Until yesterday, I’d only been aware of the Glen Campbell version of the Jimmy Webb composed “Galveston”. Campbell’s take on the song was terrific, but upon discovering that one of my favourite comedians (yeah, Ricky Gervais) had chosen Webb’s rendition as one of his desert island discs on the BBC Radio 4 program called, funnily enough, Desert Island Discs, I had to hear Webb perfoming that stupendous country hit. Thanks to iTunes it took all of five seconds to find the track, and it’s now listed among the 25 most played songs on my iPod. Apparently, Webb’s a spiritual man, which isn’t a surprise because he sings straight from the soul. Webb’s “Galveston” will from now on be on my list of desert island discs, alongside such other wonders as Neil Young’s “Old Man”, Kristina Olsen’s “Cry You a Waterfall”, and Elton John’s “Daniel” (yeah, desert island discs aren’t about being hip). Incidentally, Webb’s website says that he’ll be playing in Melbourne and Sydney in April, although a telephone call to the Arts Centre revealed that they’re unaware of the Melbourne gig. Ignore the imagery in the YouTube video, and just listen to the song.
63 Responses to “Galveston, oh Galveston”
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Absolutely. The piano intro alone.
Not a patch on the Campbell version. Sounds like he’s just about to start “gabbin’ about God” I don’t think it’s possible to ignore the visuals. Bad version, risible video.
Galveston, yes.
Old Man, yes.
Daniel, my brother, yes.
Havn’t heard Kristina Olsen’s “Cry You a Waterfall” yet, but her “My Father’s Piano” sure hits the spot. Be-yewd-i-ful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB93wbbb8ic
TWOP – if you think that version is bad, you only need go to his website (linked above) and buy the double CD set “Jimmy Webb Archive and Live”, as I did a month ago. I didn’t think Jimmy Webb songs could sound that bad – the very worst of the tasteless 70s!
I’m not against the tasteless 70’s, quite the contrary, but this I don’t like.
Thankyou Darlene,
It is now on high rotation in the Growler Household. Even the munchkins like.
Coincidentally I was listening to Jimmy Webb’s “Ten Easy Pieces” CD today, in which Mr Webb plays his classic songs on piano.
“Galveston”, “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”, “The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress”, “Highwayman” — all great songs. Although “Macarthur Park” is also included. I guess someone had to leave the cake out in the rain.
Jimmy’s not the strongest singer, but I’m still annoyed that there’s no Brisbane gig.
Dear Darlene,
I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road
Searchin’ in the sun for another overload
I hear you singin’ in the wire, I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line
I know I need a small vacation but please send picture soon.
Love,
joe2
I second he recommendation (if indeed thats what it was) of Ten Easy Pieces.
Ah the 70s.
As in Joe Cocker.
Who I saw perform live at “Barossa Under the Stars” last Satdee evening.
The crowd was warmed up by Renee Geyer and then heated up by Jimmy Barnes. Both worth the price of the ticket. Rockin’ and a boppin’ everywhere, I swear the average age of the audience was 50 plus. I rocked until the trick knee gave way.
Then came Joe.
Marvellous performance, at least 3 show stoppers, “You are So Beautiful’ sung to an audience that was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop [OK we were outside on the grass but you know what I mean], “You Can keep Your Hat On’, “Delta Lady”, “With a Little Help from My Friends” [and the band behind him was really helpful], he just got better and better.
And I was not the designated driver.
A great night.
Thirded. The piano intro to Witchita Lineman is even better than this one.
Saw him here in Adders a few years ago, and no he doesn’t have the best voice on the planet but it’s not about the singing.
I have now fished out the Ten Easy Pieces CD for tomorrows commute, because, yes the piano playing is terrific. Next to Ten Easy Pieces was my Glen Campbell “20 Golden Greats” CD which I looked at and thought “What’s wrong with that picture of Glen?” So I fished even deeper and found the original cassette copy, which has a picture of Glen, but you’re looking at Glen through the hole in the middle of a vinyl LP, and that (rather large) hole is in the shape of a heart. Ah the pre-ironic 1970s. So Darlene, what does the removal of the heart iconography on the CD cover tell us about the change in popular culture, over these last 30 dismal years?
Another recommendation for Ten Easy Pieces. Also, listen out for Michael McDonald (ex-Doobie Bros) singing harmony in the middle-eight(?) of Galveston – ahhhhh!!! He’s does good anecdotes live, and his pianny playing is as Pavlov’s Cat said: much better than his voice.
