Jimmy Webb in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., October 2024 (Photo by Thomas K. Arnold, used with permission)
Jimmy Webb’s October 13, 2024, performance at the Coach House concert hall in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., affirmed what Roger McGuinn so eloquently sang in the epic “Russian Hill” on his 1977 Thunderbyrd LP: “It’s not the singer, it’s the tune.”
Webb is one of the most masterful songwriters of the pop era, responsible for some of the most notable “horn pop” hits of the late 1960s, including “Galveston,” “Wichita Lineman” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” each a huge hit for Glen Campbell.
He also wrote the Fifth Dimension’s upbeat “Up, Up and Away”; the melodramatic ballad “MacArthur Park,” a #2 Billboard hit for Irish singer and actor Richard Harris in 1968 and, a decade later, a disco smash for Donna Summer; and “Highwayman,” which he recorded for one of his own albums in 1977 and then saw climb the charts eight years later when it was recorded by country supergroup the Highwaymen, consisting of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.
Jimmy Webb in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., October 2024 (Photo by Thomas K. Arnold, used with permission)
Bob Dylan reportedly called “Wichita Lineman” “the greatest song ever written.” Bruce Springsteen has said his 2019 LP, Western Stars, was heavily influenced by Webb’s songs. In 2003, Michael Feinstein recorded an entire album of Jimmy Webb songs. And in 2010, and again in 2013, Webb released an album of duets, singing his classics with such admirers as Campbell, Linda Ronstadt, David Crosby, Brian Wilson, Art Garfunkel, Billy Joel and Mark Knopfler.
Accompanying himself on piano, Webb performed all of these hits and more, the strength of his songs more than compensating for his average-guy-singing-in-the-shower vocals. This is not meant to be harsh—it’s just that the songs themselves are so magical, so perfect, that they have become so closely identified with their hit recordings that anything less sounds like an injustice.
Webb peppered his show with stories and anecdotes from his illustrious career, which took off in the mid-1960s when he began writing songs for Jobete Music, the publishing arm of Motown Records. “They paid me $50 a song,” he said. He also talked about his lifelong musical partnership, and close personal friendship, with Campbell. “I swore when Glen died that as long as I could play the piano, he would not be forgotten,” Webb said, to resounding applause.
He also spoke of his early days growing up in rural Oklahoma, the son of a Baptist minister. His mother pushed him to learn piano so he could play in church, but music didn’t become a passion until he began writing songs and discovering he had a talent for it. “I’ve had a good life, but my childhood was hell,” he told the audience. “Preacher’s kid, nearsighted, wore glasses, had a mother who made me play piano…couldn’t play baseball, couldn’t play football, nobody liked me, nobody loved me…”
Jimmy Webb in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., October 2024 (Photo by Thomas K. Arnold, used with permission)
Webb, 78, opened his show with “Highwayman,” a song about reincarnation that he told the audience he was initially reluctant to pitch to the four country legends until Johnny Cash, a devout Christian, excitedly extolled, “I want to fly the starship,” referring to the opening line of the fourth verse. Webb drew laughter from the crowd when he talked about how different each of the four Highwaymen sounded, particularly Willie Nelson, “who kind of sings like the guy who mows your lawn.”
Next came “Up, Up and Away,” which Webb wrote after the end of his deal with Jobete. Johnny Rivers, who had just recorded “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” for his 1966 Changes LP, was producing a new group called the Fifth Dimension and turned to Webb for songs. Webb ended up contributing five to the pop group’s debut LP, including “Up, Up and Away,” a big Top 40 hit.
Watch Webb perform “Highwayman” earlier in 2024
He then performed “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” first recorded by Joe Cocker in 1974 and later covered by Judy Collins and Ronstadt, and followed it with “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” which according to BMI was the third-most-performed song in the 50 years between 1940 and 1990.
He told the audience the song had originally been written for Jobete, “and when I left they gave me a bunch of songs. Take this ‘Up, Up and Away’—the Supremes will never do that. And take that ‘Galveston,’ we don’t do town songs—and take this ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’… they were just passing out songs like it was Christmas, giving me all my songs back.”
Webb’s most interesting story was about “Do What You Gotta Do,” made famous in 1968 by Nina Simone. Kanye West in 2016 recorded a cover of the song, without permission, featuring Rihanna on the chorus and with a rap track over it, and renamed it “Famous.” When Webb raised a stink, he recalls, “I ended up getting 46 percent of the royalties.”
Webb ended his set with another song that is enjoying a new burst of popularity, and generating him royalties: “MacArthur Park,” featured in the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie. The song is reportedly a favorite of director Tim Burton, so he put it in his movie. “That’s how we make our money now,” Webb quipped.
Watch Webb and Glen Campbell duet on “MacArthur Park” in 2010
He also performed “The Worst That Could Happen,” originally recorded by the Fifth Dimension in 1967 and a big hit two years later for the Brooklyn Bridge, and “Wichita Lineman,” which Webb noted is one of his most covered. Even Guns N’ Roses has been playing it live on their reunion tour, he said.
Watch Jimmy Webb perform “Wichita Lineman” at an earlier concert
Between songs, Webb railed against the low royalties from streaming and “lame-ass AI songs…by the way, we’re going to fight them to the death on that. We will be bleeding corpses before robots write music.”
Scampering around the Coach House, camera bag swinging, was legendary photographer Henry Diltz, 86 years old. He took the iconic cover shots for more than 500 albums, including the first CSN LP and the Doors’ Morrison Hotel, and is a longtime friend of Webb. In 1971, the two nearly died in a glider aircraft accident. Webb was the pilot and Diltz was shooting 35 mm motion picture film from the rear seat.
Jimmy Webb ranks right up there with the best of the storytellers. Here’s hoping he’s “still on the line” for years to come. [His recordings are available here.]
Watch Jimmy Webb sing “Up, Up and Away” in 2018
Related: Our interview with Jimmy Webb
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