Great memoir on Jimmy Webb. Really interesting read, of an interesting man. Recommend to fans. Must read.

I respect Jimmy Webb's work enormously and hoped to like this book more than I did. It's a fairly decent memoir in places but overall it lacks much coherence, I think.

The Cake And The Rain covers Webb's life from childhood in an agaraian environment with a pastor father who insisted on moving the family around very frequently, through his period of colossal wealth and fame to the point in 1973 where he took a drug overdose, almost died and lost the ability to create music for a time. To his credit Webb is honest and forthright not only about his ability, but also about his mistakes, his young man's hubris and so on, and the book gives a decent picture of the time.

The story is, I'm afraid, told in a fractured timescale, with childhood and adolescent episodes intercut with Webb at the height of his fame in the late 60s and early 70s. Frankly, it's an annoying structure which does nothing to help the book. There are some great stories and some very tedious ones, too. Meeting Elvis and Joni Mitchell? I certainly want to hear about that. Long tales and descriptions of over-flashy cars? Not so much. I also think that Webb is a very fine songwriter, but often pretty over-the-top in his prose. Writing of the start of 1970, for example, he says "Now, the seventies waited for the swift hand of fate to write what wonders or horrors?" A little of that goes a very long way with me, and it's often a great deal too rich for my taste.

So…worth a read if you're interested in the times and their music, but it's somewhat heavy going and I can only give this a qualified recommendation.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Jimmy Webb’s autobiography is a strange entity within itself. Using an unorthodox device where he jumps back and forth from his childhood to his present (being 1968), you have a disjointed book that doesn’t quite work. You also have a book that is dealing with someone’s who is still very much alive but his story ends in 1973 which I feel if he brought it up to today, you may have a better resolution and understanding of the man.

The book seems to be read in one of two ways, you can read it straight forward and you will find a story of a man who is an egomaniac and very boastful. ~If you read it from a tongue in cheek aspect, you find yourself with an autobiography that is insightful who doesn’t take his life too serious. This sometimes create a problem within the text because we are dealing with a man who is an enormous talent and has come into a lot of success but at the same time we do get a rundown of his shrines, keyboards, homes, etc. which comes across as shallow. It felt like reading a book about MTV cribs at times.

I am huge fan of Jimmy Webb and I was turned onto his music from an Amy Grant album where she recorded ‘If These Walls Could Speak’. After hearing this song, I started buying anything with his name on it and have become a big fan since. Is music is deep, thought provoking, and heart felt. I am guessing that because of his music, I expected his autobiography to be the same. It is not.

After about three chapters, I put the book down and then waited a week and picked it back up and read it as a simple memoir of a person I knew nothing about. This was the turning point for me. I read it from a different perspective and started to enjoy this even more.

He is still boastful but from my understanding, he is writing this from the view point of the person he was at that time and with his rise to fame and success, large bankroll and everyone wanting to work with him, gave him a huge ego and I suspect this is the view point he used when writing this book. From this point of view, this is a solid autobiography.

The only downfall is that I would have liked the novel to move past 1973 to be developed into the person he has become today. I think that this would have given more insight of the person he was and the person he is which unfortunately is lacking in this book. He is very gifted but there is a lack of personal development within the pages.

If you want to have a glimpse of life from 1968 – 1973 and of a childhood that is post war middle America then this book has hit all the right spots. This is a winner of book overall but has to be read from the right perspective to have total fulfillment.

I was sent The Cake and The Rain by Jimmy Webb by NetGalley to read and review.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I do not often read autobiographies, I usually find them a bit dry and prefer to have a story to get engrossed in with a novel. However, this book is an exception as it had plenty to keep me wanting to read more.
The Cake and The Rain is a memoir by songwriter and composer Jimmy Webb and I was initially drawn to the book by its title which refers to a line in the Iconic 1960s song MacArthur Park, along with its perfectly simple cover which is an evocative photograph of the author from that time. I think one of the things that increased my enjoyment of this read is that being of a certain age I remember many of the songs, artists and occasions mentioned therein.
The book has two threads running within it charting both Jimmy Webb’s formative years and his rise to fame in the music industry. I found that the way the two wove together worked very well with the former almost catching up with the latter towards the end of the book.
There are plenty of Iconic names to be had within the memoir including Richard Harris, Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Glen Campbell, Joni Mitchell and even Elvis. The escapades (I can’t quite bring myself to call them anything else!) that Jimmy Webb and his friends sometimes get involved in are quite incredible and the story of the development of the music industry at that time, for me, is really interesting. I can’t wait until the next instalment.
If you have an interest in music, the 1960s, or both, then this is a definite ‘must read’ for you!

A surprising self-portrait warts and all...different than the one we get when we see the artist in person