Jimmy Webb on "Highwayman"

One by Willie

John Spong

Willie Nelson, Music, Music History, Music Commentary, Guitar, Spong, Music Interviews, Society & Culture, Austin, Texas Monthly, Country Music, Arts, Americana, Songwriting, Outlaw Country

4.6 • 898 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, one of America’s greatest living composers, Jimmy Webb, the writer of such classics as “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Galveston,” “Macarthur Park,” and “Wichita Lineman,” talks about another of his iconic songs, “Highwayman.” Willie, of course, recorded it with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson in 1985, and it went on to win that year’s Grammy for best country song, as well as give country’s first supergroup their name. From there, Jimmy touches on reincarnation, the way Glen Campbell got the song to Willie, et al.—with a weird assist from the Knack and “My Sharona”—and a great idea for Willie’s next album.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Texas Monthly.
0:11.0	Hey there, I'm John Spong with Texas Monthly magazine, and this is One by Willie,
0:15.9	a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they really love.
0:23.0	This week, we talk with one of the greatest American composers
0:25.7	who ever lived, Jimmy Webb.
0:28.1	He's the genius behind such monster hits
0:30.2	as Glenn Campbell's, by the time I get to Phoenix,
0:33.0	Wichita Lineman, and Galveston.
0:35.2	He also wrote Up, Up and Away,
0:37.2	MacArthur Park, and the song he's going to
0:39.3	discuss with us, Highway Man. That song, of course, gave its name to country music's first
0:44.6	super group, which consisted of Willie, Wayland, Chris Christofferson, and Johnny Cash, and it went on to
0:50.8	win the 1985 Grammy for Country Song of the Year.
0:58.4	Jimmy's going to tell us how he wrote it, how it wound up in the hands of those dudes,
1:02.4	how Glenn Campbell worked with producer Chip's Moment to teach them the chords,
1:05.5	and then he'll come up with a great idea for Willie's next record.
1:10.0	It's a particularly special episode of One by Willie, and I think you're going to dig it.
1:11.3	So let's do it.
1:13.4	Hey, it's art.
1:23.5	I was a highway man. Along the coach roads I did ride.
1:29.5	Typically, I start by asking what's so great about song X.
1:36.4	And given that you wrote Highwayman, this seems like a goofier question than usual.
	...

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