For the longest time, Jimmy Webb was a name printed on record albums that I always noticed. Amazing, powerful, emotional record albums. While I hardly knew him, only the fruits of his work, he nevertheless lingered and grew in importance in the back of my head and fiber by fiber grew from being a magic bean into a giant beanstalk. His voices were singers like Glen Campbell and Richard Harris (Richard, now only known by youngsters as "Dumbledore", or to me many years ago, as King Arthur, "Sing it loud: CAMELOT!"). Glen Campbell (just about the only country singer I frequently listened to) sang heartfelt songs like "Galveston", "By The Time I Get Phoenix", and "The Worst That Could Happen", and Richard Harris threw me out into orbit with songs like "The Yard Went On Forever", "Watermark", "The Hive", "A Tramp Shining", "If You Must Leave My Life", and so very many others.
But through some benevolent happenstance, I found Jimmy Webb's album, Ten Easy Pieces, where he himself sang and accompanied himself on the piano ten of his songs, music that rose up from the fertile loam of his heart and talent. Again, it was like so many of these other songs that I have included in this series, I had liked them before, but suddenly they had risen up to a brand new level. Even Glen Campbell, who had worked so closely with Jimmy, noticed and remarked upon the change. For one thing, the songs were slightly slower, which might not have meant much to me except that I remember that Lionel Hampton said to Quincy Jones, "Slow it down." Hampton knew that would create more serious impact to the emotions of the music.
This song is a tribute to the common man that is a bedrock of our nation. Who is this man? Somebody who has a skill, works a hazardous job, works in all kinds of weather and doesn't complain if he has to work deep into the night because he knows he's got to get it done. And he's probably got somebody else that he is providing for, sometimes several people, it could be his wife, his kids, maybe even an elderly parent or two, and he has cemented himself to that sacred duty that he voluntarily took on due to an adamantine love of another person, or maybe just fell into it without thinking or planning, but he is in it and so he will do it.
At this current time, so very many people are thrown out of work and now bound up in the conflicting battles of various diabolical forces. Who will ultimately get us out from under these forces? It will be those who are the bedrock, and those who realize how crucial they are and can help them. Without them, we have no nation at all...we wouldn't even have a culture. It would just be a "Mad Max" world. I don't think that that bad outcome will be what happens. That "bedrock" is what will prevail, because they care and that caring will not be stopped. That is something that those ruinous forces have no clue about or understanding of at all. They have no devices that can detect it. But we know what it is...it is us.
21. Song name: Wichita Lineman
But through some benevolent happenstance, I found Jimmy Webb's album, Ten Easy Pieces, where he himself sang and accompanied himself on the piano ten of his songs, music that rose up from the fertile loam of his heart and talent. Again, it was like so many of these other songs that I have included in this series, I had liked them before, but suddenly they had risen up to a brand new level. Even Glen Campbell, who had worked so closely with Jimmy, noticed and remarked upon the change. For one thing, the songs were slightly slower, which might not have meant much to me except that I remember that Lionel Hampton said to Quincy Jones, "Slow it down." Hampton knew that would create more serious impact to the emotions of the music.
This song is a tribute to the common man that is a bedrock of our nation. Who is this man? Somebody who has a skill, works a hazardous job, works in all kinds of weather and doesn't complain if he has to work deep into the night because he knows he's got to get it done. And he's probably got somebody else that he is providing for, sometimes several people, it could be his wife, his kids, maybe even an elderly parent or two, and he has cemented himself to that sacred duty that he voluntarily took on due to an adamantine love of another person, or maybe just fell into it without thinking or planning, but he is in it and so he will do it.
At this current time, so very many people are thrown out of work and now bound up in the conflicting battles of various diabolical forces. Who will ultimately get us out from under these forces? It will be those who are the bedrock, and those who realize how crucial they are and can help them. Without them, we have no nation at all...we wouldn't even have a culture. It would just be a "Mad Max" world. I don't think that that bad outcome will be what happens. That "bedrock" is what will prevail, because they care and that caring will not be stopped. That is something that those ruinous forces have no clue about or understanding of at all. They have no devices that can detect it. But we know what it is...it is us.
21. Song name: Wichita Lineman
Artist: Jimmy Webb
Song writer: Jimmy Webb
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