Tunesmith: The Songs of Jimmy Webb

Product Description
A lavish tribute to the master songwriter. 47 tracks, over 150 minutes, including both legendary hits, elusive rarities, soundtrack songs, & material previously unavailable on CD. Artists include Richard Harris, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Everything But The Girl, Kenny Loggins, & many more. Raven. 2003.

Tunesmith: The Songs of Jimmy Webb,Various Artists,Raven [Australia],Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop Collections,V/A Compilations

Tunesmith: The Songs of Jimmy Webb

Average customer rating:

One for the Road
Ohmygod!
Not intendended to be definitive
An interesting Jimmy Webb collection, but not a great one

Tunesmith: The Songs of Jimmy Webb
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Raven [Australia]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Compilations | Rock | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0000DIJPE
Release Date: 2003-11-10

Tracks:

Love Years Coming - Strawberry Children
I Keep On Keeping On - The Contessas
Worst That Could Happen - Brooklyn Bridge
How Sweet It Is - The Picardy Singers
Up, Up And Away - 5th Dimension
The Girl's Song - Jackie DeShannon
Tunesmith - Vicki Carr
Requiem:820 Latham - The Executives
Magic Garden - Dusty Springfield
Galveston - Glen Campbell
Just Another Piece Of Paper - Glen Campbell
Macarthur Park - Richard Harris
If Ships Were Made To Sail - Scott Walker
Where Does Brown Begin? - Scott Walker
Song Seller - Paul Revere & The Raiders
Clowns Exit Laughing - The Fortunes
When It Was Done - Hugo Montenegro
She Never Smiles Anymore - The Mike Perjanik Complex
Do What You Gotta Do - Four Tops
Honey Come Back - Junior Walker & The All Stars
By The Time I Get To Phoenix - Stevie Wonder
My Christmas Tree - Temptations
Didn't We - Dionne Warwick
Mixed-Up Girl - Nancy Wilson

Tracks:

P.F. Sloan - The Association
Wichita Lineman/By The Time I Get To Phoenix - King Harvest
All My Love's Laughter - Jennifer Warnes
The Moon's A Harsh Mistress - Judy Collins
Parenthesis - Kerry Biddell
The Name Of My Sorrow - Mark Lindsay
The Old Man At The Fair - Mark Lindsay
Met Her On A Plane - Ian Matthews
All I Know - Art Garfunkel
5:30 Plane - The Supremes
Cheap Lovin' - The Supremes
Everybody Gets To Go To The Moon - The Three Degrees
She Moves, Eyes Follow - Kenny Rankin
Oklahoma Nights - Arlo Guthrie
The Highwayman - The Highwaymen
Himmler's Ring - Lowell George
Lost Generation - Onie J. Holy
The Last Unicorn - Kenny Loggins
Where's The Playground Susie? - Everything But The Girl
Wichita Lineman - R.E.M.
You Can't Treat The Wrong Man Right - Linda Ronstadt
Adios - Linda Ronstadt

Album Description

A lavish tribute to the master songwriter. 47 tracks, over 150 minutes, including both legendary hits, elusive rarities, soundtrack songs, & material previously unavailable on CD. Artists include Richard Harris, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Everything But The Girl, Kenny Loggins, & many more. Raven. 2003.

Album Details

Featuring Richard Harris, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, REM, Everything but the Girl, Kenny Loggins, Art Garfunkel, Dusty Springfield, Fifth Dimension, Temptations, Four Tops, Glen Campbell, Jennifer Warnes, Highwaymen, Scott Walker and Jackie Deshannon. Includes Rare Singles, Album Tracks and Soundtrack Songs, and Tracks Not Previously Available on CD.

Customer Reviews:

One for the Road.......2004-10-16

Jimmy Webb's "Tunesmith" is an excellent collection. With long drives to Pennsylvania & Kentucky, I found myself putting "Tunesmith" in the car and having the best time listening to it for many miles on the road. For those of us who love Jimmy Webb as a singer, nothing replaces listening to the master in his own voice. However, this collection by the Australian Raven label is exceptional and well worth seeking out stateside. Any collection of Webb's music will have omissions since he is one of the most recorded songwriters of the last century.

