Webb: And So: On (Reprise RS-6448)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971

ARRIVING IN nearly the same breath as the magnificent Words And Music, this second album by Jimmy Webb is another impressive step in the conspiracy ...

Jimmy Webb, Linda Lewis: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 April 1972

THERE MAY BE something extremely valid in a composer performing his own highly successful material in concert, and though Jimmy Webb accomplished this to a ...

Jimmy Webb: Letters (Reprise)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972

OVER THE LAST four years, I've suffered some of the worst abuse and harassment imaginable simply because of my insistence that Jimmy Webb is the ...

Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 9 April 1977

The Standard Jim Webb ...

Jimmy Webb: Ten Years After 'Phoenix' He's Still Looking For Hit City

Profile and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, June 1977

JIMMY WEBB is the still-under-30 composer who appeared from nowhere nine years ago with a spate of pop hits including 'By the Time I Get ...

Jimmy Webb: An Interview

Interview by Jim Irvin, unpublished, 1997

What first made you want to write a song? ...

Jimmy Webb: Ten Easy Pieces

Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, September 1997

“Unplugged” versions of ten Webb staples, performed at the grand piano by The Man Himself. Vocal cameos by Shawn Colvin (Didn’t We), Marc Cohn (If ...

Up Up and Away Jimmy Webb and The 5th Dimension

Retrospective and Interview by Bill DeYoung, Goldmine, 10 September 1999

ONE OF the most respected songwriters of the modern era, Jimmy Webb was just 18 years old when he struck up a friendship with Marc ...

Jimmy Webb: Tunesmith: Inside The Art Of Songwriting

Book Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, March 2000

GENIUS BEHIND 'MacArthur Park' and 'Wichita Lineman' examines his craft, peruses his muse, and almost makes sense of it all ...

Glen Campbell: 'Wichita Lineman'

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, November 2001

Vital statistics 

on Glen Campbell's 'Wichita Lineman' ...

Jimmy Webb/Paul Williams: Feinstein's at the Regency, Nashville

Live Review by Holly Gleason, Joe's Garage, 17 November 2001

WHEN YOU PUT Paul Williams and Jimmy Webb in a room, you basically have the collective soundtrack of the late '60s and '70s in pop ...

Jimmy Webb: The Moon's A Harsh Mistress

Review and Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, April 2005

The gifted composer of 'Wichita Lineman' and 'MacArthur Park' made five bold, mature solo LPs. Nobody noticed. ...

The Backpages Interview: Jimmy Webb

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2005

RBP: Bones Howe remembered you as being very shy when he first met you circa 1967. Is that how you remember it? ...

Jimmy Webb: The man who made the whole world sing

Interview by John Aizlewood, The Evening Standard, 6 May 2005

Jimmy Webb, composer of classics such as 'Wichita Lineman' and 'Up, Up and Away', is about to step up to the mike for two rare ...

Almost Blue: Jimmy Webb

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, June 2005

JIMMY WEBB is sad. He looks around him at the world we inhabit and sees culture nose-diving everywhere. Subtlety is squeezed, ambiguity flattened. People don’t ...

Interview: Jimmy Webb

Interview by Graham Reid, The New Zealand Herald, 27 August 2005

BEFORE HE WAS 21 Jimmy Webb had already written some of pop's most enduring songs, including 'By The Time I Get To Phoenix' (which Frank ...

Legends of Songwriting: Jimmy Webb

Profile and Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, March 2007

"SOMEONE LEFT the cake out in the rain." No single lyric is more infamous in pop music than the one Jimmy Webb wrote forty years ...

Paperback Writer

Guide by Steve Matteo, Boomer, 17 August 2018

Recent books by and about favorite boomer musicians and influencers ...

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