Jimmy Webb headlines Daryl’s House Club

The iconic singer-songwriter talks with WAG’s Gregg Shapiro about the importance of the songwriter, his hardscrabble Oklahoma upbringing and friendship with the late Glen Campbell.

Beginning in the mid-1960s and continuing to the present day, singer/songwriter Jimmy Webb has been an audible part of our consciousness.

The songs he wrote that were recorded by Glen Campbell (“Wichita Lineman,” “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” and “Galveston”), The 5th Dimension (“Up, Up and Away”), Art Garfunkel (“All I Know”), and Richard Harris and Donna Summer (“MacArthur Park”), among many others, established him as one of the most important songwriters of his generation. As you might imagine, there is more to Webb than his unforgettable songs and, in his new memoir, “The Cake and the Rain” (St. Martin’s Press, $26.99, 346 pages), he fills in the details through the early 1970s:

Jimmy Webb. Photograph by Sasa Tkalcan/Helsinki Festival.

Jimmy, why was now the time to write your memoir, “The Cake and The Rain”?

“My first book, ‘Tunesmith: The Art of Songwriting,’ gave me the opportunity to write about my craft, songwriting. This book, ‘The Cake and the Rain,’ gave me the freedom of space to write what I was thinking about during the ’60s, to have more than a three-and-a-half-minute song to explain where I was and what I was feeling and to paint a picture of the ’60s and the music scene. I am 70 years old. Let’s be honest, there is more behind me than in front of me. It was time to start sharing these stories.” 

In telling your story, you play with the timeline. 

“Thank you for mentioning the timeline. This format took dedication and made the writing much more complicated. I write the story in two distinct and contrasting story lines. The first is in Technicolor — Hollywood, stardom, the girls, the fast cars and planes. The entwined story line is the stark black and white of my childhood in Oklahoma, the poor, rural life that surrounded me, my proud, hard-working grandparents. It is about our itinerant preacher family lifestyle. Both timelines tell the story of who I am, where my songs come from and what America looked like during those years. At the end, the timelines meet — or crash, actually. 

In the book, you show respect for other songwriters by your use of citations. Song titles are followed by the songwriters’ names in parentheses. 

“That was very important to me because, obviously, I am a songwriter. Mr. Sinatra pushed many a songwriter into the spotlight by mentioning their names from his stage. He did that for me more than once. My friend and collaborator Glen Campbell would do that as well. Before the singer/songwriter era, which brought us James Taylor, Carole King, Billy Joel, before bands wrote their own material, there were actual songwriters who provided the songs. They didn’t sing them; they wrote them. Most often it was a team where one wrote music and one wrote lyrics. I actually do both on all of my songs. 

Book cover by Garth Sadler.

“Mr. Sinatra, Tom Jones, Barbra Streisand: They are pure singers who relied and still rely on the byproducts of our poet craftsman songwriters to provide their material. I am dedicated to promoting songwriters and continuing this craft in the highest form possible. It is my duty to remind the readers of the names of these great songwriters.” 

Boats, airplanes and especially cars figure prominently in “The Cake and the Rain.” How do these various modes of transportation and, by extension, means of escape, figure into your life?

“I love toys — always loved them as a child, because they were so few and far between. I grew up during the golden era of the American V-8 automobile. My Dad bought me a ’56 Olds when I was 15 years old. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen before or since. Sailplanes and yachts share the same magical quality of propelling themselves seemingly without outside input. Of course, the game of using wind power is the ultimate three-dimensional thrill — save perhaps one.”

“The Cake and the Rain” ends in 1973. Does this mean that that is as much of your story as you wanted to tell or have you started work on the next installment?

“Publishers have a strong feeling about how many words should be in a book. I had a lot of stories to tell and the event in 1973 that ended the book seemed like a natural stopping point. My life changed dramatically after that. I have plenty of stories that didn’t fit in the first half and more to tell from 1973 on. I am anxious to start another book, after I finish writing this current portfolio of songs.”

As someone who has written stage musicals, how would you feel about a biographical jukebox musical, such as Carole King’s “Beautiful” or The Four Seasons’ “Jersey Boys” being done about you?

“Wow, now that would be an honor and a pleasure.”

In addition to the publication of your memoir, 2017 finds you as a presence on Glen Campbell’s final studio recording, “Adios.” What does it mean to you have your songs featured prominently on this project?

“The first time I heard that album I was on tour, in some hotel somewhere. I will be honest, I cried. I have four songs on that album, four songs that Glen (who died Aug. 8) and I always talked about recording and never got around to. By some miracle, and the love of producer Carl Jackson, these songs have now been recorded. Glen’s voice is in fine form. That is the sound of my friend Glen, and his voice on these songs is a new memory I did not expect and that I will always cherish.” 

Jimmy Webb performs Nov. 3 at Daryl’s House Club in Pawling. For more, visit darylshouseclub.com.

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