overlap

Nanci Griffith reckons people are born knowing Tom Paxton songs, and I think the same is probably true of Jimmy Webb. There's almost a Dylan-esque 'oh shit, that was one of his too' thing when you hear him tell about writing 'Up, Up and Away' when he was nineteen and getting chucked out of music college. He says himself he's at that stage in the tour where his voice not entirely at its 100% rested best, and it does show when he makes up for not hitting the higher notes with a slightly strained approximation of them - as with Dylan, perhaps the songwriting is sometimes stronger than the vocal talent. That said, he's happy enough to admit to being 59 years of age, and he's packed more than one lifetime's living into those 59 years, and there's plenty of evidence of that in the many celebrity friends about whom he tells stories over the course of the evening. I learnt a couple of things about how I relate to music too, largely due to JW accompanying himself on the piano only. I can recognise technical expertise when I hear it, even if it's not what I want out of something, and because there's only him and his piano, JW shows off his ability to work his way round the keys, almost bordering on what sounds to me like jazz improv at times. And it's only when he starts picking out the vocal melody line on the piano in both Wichita Lineman and MacArthur Park that I start to understand how something works for me. My ear is so unsophisticated and untrained, that I haven't got more than than the vaguest idea of how a chord or a chord progression works. I mean, if I stop and think about it then I can find its place in the workings of a song, but since I'm listening primarily to melody lines that float on top of everything rather than the underlying structure, it's no surprise that it never really hits me in the ear, and in the gut. For a good example of what really gets my juices flowing, you need look no further than Tony Peluso's guitar solo in the Carpenters' 'Goodbye To Love' - I can only describe it as some sort of melodic sweetspot, probably over-developed by listening to too much Everly Brothers harmony vocals and the like as a kid! Never too old to learn, so as with salsa teaching me to hear drums better, I've got something other than the songs to thank Jimmy Webb for.

Labels: gigs, Jimmy Webb, music