"Clowns Exit Laughing: The JIMMY WEBB Songbook" by VARIOUS ARTISTS - featuring Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Nocturnes, Shane martin, Chuck Jackson, Walker Brothers, Everything But The Girl, Nina Simone and many more (September 2022 UK Ace Records CD Compilation of Nick Robbins Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...If Anybody Could..."

 

I'm a long time fan of England's Ace Records - surely one of the best reissue labels in the world - and I've bought, collected and reviewed their 'Songbook' or 'Songwriter' series up to a nerd-head pencil-pusher point.

 

But I've always had my suspicions about anyone telling me that Jimmy Webb is one the premier songwriting geniuses of the 20th Century – I think they need to get out more. Undoubtedly Tony Rounce - whose typically brilliant and informative liner notes grace yet another exceptional Ace release - would disagree and sends the boys around with implements to 'persuade' me of my momentary moment of well, insanity?

 

And with 180 or more cover versions of "Wichita Lineman" beside 175 more covers of "Up, Up And Away" along with Frank Sinatra's appraisal of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" as 'the greatest torch song ever' will dissuade our Tone from accepting my dissing on Jimmy. But Webb has always felt like an easy-listening lightweight to me and I find some of the material on this otherwise brilliant CD bares that out. Anyway, to the finite details...

 

UK released Friday, 2 September 2022 - "Clowns Exit Laughing: The JIMMY WEBB Songbook" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace Records CDTOP 1620 (Barcode 029667106320) is a 24-Track CD-only compilation of Stereo and Mono Remasters (most are 60ts tracks) that plays out as follows (75:29 minutes):

 

1. By The Time I Get To Phoenix - GLEN CAMPBELL (November 1967 US LP "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" on Capitol ST 2851 in Stereo)

 

2. Up, Up And Away - DIONNE WARWICK (March 1968 US "Valley Of The Dolls" LP on Sceptre SPS 568 in Stereo) 

 

3. Carpet Man - THE NOCTURNES (July 1968 UK 45-single on Columbia DB 8453, A-side in Mono)

 

4. When Eddie Comes Home - THE EVERLY BROTHERS (1966 unreleased Warner Brothers Stereo Demo recording first appeared on the 2006 Bear Family 8CD Box Set "Chained to A Memory" on Bear Family BCD 16791 1M)

 

5. I Need You - SHANE MARTIN (August 1968 US 45-single on Epic 5-10384, Mono B-side of "You're So Young")

 

6. Honey Come Back - CHUCK JACKSON (August 1969 US 45-single on Motown M-1152, Mono A-side)

 

7. Where's The Playground Susie? - EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL (September 1986 UK 12"-Single on Blanco Y Negro NEG 23T, Stereo B-side of "Don't Leave Me Behind" with Ben Watts on Lead Vocals)

 

8. Midnight Mail - JOEY SCARBURY (August 1969 US 45-single on Dunhill D-4209, Mono B-side of "House Of The Rising Sun")

9. The Moon's A Harsh Mistress - THE WALKER BROTHERS (Recorded 1975 in Stereo with Scott on Lead Vocals, first issued 2001 on the CD Compilation "If You Could Hear Me Now" on Columbia 503302 2)

10. Wichita Lineman - TONY JOE WHITE (July 1969 UMS Debut LP "Black And White" on Monument Records SLP 18114 in Stereo)

11. Didn't We - JAMES DARREN (June 1967 Us 45-single on Warner Brothers 7053, Mono A-side)

12. MacArthur Park - WAYLON JENNINGS and THE KIMBERLYS (July 1969 US 45-single on RCA Victor 74-0210, Stereo A-side - also on the 1969 "Country-Folk" US LP on RCA Victor LSP-4180)

13. I Keep It Hid - THE SUPREMES (November 1972 US LP "Produced And Arranged by Jimmy Webb" on Motown M-756L)

14. Do What You Gotta Do - NINA SIMONE (August 1968 US 45-single on RCA Victor 47-9602, Stereo A-side - September 1968 UK 45-single on RCA Victor RCA 1743, B-side to "Ain't Got No - I Got Life")

15. Galveston - DON HO (December 1968 US 45-single on Reprise Records 0800, Mono B-side of "Has Anybody Lost A Love?")

16. The Worst That Could Happen - B.J. THOMAS (June 1969 US LP "Young And In Love" on Scepter SPS 576 in Stereo)

17. Requiem: 820 Latham - MEL TORME (February 1970 US 45-single on Capitol 2743, Stereo A-side)

18. Magic Garden - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD (August 1968 UK 4-Track 45 EP "If You Go Away" on Philips BE 12605, Track 2 on Side 1 in Mono)

19. Rosecrans Blvd. - THE 5th DIMENSION (August 1967 US 45-single on Soul City 755, Stereo B-side of "Another Day, Another Heartache" - also on the Stereo LP "Up, Up And Away" on Soul City SCS-92000)