"Love Years Coming" kicks things off with Jimmy singing lead in a band called Strawberry Children. This is a true collector's piece, one I'd never heard before. Some of the gems are lesser-known work like "I Keep On Keeping On" by the Contessas, an r&b girl group. The Picardy Singers are a tight-knit pop harmony band sounding like they could be cousins of the Mamas & the Papas singing in dated 60s vibe on "How Sweet It Is." If you had asked me to list my favorite artists, Vicki Carr probably wouldn't be on the list; however, here she sings the title tune of this set and does a great job. Scott Walker may be better known down under, but he does a journeyman's job on two of Jimmy's most beautiful and thoughtful songs, "If Ships Were Made to Sail" and "Where Does Brown Begin?" Paul Revere & the Raiders rock out on Webb's "Songseller," cleaning up the lyric from Jimmy's use of the "f" word in his "Words & Music" version. Junior Walker & the All Stars cut a nice soulful groove on "Honey Come Back," "I just can't stand these lonely days." Jennifer Warnes sang a version of "All My Loves Laughter" that was one of my favorite tracks before Jimmy Webb was on my radar screen; its inclusion here makes this collection perfectly exquisite! Neither the song "Parenthesis" nor the singer Kerry Biddell were familiar, but this is a classic Webb construction, slightly off-kilter but perfectly fitting into place. This is one I'd love to hear Webb unearth and record. The Three Degrees do a wacky version of "Everybody Gets to Go to the Moon" that from the live chatter sounds like it must have been included in the film "The French Connection." It pops. Onie J. Holy is another obscure name for me, a male soul singer who belts out a version of a song that was also unfamiliar to me, "Lost Generation."

Some will enjoy this set for the more obvious choices. Yes, the 5th Dimension sound as crisp on "Up, Up & Away." Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park" still has the cake out in the rain. The package has a charm betraying its Australian roots as Judy Collins' picture is listed as belonging to Australian actress Judy Davis --an honest mistake! "Tunesmith" is a great set because it makes available a wide variety of songs and artists who have participated in the Jimmy Webb legacy. The sound is technically crisp. Hearing R.E.M. do "Wichita Lineman" is a great treat as is Kenny Loggins' version of "The Last Unicorn" that is somewhat hard to find. This collection gets five stars for its breadth and depth. Seek it out! Enjoy!

Ohmygod!.......2004-01-08

It is surely a testament to the strength and breadth of Mr. Webb's body of work that these reviews are so similar: "Interesting overview; quirky, uneven track selection; etc. Some real gems. But Ohmygod! How could you leave out such and such? If I were compiling a Jimmy Webb CD..."

Well, about two years ago (thanks to the wonders of CD-Rs and Kazaa, and my own CD collection) I DID compile for myself a Jimmy Webb CD. If this is your introduction to Mr. Webb, it is an OK beginning. Buy it. But also look into the suggestions made in the other reviews. (Maybe the Raven Records people had trouble getting the rights to some of these. Maybe buying this CD will give me some cover with the RIAA :-)

Here's my "Ohmygod!" list.
- Mark Lindsay's "First Hymn From Grand Terrace" (and Richard Harris' "Hymns From..." for that matter. "When It Was Done", included here, is AKA the 2nd Hymn.)
- Any of the versions of "If These Walls Could Speak"; Nancy Griffith, Glen Campbell, my favorite is Amy Grant's version.
- Matt Monroe's "Didn't We" instead of the one here.
- Brooklyn Bridge's "Requiem" instead.
- Brooklyn Bridge's or 5th Dimension's "Which Way to Nowhere"
- Johnny Rivers' "Do What you Gotta Do" (I've managed to find versions of this by Cher, Roberta Flack, Sammy Davis, Nina Simone, Ronstadt, Clarance Carter. What a song!)
- Ronstadt's or the Vogues' "I Keep It Hid"
- Ronstadt's or Glen Cambell's "Still within the Sound of My Voice"
- A bunch of Art Garfunkel; "Someone Else" "Shine It On Me" "Saturday Suit" "Crying in My Sleep" "Another Lullaby" "All My Love's Laughter"
- Leah Kunkel's "Never Gonna Lose My Dream Of Love Again" and "Let's Begin"

And that doesn't even touch Mr. Webb's own versions (particularly his "P.F. Sloan". As good as the
Association's is bad.)

