Posted on 02/15/2023 5:37:28 AM PST by Red Badger
“Wouldn’t you like to fly in my beautiful balloon” Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb also wrote Galveston, Wichita Lineman and MacArthur Park. And a bunch of other stuff... he’s still around interesting fellow.
If you haven’t heard his haunting rendition originally recorded by himself and a 12-string guitar...of Galveston it’s a completely different song, about a Lonely Soldier in Vietnam wishing he was back home in Galveston to see the girl that he fell in love with.
The LA Studio rendition with Glen Campbell makes it sound like a Song by comparison, which is sad because everybody practically missed the loneliness of that song.
You’d think these alien craft, after flying billions of miles, they’d be able to avoid Earthly projectiles
That’s The Worst That Could Happen.....................
He’s still alive, at 76!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Webb
Just a few years older than me!...............
“That’s The Worst That Could Happen.....................”
The Brooklyn Bridge version of that song is the schmaltzyist song I can imagine. There’s some schmaltzy tunes from the 20s and 30s... but Webb’s is right up there. 😥
My uncle called those love-lost tunes sappy.
You’d think that people would’ve had enough of silly love songs
I look around me, and I see it isn’t so
Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs
And what’s wrong with that?
I’d like to know, ‘cause here I go again........................
Paul McCartney & Wings
Nothing Wrong with Silly Love Songs, and there ain’t nothing wrong with Webb’s Worse That Could Happen. I’m not sure if I heard the 5th Dimensions version first or the Brooklyn Bridge version first, but it was during a time when there was a lot of heavy music around and Worse That Could Happen was relegated primarely to AM pop air play. My ‘62 Chevy only had AM radio... so I heard a lot of AM...
In retrospect it’s a great piece of tunesmithing. Johnny Maestro (RIP) kills it. The Ed Sullivan show struck gold that night.
I wonder if Tom Jones ever did a version?
Other cover versions
B.J. Thomas on his 1969 LP, Young And In Love.
The Lettermen in 1969 on their I Have Dreamed album.
Hajji Alejandro recorded a Tagalog version titled “Panakip-Butas” in 1977 in his Hajji album. It was released as a single and was a big hit in the Philippines.
Jimmy Webb on his 1996 album Ten Easy Pieces.[12]
My thought as well. Dirigible with a plastic sheet shell over a plastic (Kevlar, carbon fiber ?) frame. Drone-like motors and propellers for height control to get into favorable winds at different altitudes, and limited propulsion against the wind when needed.
An inflatable kiddy pool hurled into the stratosphere in a rare weather event.
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