SKF NOTE: This Feb. 28, 1983 interview with Jimmy Webb was for a short piece in Mix magazine. Unfortunately, the magazine editors, in my opinion, rewrote and botched the manuscript I sent them.

Although I’ve posted on my blog a few excerpts from this interview, this is the first time the full audio interview is available to the public. This is interview Part 1 of 4, conducted at the Webb home in Tuxedo Park, NY.

In this segment, Webb talks about quitting college to become a songwriter. He insists he had no musical gift as a child.

After dropping out of school he started knocking on record company doors, including Motown, where one of his songs made it onto The Supremes’s Christmas album.

You’ll hear about Webb’s initial meeting with legendary drummer Hal Blaine who went on to record on some of Webb’s hit records.

Webb tells the origin of the “Morse Code” intro to Glen Campbell’s recording of “Wichita Lineman.“

Met Hal Blaine on an early recording session. Blaine encouraged Webb to “stick with it.”

Webb talks about help he received from Marty Paich and other recording studio pros.

“I should have worked harder,” Webb said of his early years. “One of the biggest mistakes I made is assuming I had the magic formula, and anytime I wrote a song it was going to be a hit.”

Part 1 ends with Webb talking about his latest album at the time, “Angel Heart,” which, he says, “Is the best album I’ve ever made.”

But in 1983 he was still figuring out how to successfully move from being a writer of entertaining songs to being a writer of socially responsible music.