Speaking of singer-songwriters did anyone catch Rufus Wainwright? I think he played Adelaide this evening. I saw him last night at Wrest Point Casino in Hobart – just solo, but his voice blew the roof off, and he can play the piano, too!
Speaking of singer-songwriters and people who are still good 40 years on, I went looking for Rufus’s sis Martha (whom I think is better — saw them both performing with their mum and auntie on their post-Leonard Cohen tribute Australian tour a few years ago) on YouTube — and found the pair of them singing their father’s song ‘One Man Guy’ with the legendary Richard Thompson’s boy Teddy, from which it was just one click to this family duet. Never mind the visual, cop the audio.
If Jimmy Webb’s upcoming shows are anything like the APRA Masterclass he conducted at The Continental in Prahran about 15 years ago, then run, fly (up, up and away), don’t walk to get tickets.
It was just him on stage with a grand piano and, yes not much of a voice, but an incredible songbook of his own compositions and great stories to tell about how he came to write them, delivered in a laid back southern drawl with superb timing.
People in the audience like Paul Kelly and Mark Seymour were hanging off his every word as he deconstructed his own songs with immense knowledge of the whole 20th century songwriting canon and techniques and some great deadpan oneliners.
A grab bag of what I remember from that marvelous night.
He introduced “Phoenix”, “Galveston” and “Wichita” as his Rand McNally set.
Demonstrated how the chord progression in “Macarthur Park” was based on a clumsy ripoff from Bach and then said “I know what you’re thinking. What do the lyrics mean? I wrote it when I was about 19 years old. I have no idea either.”
Reminisced about sneaking blues and soul riffs into his organ playing as a teenager during his Dad’s church services and what it was like to be the first white songwriter signed to Motown.
Played some fragments of his unrealised dream project, a musical based on Ray Bradbury’s “October Country” (he’s a major SF buff) which fell apart when his key Broadway theatrical partners died of AIDS – which lead him into a very unchristian rave about how Ronald Reagan’s administration mishandled AIDS public health campaigns.
Talked about how he kept a night journal so when he woke up with some weird words running through his head, he could jot them down and then sometimes/eventually write a song to find out what they could have meant. I wasn’t the only person in the audience nodding their head in agreement at this point.
Even though he was pushing 50, he charmed every woman (and not a few men) in the audience with his easy ridin’ silver fox sex appeal.
And then after a late supper downstairs afterwards for around 20 people, with mucho expensive booze being consumed, he deftly and unostentatiously picked up the four figure tab. When called on this, he just sorta shrugged and muttered something about how it’s better to give than to receive. Especially as his songwriting royalties from “Phoenix” alone could have bought the whole bloody town.
He was a class act and a real fount of knowledge about songwriting from Berlin, Porter, Arlen, Cahn, Mercer, Rogers and Hart, Lieber and Stoller, William to Lennon and MacCartney, Sondheim, Templeton and Rodgers and Edwards.
If he gets talking about this kinda stuff during his upcoming shows here, then that’s the time to really listen to his voice.
Teddy Thompson had a great record out last year, of classic country covers called “Up Front and Downlow.” It was my Best of 2007.
Amanda, I really liked Teddy’s version of the Leonard Cohen songs on I’m Your Man, so will give “Up Frong and Downlow” a listen.
Yes, that piano intro, PC, chokes me up.
Have to agree to disagree with The Worst of Perth on this one, which is fine and dandy.
My Father’s Piano; great stuff, EC. I first heard Cry You a Waterfall at the Woodford Folk Festival a year and a bit ago. It was New Year’s Eve, and the first anniversary of the death of a loved one had just gone by. Hearing Kristina sing that song that night was something special.
Cheers, Growler. And of course munchkins are not easy to please.
Cheers for that, Joe2. Incidentally, Webb’s Wichita Lineman is pure bliss.
Hannah’s Dad, you saw that show? Old Cocker has still got it. PC did a post not so long ago on her blog which discussed the Australian Idol style of singing. Joe mightn’t be the best singer in the world, but by crikey he’s got something; something special. I’d say the same about Webb.
“So Darlene, what does the removal of the heart iconography on the CD cover tell us about the change in popular culture, over these last 30 dismal years?”
