Tag: jimmy & me

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Art Garfunkel, Angel Clare, 1973 Notes This song is the most famous one of the entire collection. Though it’s been recorded quite a few times, I think the original version is still my favorite. Some have called “Wichita Lineman,” another of Jimmy’s more famous works, the “perfect…

(originally Met Her on a Plane) words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Jimmy Webb, And So: On, 1971 Notes This has always been one of my favorites. Probably because I had an experience very like this once myself. Or twice… This is a prime example of how Jimmy takes a supremely personal moment…

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Jimmy Webb, Letters, 1972 Notes This is the most beautiful song about writing a song I’ve ever heard, and I think it completely blurs the line between poetry and music. Songwriting has always been a mystical thing to me, and “Simile” lays bare that mystery like no…

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Linda Ronstadt, Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind, 1989 Notes Even though I love Ronstadt’s version of this, I’ve always thought it was too short. I guess I just love the song so much I never want it to end. (Ever feel that way about…

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Jimmy Webb, Twilight Of The Renegades, 2005 Notes A friend helped me discover this song, for I had somehow missed it when it was first released. I love how the rootless, restless lyrics float over the rootless, restless harmonies. Just how a song about skywriting should be.…

(aka A Song for My Brother) words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: B. J. Thomas, Billy Joe Thomas, 1972 Notes Speaking of flyin’ games, here’s another. Again we’re chasing after something unattainable. Again we think our flight will never end. It was the last track on B.J. Thomas’s album, Billy Joe Thomas, and…

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Jimmy Webb, Letters, 1972 Notes If after the first six songs you’re still unsure whether Jimmy is a dreamer or not, this one should do the trick. This song is about so much more than racism—don’t stop until you’ve plumbed its depths. It’s about how we live…

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Jimmy Webb, And So: On, 1971 Notes Oh, the images in this song! This one is right up there with Joni’s “River” in the “running away” genre. “If I could fall up the long night, reach to time gone…” These are not only wonderfully evocative lyrics, but…

words & music by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant Favorite version: Jimmy Webb, Letters, 1972 Notes Jimmy didn’t write this song, but I “discovered” it on his Letters album. And the way he sings it, he might as well have written it. As I said, I often performed it, and I think I rather shocked people…

(aka You Might As Well Smile) words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Art Garfunkel, Watermark, 1978 Notes These next three songs are so resolute and positive and indefatigable that I’m hoping they’ll inspire you to forgive me for the previous two… This one’s a lot like the Serenity Prayer, I think—only a lot…

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Jennifer Warnes, soundtrack from Winter People, 1989 Notes Like the last song, it starts out rather ordinary—”all I have to do is”—and then zings you at the end—”catch some lightning in a bottle.” Like it’s the easiest thing in the world. I’ll just take a walk out…

words & music by Jimmy Webb Favorite version: Art Garfunkel, Angel Clare, 1973 Notes Couldn’t think of a better song to end this collection with than this gorgeous lullaby. It’s for my newest grandniece, Mackenzie, my future grandnieces and nephews, my nieces and my nephew; it’s for my sister, my sister-in-law and my brother and…