Album review : JIMMY WEBB – A Life In Words And Music (7 CD Boxset)

July 21st, 2025 by brianmc

Cherry Red [Release date : 25.07.25]

By the time Jimmy Webb got to Phoenix he had won every conceivable music award, he’d written hit after hit after hit, most notably for The Fifth Dimension, Richard Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Glen Campbell and Carly Simon, and his songs had charted in almost every country in the western world. He is the only artist ever to receive Grammy awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration.

This boxset anthologises the albums he made for Reprise Records in the seventies.

CD 1 : Words And Music (1970)
CD 2 : And So: On (1971)
CD 3 : Letters (1972)
CD 4 : Land’s End (1974)
CD 5 : El Mirage (1977)
CD 6 : Outtakes And Demos
CD 7 : Live At The Albert Hall (1972)

The possibilities in a pop song are infinite. Every successful writer and performer finds them. Jimmy Webb especially.

Yet, despite albums like Words And Music and Mirage, Webb was not to enjoy the recognition as a performer that he so richly deserved.

Linda Ronstadt : “Jimmy Webb is one of few contemporary songwriters who can write songs right into the orchestra, and his songs have 17-layer emotions and sophisticated chord charges that are absolutely dazzling,”

Award winning songwriter Sammy Cahn : “I think one of the real geniuses is Jimmy Webb. His “MacArthur Park” is a major piece of work, major. I’d almost compare it to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in size and scope.”

These albums are peppered with the reasons his peer group had such opinions.

Arguably, his talent as a writer burns brightest on Words and Music. And of all the songs here, ‘PF Sloan’ stands out.

Webb had met Sloan (writer of ‘Eve Of Destruction’), when starting out and played him some of the material he had written.

Sloan: “I was aware immediately that I was listening to a songwriter’s voice. It was filled with feeling and emotion. Most songwriters don’t have a voice, but this one was haunting and unusual and raw and wonderful.”

All that said, the album was not a commercial success.

Pushed by Reprise, Webb returned to the studio 6 months later. And So: On sounds a bit rushed but contains two absolute gems, ‘Laspitch’ and ‘Highpockets’, both written for a not to be stage musical, both shouty and tuneful in equal measure.

Third album, Letters, is probably the boxset’s highpoint.

No reviewer ever missed the chance to criticise Webb’s vocal range. But the man turns that on its head with an intimately emotional version of his song, ‘Galveston’ (a hit for Glen Campbell) and a cool country version of Boudleaux Bryant’s ‘Love Hurts’.

What Webb’s voice lacks in commercial appeal, it more than makes for in honesty and sincerity.

Lands End was recorded in the UK, a full bore, go for it, singer songwriter behemoth, using Elton John’s studio band to make the noise.

But Webb’s songs, deeply rooted in romance (the good type and the bad type), seemed to lose their soul in amongst the bombast.

Shame, ‘Ocean In His Eyes’ and the title track both fit Webb’s songwriting philosophy : “I like words. I like the way they clash around together and bang up against each other, especially in songs.”

The fifth CD, El Mirage, is a step up. Backed up by “The Wrecking Crew” and perceptively produced by George Martin, it included ‘The Highwaymen’, a huge hit for Country Music foursome, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

Webb’s sympathetic treatment of ‘The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress’, a song he wrote around the title of a Robert Heinlein short story, showed just how far he had travelled as a singer as much as a writer.

CD6 is crammed with Outtakes and Demos. One for completists.

Webb’s Live At The Albert Hall gig (on CD 7) was a sold out gig.

Listening to the artist who wrote ‘McArthur Park’, ‘Wichita Lineman’, ‘Didn’t We’, ‘Galveston’ and others, with a full blown orchestra, a west end music critic said “There is something of a return to 1930′s glamour in Webb’s work, a suggestion of the great era of lush film scoring when velvet-sounding violins appeared seemingly out of nowhere and emotion erupted from the music itself.”

It had the authentic Webb stamp: “I didn’t see why pop shouldn’t have a poetic approach, or why it shouldn’t get as complex as it wants”. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions,

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 16 November 2025.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This 600th show was first broadcast on 18 November 2025

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen live or listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 1 December 2025

We feature all the artists selected in this sequence in 2025.

Featured Albums w/c 1 December 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

Our occasional Newsletter signposts latest additions to the website(s). We also include a selection of recent top albums, based on GRTR! reviewer ratings. The newsletter is sent out a few times a year.

If you’d like to register to receive this occasional mailing please complete the form:

If using a smartphone/tablet please tap here or re-orientate your device

(Note that this registration is separate from site registration which allows you to leave comments and receive daily emails about new content. If you wish to register for this – in addition or separately – please click or tap here – for more information – the form is at the foot of each page. Please read our privacy policy when opting-in to receive emails.