On a frigid snowy night in Buffalo, New York songwriting legend Jimmy Webb strolled onto the stage at The Tralf Music Hall, before an unpacked house of about 200, looking as anonymous as a Neil Diamond cover artist. He sat down at his grand piano and played "The Highwayman," his composition made famous by country music super-group, The Highwaymen; Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.
And that reminds him of a funny story. It's the one about Waylon Jennings strolling off the set of the Dinah Shore show (Dinah!) in the 1970s. While taping the show with The Highwaymen and Webb, Waylon kept wandering off camera interacting with his fellow musicians while playing his guitar, much to the dismay of the camera crew who told him to keep still. Being the free-spirited outlaw he is, Jennings eventually wandered off camera, off stage, and right out of the building as the band played on.
The night was filled with as many stories as music. My favorite was of a drunken night in a London pub with the late Harry Nilsson. In a slip-tongued stupor Nilsson said to Webb, "Do you know what's wrong with your music?" Webb said, "What?" Harry said, "It stinks."
Be it modesty or insecurity, it seemed Webb felt the need to fill the night with the imagery of celebrities more luminous than himself. An anecdotal story with a famous name; Frank Sinatra, Richard Nixon, and Linda Ronstadt to name a few, followed nearly every song. A member of the elite class of songwriters who rose to fame within that perimeter (Burt Bacharach is another), Webb has been recording and performing his own music since 1970.
His list of song credits is astounding; "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Mac Arthur Park," "Up, Up and Away," and countless others including the movie score for the excellent Robert Redford/Robert Blake western Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.
Article comments
1 - william brady
One of those "I wish I would have been there nights"