That we’re a pack of miserable bastards and that CD covers aren’t conducive to such things, I guess. Yes, the pre-ironic days. Perhaps the lack of irony is what touches the heart about some of the songs that have been mentioned.
Didn’t catch Rufus. Didn’t fancy Rufus’s last CD, but like his renditions of Cohen.
I read something where Webb said the cake in “Macarthur Park” was just a metaphor for a dying relationship. Thanks for telling us about the masterclass Webb conducted. Sounds like a real treat.
I’m down with Teddy. His cover of Cohen’s ‘Tonight will be fine’ gives me shivers. http://youtube.com/watch?v=8W89j6GjPDI
I have to confess to liking the Webb version, and now thinking that the Glen Campbell version suffered from over-production (a common enough 60s malady, although nowhere near as bad as the current decade’s malady of running a techno groove through melodic ballads which were never meant to be doofdoofdoofdoofed).
Desert island CDs – the original, self-titled album by Rufus’s mum and auntie, plus various other Canadian masterpieces headed by Thrasher by Neil Young and North-West Passage by Stan Rogers.
Nabs, envy envy envy — I’d intended to go to that but it was cold and raining and across town and I was sick and piked and have regretted it ever since.
I’m sure the current tour will be like that — I think it’s an integral part of his show. He did a lot of really interesting talking around the songs when I saw him here a few years ago, including the talking-through-chord-progressions stuff which was fabulous. (His 1970 album Words and Music, which was the first album I ever bought (thank you, Julia Zemiro), contains an early version of the mashup — tracks of ‘Let it Be Me’, ‘I Wanna Be Free’ and ‘Never My Love’ laid over the top of each other in a way that brings out the similarities of time signature and chord progression as well as the palimpsestic lyrics, or do I mean pentimento?*)
In my travels around YouTube last night I was looking for reference to a great song from that early album called ‘P.F. Sloan’ and stumbled on some footage of said PF in the flesh — he’s a legendary songwriter himself (‘Eve of Destruction’) who disappeared from the music scene almost as soon as he arrived on it — but he appears to be making some sort of comeback!
*Both
You lucky ducks. The versions of “Galveston” and “Wichita Lineman” that I first remember as a kid were the covers by, um, uh, Jim Nabors. Actually they weren’t that bad, I kind of liked them. (“Surprise, surprise, surprise.”) Luckily, though, my Dad also had a sweet tooth for Sinatra, and the two Johnnys –Cash and Mathis– so I didn’t grow up to be quite as insane as the doctors were predicting.
“‘P.F. Sloan’… — he’s a legendary songwriter himself (’Eve of Destruction’)”
Great. So now I know who to blame for that one. Actually, I should thank him, it’s a comedy classic.
I never knew until recently that Jimmy Webb wrote the mad “Macarthur Park.” I would love to talk to him about it some time… the park, that is, not the song.
Penny Lane is in my ears, and in my eyes…
Yes Paul, Kate and Anna’s debut is a masterpiece alright. The follow-up, Dancer With Bruised Knees wasn’t half bad either. As far as debuts go though, I reckon Teddy’s dad did great on Henry The Human Fly.
Ten Easy Pieces would come close to making the cut, but there’d have to be a Cohen album in there somewhere.
The rest of Ricky’s list is very fine, including as it does my most favourite song ever.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20070624.shtml
“Penny Lane is in my ears, and in my eyes…”
Sonofabiatch!!! That song, bless its fuzzy little cotton socks, pops into my head unbidden every week or so and stays for a day or more. This has been happening for about three years now, since I sung it to myself in the pouring rain, drunk as an Irishman and walking home from a particularly rockin’ Kelley Stoltz gig at the Tote*.
[Anyone in Melbourne this weekend might want to try to get a ticket for his show at the Corner - he's pretty tops for psyched-out pop-rock. Also, you might notice his FOH engineer is like super-hawt and talented.
]
Anyway, thanks a lot j_p_z – that song needs no encouragement when I’m around. Just bursts in when it pleases.
*Said bastion of filthy beer-soaked ear-splitting RAWK is under threat. It’s been purchased by the scum who turned the Punter’s Club into a handbag-House and pizza joint (Bimbo Deluxe), then did the same to the Duke of Windsor (now the Lucky Coq. Oh, my sides, they are splitting!).
Whoopsie!
Damn you shapeshifting Monica!
Amanda (#23):
Always on My Mind?
There’s a few faves of mine in there.
