Jimmy Webb autobiography - "The Cake and the Rain"

I just finished reading this book, and enjoyed it a lot.

Reading his takes on various music topics and people was interesting to say the least.

Anyway, throughout the book, there is someone he refers to only as "The Devil."

At first, I was thinking it was a metaphor for an alter ego of his, but he does later say "The Devil" was in the radio business.

Anyone know who he was referring to or why he called him "The Devil?"

 

I never knew who the devil was, but this was one of the most annoying books I ever read. Jimmy wrote a lot of great songs and was a lot of interesting places. But this book was a load of crap, praising himself, passing on misinformation (the one about the Beatles lengthening Hey Jude after the fact to compete with him was hilarious).

And he was so determined to be seen as a bad boy rocker. He comes off as an insecure poser.

 

Yes, definitely some misinformation (playing Clapton's "Cocaine" on a boat in 1973?) and he took at least a few shots at the various Beatles.

 

I tried to read his book about songwriting but it was too much like a chemistry textbook or something. This book sounds more interesting.

 

Last time I was at the Grammy Museum, they were selling it for about a buck. I was tempted, but ultimately leery.

 

Tunesmith is an interesting read if you're a Webb fan (which I definitely am) but I question how much you'll learn about the art of songwriting. It did offer me one interesting detail: that if you submit a musical to a Broadway producer and it contains ANY imperfect rhymes (as Wichita Lineman does in its chorus), it will be returned to you immediately and without comment.


I'm interested in reading this autobiography, having heard mixed things about it. Jimmy's stories can get irritating after you've heard them a few times (and he's some way off being accurate, though he can possibly be given a pass for that, given it was a long time ago and he was drunk/on drugs for most of that time). O

I have heard, though, that his first wife and his first marriage are not mentioned in the book at all. If you know a little bit about Mr. Webb, you'll possibly understand why these details haven't been included. Still, it's a bit disingenuous of him to leave them out......

 

Possibly the subject of the song 'Friends To Burn.'

 

did he at least mention the "McArthur Park" / "Live & Let Die" thing?

 

That's always been a bit of a myth. Obviously, they will have heard MacArthur Park and he was invited to the White Album recording sessions on the basis that he was its author. But his influence on them was zero.

 

Agree. Also, no Mrs. Webb, no Webb Brothers (I assume that he mentioned them?)

 

JJ Cale’s “Cocaine”?

 

He specifies Clapton and that version wasn't out in 1973. Was Cale's?

 

No. The Troubador album was released in 1976, a year before Clapton’s Slowhand album.

 

Not sure, as I haven't read The Cake & The Rain. Some of his children are alluded to in Tunesmith and he mentions his divorce but there is no mention of Patsy.

His early career is not at all well-documented, which is annoying as it's the most interesting part. Up until recently, there was still a lot of uncertainty over where/when/how MacArthur Park was recorded which is ridiculous when you consider how famous that record is.

 

Yes, his early career is the most fascinating part. I have a piano songbook that includes dozens of barely recorded songs from the '67/'68 era ("Lost Generation" etc..) and you wonder "who sang this and when" at every page. The early years are not well covered (pun intended), that's an understatement.

 

Precisely: there's a lot of songs that seem to have been recorded/demoed by him only.

 

I read this book about six months ago and being a huge Jimmy Webb fan I really enjoyed it. I agree that the puzzling "Devil" character, whoever it was, was a bit of an irritant sometimes. But the anecdotes about the music business and Webb's personal life and songwriting career were fascinating.

 

I thought the Devil was revealed somewhere in the beginning, but I guess not. I was going to re-read to see if I missed something. The book's structure of jumping back and forth in time got irritating & confusing. He does play fast and loose with his story. He sure made a huge amount of money. Saw him at a free outdoor concert in Pasadena, CA last summer. A few years earlier he actually played in MacArthur Park's band shell, downtown LA and I guess he agreed to do Pasadena as it is booked by the same firm. Was not really aware of his prolific output so sort of jumped on his fan wagon, got the book & then went to a bookstore signing & discussion with him and an LA Times columnist. As with most songwriters, his vocal skills IMO are dubious. Plays a mean piano and I was not aware that was him playing on the MacPark recording.

