Jimmy Webb: The Cake and the Rain

Jimmy Webb is ‘America’s Songwriter’. His deep, complex songs have been recorded by artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Carly Simon to R.E.M to Art Garfunkel to Donna Summer. He is the youngest man ever inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, the only artist ever to win Grammy awards for music, lyrics and orchestration, and his chart-topping career has, so far, lasted fifty years, most recently including a Kanye West rap and a new classical nocturne.

In 1969, Webb was a ‘heavy pot smo...