If You See Her, Say Hello but Always on My Mind might be top 10.
Yeah, at various stages in my life my top 10 would have maybe 4 songs from Blood on the Tracks. Idiot Wind probably sits there all the time.
I guess I had you pegged as a Country girl through and through, unable to resist a bit of Willie.
Said the Bishop to the showgirl.
I like both kinds of music, country and Dylan.
Oh pish-tush.
I take it you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction then? I always took it as more of a metaphorical statement about the human condition.
jpz, I seem to remember that the Jim Nabors version was parodied on The Simpsons at some point. Good ‘ol Jim Nabors.
Ricky’s list is very very fine. Alas, when you download the podcast you only get tiny little snippets of the songs. Presumably this has to do with copyright stuff.
Geez, I laughed when I heard these lyrics:
“Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama”.
I’ll third fourth, fifth or wherever it is we’re up to on the Webb vs. Campbell debate. Campbell’s versions are all classics. I like lush. And his work at the Conty would have been better if all he did was talk about his songs instead of sing ‘em.
Joe Cocker would have to play his greatest ever version of Hitchcock Railway to make up for subjecting me to “You are So Beautiful” and “You Can Leave Your Hat On”. Randy Newman’s version of the latter, please.
That wasn’t Boynton, that was me!
Martha Wainwright made me make that mistake. It’s retribution for me saying to Boynton that Marthaaaaahhh!!!! is dreadful. Completely dreadful.
In terms of sheer practicality, any ‘desert island’ list ought to include at least one song like ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ that has great backing-vocal parts. That way, you can sing the back-up part along in ‘reply’ to the lead part, and pretend that there’s somebody else there on the island with you. To help keep you from going insane. Which you otherwise will eventually, even if you have 100 records there on the island. Isn’t that right, Gladys? Tell the nice people all about it.
Also, is it utterly perverse to include the ‘Theme Song from Gilligan’s Island’ on a list like that?
“I take it you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction then? I always took it as more of a metaphorical statement about the human condition.”
Well, who was the wag who said, “In the long run, we’re all dead”? At least that had the virtue of being witty, as opposed to ‘Eve,’ which is laughable. There’s a difference, ya know.
“Also, is it utterly perverse to include the ‘Theme Song from Gilligan’s Island’ on a list like that?”
Not given your preceding stipulation.
“A Threee Ho-ur Cruise”… there must be six to eight people backing up there, some of them women! Enough for the loneliest of castaways.
It’s not getting Penny Lane out of my head though, you bastard.
Stupid name changery.
Well hello Margaret Forces.
I hated Martha when I first heard her, and she’s still an acquired taste. However, she has won me over a little with her version of Leonard’s The Traitor.
Frankly, I love Webb’s singing. As had been said before, it’s not about being the best singing in the world, it’s about possessing something special, and Webb has it.
I heart Jimmy Webb.
Swimming-pool chlorine is an acquired taste.
Yo
FDBMargaret.Nice glove.
When I first heard Jimmy Webb’s version it was a revelation, and I love it.
But recently I was playing 10 Easy Pieces to a musical friend, having done a little rave.
He said: I prefer Glen Campbell
And maybe there is a season for glen again, given that there is the authentic in his version too – the times.
I’ll have to have another listen.
- the real boynton
Pavlov’s Cat, thanks for the clip of Richard and Teddy Thompson performing Persuasion.
Are there any clips of the Twins, being allowed to perform with the rest of the family?
Bad link – Will these Twins ever have their reunion with the rest of the family?
You’d be better off dead, with a bullet in your head, then to come back to me.
Now there’s a catchy lyric from the Teddy Thopson song Down Low. Now there’s a voice to die for, with a timbre that makes Glen Campbell’s voice pale, high and squeaky away.
Anyone driven through Ulverstone in Tasmania? . . . . Ulverstone, oh! Ulverstone.
You guys wanna hear some really good interpretive singing chops?
Then check this out Clyde. A little lumpy it’s true but it’ll get under your skin..
“You’d be better off dead, with a bullet in your head, then to come back to me.”
That’s a great lyric, Caroline. More honest than a lot of songs about broken relationships.
Certainly caught my ear.
Me and my record collection heart Glen Campbell.
Mate, I don’t know if the links-to-crazy-70s-album-covers is a wormy can you really want to open …
I like Glen Campbell as well, I just like Jimmy better.