20. Which Way To Nowhere - THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE (March 1969 US Debut LP "Brooklyn Bridge" on Buddah BDS 5034 in Stereo)

21. Clowns Exit Laughing - THE FORTUNES (1970 US LP "That Same Old Feeling" on World Pacific Records WPS 21904 in Stereo)

22. P.F. Sloan - RUMER (from the May 2012 CD album "Boys Don't Cry" on Atlantic 5053105230853)

 

23. Highwayman - WAYLON JENNINGS, WILLIE NELSON, JOHNNY CASH, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON (from the 1985 US LP "Highwayman" on Columbia FC 40056)

 

24. If This Was The Last Song - DEE DEE WARWICK with THE DIXIE FLYERS (September 1970 Us 45-single on Atco 44-6769, Stereo A-Side)

 

Tracks 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19 to 24 - STEREO

Tracks 3, 5, 6, 11, 15 and 18 - MONO 

 

A beautifully laid-out 20-page booklet pours on the photos, memorabilia and period shots aided and abetted by TONY ROUNCE who seems to know more about Sixties Pop and Soul than the artists themselves who recorded it. NICK ROBBINS did the superb Remasters – very clear, punchy and full – despite the myriad sources – this is a cohesively great sounding CD compilation. To the tunes...

 

"Clowns Exit Laughing..." not surprisingly opens with the artist most associated with Jimmy Webb - Glen Campbell - and Webb's most covered tune of all time "By The Time I Get To Phoenix". A smart move too opening the CD with two Stereo cuts even if Dionne Warwick's rendition of "Up, Up And Away" (a song more associated with The 5th Dimension) is a big syrupy. First seriously clever choice comes in the form of "Carpet Man" by England's Nocturnes - itself a cover of a 5th Dimension Webb song they'd put out Stateside in early 1968. The tune is very upbeat, even Motownish (more of that later) and The Nocturnes featured both Lyn Paul and Eve Graham who went on to be with The New Seekers. Can't say I'm too enamoured with the schlock of "When Eddie Comes Home" even if the mighty pipes of The Everly Brothers are going at it in Demo form (took 40 years for it to appear on Bear Family's magnificent "Chained To A Memory" 8CD Box Set).

 

Far better is the first of a trio of B-sides that British Northern Soul boys latched on to - and given their sexy Motown-vibing Soul shuffles - hardly surprising they did. New Orleans lad Shane Martin recorded a series of 45s for Epic and Columbia between 1967 and 1970, but when a British DJ flipped Epic 5-10384 to find "I Need You" - talcum powder dancers practically lost it (been a big-ticket item on the scene ever since). The second big-drums, brass and tinkling vibes dancer is the 14-year-old Joey Scarbury who punched out "Midnight Mail" on ABC's Dunhill label imprint - thereafter discovered by the scene's legendary Ian Levine and championed - great stuff. Number three is the much-missed Tony Joe White going at "Wichita Lineman" with a sincerity only his voice and swamp guitar could emulate - gorgeous audio too as the piano and brass arrangements kick in (want you for all time).

 

Genius choices must also go to "Where's The Playground Susie?" done as a twelve-inch Blanco Y Negro B-side in 1986 by England's Everything But The Girl - Ben Watts taking a rare lead vocal over Tracy Thorn (she adds harmonies on this truly lovely version). Recorded in 1975 as one of four outtakes for the "No Regrets" reunion album but unreleased - "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress" is a truly gorgeous cover with Scott Walker (of The Walker Brothers) adding a bottom-of-the-sea deep lead vocal. Beautifully recorded, it would not be heard until the 2001 CD compilation "If You Could Hear Me Now" on Columbia Records. Things go downhill with Time Tunnel actor James Darren doing "Didn't We" and Waylon Jennings with The Kimberley's going at "MacArthur Park" - a very hissy piece of overdone. And I can't understand why Tony didn't use the gorgeous "5:15" over "I Keep It Hid" from The Supremes LP Written and Arranged by JW. Nina Simone souls up "Do What You Gotta Do", but it feels forced-into-doing-this-song to me and Don Ho's "Galveston" comes at you like Perry Como fodder that's pretty and not much else.

 

And on it goes to Dusty giving it some big-haired melodrama on "Magic Garden" (a 5th Dimension hit) - better is the lyrically-unsettling "Rosecrans Blvd." by the aforementioned 5th Dimension (produced by Johnny Rivers) and The Brooklyn Bridge doing their musically excellent album cut of "Which Way To Brooklyn" - a song picked by British White Soul Boy James Royal in 1969. Beautiful production values too on 1970's "Clowns Exit Laughing" courtesy of Noel Walker and Billy Davis while Rumer's 2012 acoustic take on "P.F. Sloan" is almost Carpenters beautiful.

 

It's not all genius - but there's enough to satisfy and plenty to please and even at times amaze. The Wichita Lineman is still on the line. Nice...