Not intendended to be definitive.......2004-01-02

Not intendended to be a definitive document, this 2-CD sampler offers an intriguing pop overview of the tunes of a true musical master. This overview represents but a portion of the pop history of tunesmith Jim Webb. Think of a map with the big cities represented by bold stars, smaller cities by smaller stars, towns by dots, on down to locations too minor to even note. This 2-CD map offered to us by Australia's Raven Records provides a sampling of the big stars on down to names too obscure to even note on most maps. Hence, what we are given is a document that shows the impact that Jim Webb has on the pop music culture beginning in the latter sixties. Everyone it seems attempted to pay tribute to Webb, from the mega stars on down to the minor artists of the day. Some succeeded and some, inexplicibly in a number of cases, did not. Pop, rock, and R&B artists all tried their hand at recording Webb. Vocalists with trained voices, pop-hipsters with passable voices, vocal groups, country singers, folk troubadors, soul icons...this remarkable set is like turning on AM radio in the sixties when we heard a variety of musical styles--and got a chance to appreciate all types of music.
Yes, if you believe only Jim Webb can interpret Jim Webb, then stick with the artist's library of fine CDs. If you are open to interpretation of the work of Webb, then don't miss out on the many excellent CDs devoted exclusively to Jim Webb ny artists such as Michael Feinstein, Fifth Dimension, Thelma Houston, etc. plus the sampler CDs with Webb tunes interpreted by artists as diverse as Buddy Greco, Joe Cocker, and Rex Harrison. Hey, can't listening can also be a fun experience?
Lastly, all of you SERIOUS Jim Webb collectors out there, please note that sometime in 2004 Rhino will release a boxed set by Jim Webb.

An interesting Jimmy Webb collection, but not a great one.......2003-12-06

Jimmy Webb is one of the greatest popular composers and arrangers of the rock era, no question. The list of brilliant songs that carry his name is tremendous: The Moon's A Harsh Mistress, Witchita Lineman, MacArthur Park, Galveston, Worst That Could Happen, All I Know, for starters. And those are just some of the best known hits. He's written a LOT more that are every bit as good, if less well known.

I was intrigued by this collection because it does NOT feature the expected tracklist. While some of the best known hits are here in their hit versions (Up UP and Away, MacArthur Park, Galveston, Worst That Could Happen), a good many others are represented by obscure and/or rare versions. Unfortunately, in the end, a lot of these obscure versions turn out to be deservedly obscure.

That said, it's almost worth the price of the entire collection to have the rare Strawberry Children (written, arranged and sung by Jimmy Webb) 45 "Love Coming Down" on CD. Surely it's worth hearing some of the other excellent covers, such as Jackie DeShannon's "The Girls Song", Dusty Springfield's "Magic Garden", Scott Walker's "If Ships Were Made to Sail" and Ian Matthews' "Met Her On a Plane". And even some of the odder tracks are worth hearing (Lowell George's "Himmlers Ring" and Onie J. Holy's "Lost Generation").

But does anyone really want to hear The Association's hideous take on "P.F. Sloan"? Other songs are here in inferior versions, such as Art Garfunkel's "All I Know" (a later remake, not the original hit) and the live version of "Everyone Gets to Go to the Moon" by the Three Degrees.

Ultimately, a lot of good Webb songs are missing here entirely, while others are not represented by the best performer. (Truth be told, the definitive versions of a lot of the songs here were sung by Webb himself on a series of excellent but little heard solo albums; perhaps the best examples of this are Webb's versions of "Galveston", "Where Does Brown Begin" and "Highwayman"). A true best-of Jimmy Webb would surely have to include a good portion of the many Glen Campbell covers, as well as nearly all of Art Garfunkel's Watermark album.

But any Jimmy Webb is better than none at all. And even if this isn't my dream Webb collection, at least it's an attempt at something interesting, with some unusual and seldom heard tracks.

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