 

A friend who is reasonably well connected in music biz gossip and a Webb obsessive tells me the "devil" is LA dj William F. Williams. I cannot personally confirm this.

The book was indeed a bizarre disappointment to this fan and so obsessed with presenting himself as a tawdry rock n' roll badass it just got depressing. Suffice it to say if a Jeopardy question not many would guess "What singer songwriter's memoir ends with a multipage harrowing account of a bad angel dust trip?" correctly.

 

Buried in another thread awhile back I wrote this about the Webb memoir:
"
I'm almost done with it...I'm enjoying it but the qualities in it I don't like are a) a bit random, or if not random very namedroppy, telling stories, however fascinating they are or not, about the superfamous he interacted with (tho the McCartney story is hilarious and strange) that don't really paint a coherent picture or life story and

b) he still seems to have a chip on his shoulder about the lA hipsters writing him off as a lame boring MOR guy and a lot of these stories seem designed to hype some image of him as a tawdry badass, lots of drugs and wild vehicles of the land and air and sea and affairs with married women who, especially with the time-hopping, I could barely distinguish from another......the guy who stars in this book doesn't seem like he has the soul to have done what Jimmy Webb did.....also, he seems unaware that his attempt to reboot himself from "pop songwriter for others" to "singer/songwriter/rocker" had a shockingly bad effect on his art. (IMO nearly all his GREAT songs are from his era as songwriter in service to others.)

That all said, if you are interested in Webb you gotta give it a shot.

 

And in an email to my fellow Webb obsessive pal I wrote this upon finishing the book: "Finished it....what a dark, grim, peculiar book! One can't help but
feel poor Webb is a deeply unhappy man if this was the set of stories
and impressions he wanted to leave us with when given what was
certainly carte blanche to write whatever sort of memoir he wanted.
Because of its intelligence it might be the most genuinely dark and
brooding books about "success" and the music biz I've ever read.
Harrowing! Not at all what I expected."

 

I read this awhile ago. It started off quite well, but by the end I began to doubt if his stories were very credible. He got a lot of well known facts wrong, and ended up sounding like a self-obsessed whiny millionaire. How many times can you complain about a break-up, or financial loss, while documenting your own bad behavior that lead to it? I lost respect for the guy.

 

Read it, basically disappointed.
Hoping for a well-researched biography to appear in the near future. Also, still hoping for a definitive Everly Brothers bio.

 

Coincidentally, I finished the book the day this thread popped up. I was hoping that someone would be able to shed some light on who this "Devil/Satan" character was and I'm not surprised that others were wondering the same thing. BTW, thanks Brian Doherty for your knowledgeable input on that topic. This reappearing character, along with the time shifting chapters were extremely frustrating and took away a lot of the pleasure of reading the book. He needed better editors!

As Brian Doherty said, "What a dark, grim, peculiar book." I guiltily enjoy gossip about the great musicians and sure wasn't disappointed in that respect. Detailed accounts of his hedonistic rampages with various industry icons---most specifically with poor Harry Nillson---are the epitome of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. The thread that keeps running throughout this book is that even when you have unlimited resources and every drug imaginable at your fingertips, that doesn't make you a happy or contented person.

I consider Jimmy Webb to be one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century and was very eager to glean some insight as to where his inspirations came from. I think he tried to honestly shed some light in that respect. Yeah, he needed some fact checkers, for sure. My impression is that he probably dictated a lot of these anecdotes off the top of his head as he remembered them. Also, it is very apparent he was blasted most of the time during the 60's and 70's so his recollections are bound to be a bit suspect. I don't think this book is self serving. If anything, I believe it is pretty self flagellating and not a PR puff piece at all. I hope he has found lasting peace and happiness in his life, but we'll never know from this book, which as stated previously, ends with a harrowing account of a PCP overdose which he feels may have caused serious damage to his brain. Yikes!