"Songwriter Ain't The Half of It..."

Chances are you don't know Jimmy Webb.

Even if you know Jimmy Webb.

Pop music fans over the age of forty will, of course, know his work, ranging from "Galveston" and "Wichita Lineman" to "By The Time I Get To Phoenix"; from "MacArthur Park" to "Up, Up and Away".

Yeah.

Jimmy Webb.

The song I have included here was never a hit single for anyone, not a song likely familiar to any but the most ardent Webb fans.

And the video that I found on YouTube has its own charm, but that's not why I've posted this for you.

Close your eyes. Play the song. Listen to the song.

Without using anything but your ears....heart...and spirit.

Most especially to the bridge of the song.

The lyric that begins "if I could do it over..."

Trust me when I tell you that if you're over the age of forty, you're going to be, at least, touched and, possibly moved, by those few lines.

And the last two lines of that bridge...are genius.

Good songwriters speak about us.

Great songwriters speak about, and to, us.

Genius knows us.

You might not know Jimmy Webb.

But he knows you.

"The More I Know, The Less I Understand...But The More I Appreciate It..."

In its very best moments, pop music transcends the conventional formulas, disregards the flavor of the week mentality and offers lyrical and musical art in a way that will resonate as poignantly and truthfully hundreds of years from now as it does right now.

This is one of pop music's very best moments.

Lyrics and music by Don Henley, John David Souther and Mike Campbell.