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By LINDA DEUTSCH HOLLYWOOD (AP) — When he was 18, Jim Webb flunked a college music course, broke up with his girl, got on an air plane and wrote “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” At 19 he rode skyward in a balloon for a publicity stunt and wrote “Up, Up and Away.” Now 21, the composer prodi gy of pop music needs no bal loons or airplanes. His “‘Mac Arthur Park” is at the top of the charts and Jim Webb’s ca reer is soaring. He has been signed to write the score for the film musical of “Peter Pan.” Nearly com pleted is a second album of songs for actor Richard Harris whose first Webb Album, “A Tramp Shining,” was a run away success. Frank Sinatra, among others, has asked for some Webb songs. Taping has begun on a television special, “Jim Webb and His Friends.” And on his latest single record, “One of the Nicer Things,” Jim Webb — composer and lyricist —makes his singing debut. It’s been a fast and dizzying ascent for the kid who came out of Oklahoma in 1964 know ing he had to write songs: “There was a time in my life when, as a matter of body chemistry, I wrote three songs a week.” Jim came to San Bernardino, a desert town 60 miles from Hollywood, when his father, a Baptist minister, was assigned to a parish there. Then Jim’s mother died, and his father de cided to go back to Oklahoma. Jim, then 18 and enrolled in college, remained. Things did not go well. His grades were poor, and the aca demic regimen appeared to be hindering rather than helping him. A professor suggested that Jim take his talent to Hol lywood. He broke up with his girl, made a brief visit to Okla homa, and on that auspicious flight home wrote the song that catapulted him to success. At first he lived in a bare Hollywood apartment, sleeping on a blanket on the floor. Then “By the Time I Get to Phoe nix’’ was recorded. It did well, but not as well as the song that followed: “Up, Up and Away.” An airline eventually bought the song as a commer cial. Jim Webb started making money. He leased a huge, tree-shad ed old house just off Holly wood Boulevard where he lives ‘with an entourage of friends, musicians and his business manager. Articulate and soft- spoken, still with an Oklahoma draw], Webb seems the calm center of this whirlwind success. “I try to keep my mind on my work and write like I al ways wrote.” He sits in an upstairs room I surrounded by electronic equip ment — tape recorders, an or gan, playback machines, an electric typewriter. “Sometimes I look at all this — and I think of guys like Mozart who had only a quill pen and maybe some rough . Webb, with his musical poems and long, long songs, says: “I’ve always resented being confined in the 32 - bar song. —writing something that runs three minutes because some ‘one wants to sell tomato ketch ‘up.” This song “MacArthur Park” runs over seven min utes, the longest playing sin gle ever to hit the charts. SONG WRITER JIM WEBB AND HIS WORKSHOP — Jim Webb, who is 21 and composer of the hit, “MacArthur Park,” poses in his home — amid his electronic equipment, which includes an organ, electric typewriter, and tape machines. “Sometime I look at all this equipment and I think of guys like Mozart who had only a quill pen and maybe some rough paper,” says Webb. (AP Wirephoto)
Newspaper Details
Daily Telegram
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US
Fri, Sep 13, 1968
Page 18
Full Page
Clipped by
Robin P.