I half-heart Glen Campbell.
There was a weird/stupid/dumb/wtf article referencing Glen Campbell in the Australian today. Summed up thusly: all the people who compare Glen Campbell to Mozart are wrong.
I was listening to a Bobby Gentry CD today which has half a dozen duets with GC, they represent her lesser work but not too bad.
“Galveston, oh Galveston”
Yeah, that song really gets to me, too.
Oh wait, you said ‘GaLveston,’ didn’t you.
Never mind.
Who was comparing GC to Mozart? Can’t stand musical snobs.
Seems a bit of a shameless rip off of “West End Girls” to me: Sometimes you’re better off dead, there’s a gun in your hand and it’s pointing at your head.
Then again, maybe country versions of Pet Shop Boys songs could work …
Caroline, I’ve never been south of the equator but have been south of the all-important border to the birth place of Stan Laurel, where many years ago my china managed to organise a piss-up in a brewery. Therefore, although I’ve never driven through Ulverstone, I have crawled (pub-crawled) through an English town, singing the same song without the ‘t’ and without the ‘e’.
Gus
Do we assume that j_p_z knows
1. who sang “Eve of Destruction”;
2. the group of which the singer used to be a member;
3. who composed “Eve of Destruction”; and
4. who wrote and sang the coimposer’s eponymous song?
Whoops, J_P_Z! I see that I jumped the gun and that you do know who wrote “Eve Of Destruction”. Still, since you only recently learned who wrote “MacArthur Park”, I don’t regret having questioned the other three points.
Incidentally, “MacArthur Park” was itself one of the Desert Island Discs of the guest at the beginning of this month! http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20080203.shtml
I wholeheartedly agree that you’re not likely to remain sane in such isolation even with 100 records and, indeed, I should imagine trying to narrow a Top 100 to only 8 would make you go mad but, when I’m invited on the show (hosted by a fellow-Scot), I’ll bear in mind that your recommendation that one record at least should strengthen my belief in the imaginary friend who’ll accompany me on the island.
Regards
Gus McCaig
Oh, I hope you don’t mind the capital letters. I see that even k.d. lang’s website prints her name in block letters in places.
Darlene:
I anm delighted by the publicity given by you to JW’s own rendering of “Galveston”. Your posting was brought to my attention by Hyde of GC’s WWW.
I myself had been intrigued to learn a while back of Ricky Gervais’s choice and was dreadfully disappointed that, when he’d unexpectedely been required to improvise for a few moments at the Fairy Princess Diana’s Memorial Concert, he’d been all tongue-tied. He could so easily have just spent the time informing the world of the genius of JimmyWebb.
Mark you, I can’t quite fathom why “Galveston” makes your short-leet of eight when you have on your i-pod 24 numbers to which listen more frequently. I’m only glad it does.
I’ll easily ignore those contributors to this thread who can’t appreciate that JW is, in fact, the best singer of his own songs. If they don’t get it, I guess they simply don’t get it and that no amount of preaching from me will alter that state of affairs. Their loss … though I would recommend they give JW a few more hearings.
What I heartily recommend is that you get hold of JW’s version of “Galveston” on his “Letters” album. For the first minute you hear nothing but the guitar. It’s imho even better than the version on “Ten Easy Pieces”. I had enjoyed GC’s own up-beat version but it was only after I’d heard “Letters” that I realised how the song should be properly sung.
God bless JimmyWebb … and I don’t even believe in God.
Gus
Cheers, Gus! Now I am going to have to seek out and enjoy Jimmy Webb’s own recordings of these songs, which I’m not so familiar with (have probably already heard some of them, without realizing they were his). Thanks for the recommendations about “Letters” etc. Will definitely have a listen.
A classic Jimmy Webb couplet for Valentine’s Day: And I need you more than want you / and I want you for all time.
Thanks, Gus. Good on you. Will get my hands on “Letters”.
Let me advise that “Galveston” is now number one on my most played.
Oh yes, the Princess Di memorial do. Missed that. Ricky resorted to doing his funny dance.
“And I need you more than want you”. Such a simple but complicated lyric.
I suspect most women want to be wanted more than needed. Mmmm.
Why ignore the video? I think it is a valid interpretation of the song Galveston?
Thanks for your comment. I didn’t find the images particularly interesting, but others might like them.
Incidentally, the Jimmy Webb tour has been announced. It’s with Paul Williams.
Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!