The Moon's a Harsh Mistress - Jimmy Webb

Jimmy Webb - The Moon's a Harsh Mistress See her how she flies Golden sails across the sky Close enough to touch But careful if you try Though she looks as warm as gold The moon's a harsh mistress The moon can be so cold Once the sun did shine Lord, it felt so fine The moon a phantom rose Through the mountains and the pines And then the darkness fell And the moon's a harsh mistress It's so hard to love her well I fell out of her eyes I fell out of her heart I fell down on my face Yes, I did, and I -- I tripped and I missed my star God, I fell and I fell alone, I fell alone And the moon's a harsh mistress And the sky is made of stone The moon's a harsh mistress She's hard to call your own. Raised in Oklahoma and west Texas, Jimmy Webb launched a celebrated songwriting career while still in his teens, his "Up, Up And Away" topping the charts for The Fifth Dimension in 1967. During the Flower Power era, his lush, romantic pop songs -- "MacArthur Park" for Richard Harris and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" for Glen Campbell, to name a couple -- represented everything creatively vital about a Tin Pan Alley that was fast being overshadowed by songwriting performers like Dylan and The Beatles. Success or no, Webb quickly saw the writing on the wall. "One thing I always knew was that once they know who you are, you're dead," he explains in Ben Edmonds' liner notes to this release. "I saw that I was rapidly pigeonholed, strapped into an electric chair called 'middle of the road songwriter.' I couldn't let that happen." So in 1969 Webb embarked on a performance career noted for its studio innovation, large-scale ambition, and delicate song craft. While his 1970 debut, Words And Music, was tailored to the rock audience, Webb subsequently re-consolidated his orchestral gains, culminating in the back-to-back extravagance of Land's End (1974) and El Mirage (1977), the latter produced by George Martin. Webb consistently impressed critics but sold few records. His peers have always recognized his genius, bestowing prestigious songwriting awards as well as Grammys for music, lyrics, and orchestration (Webb remains the only artist to be awarded in all three categories). And then there are the legions of loyalists. "It has been a somewhat strange career -- sometimes triumphant, sometimes bittersweet -- having this almost maniacal following of people who will travel anywhere to hear me perform, yet not ever having grasped the brass ring of major acceptance as a performer," he says in these liners. This five-disc limited-edition boxed set contains the albums Words And Music (1970), And So: On (1971), Letters (1972), Land's End (1974), and El Mirage (1977), as well as previously unreleased 1972 live performances and a disc's worth of previously unreleased outtakes. SLEEPIN' IN THE DAYTIME P.F. SLOAN LOVE SONG CARELESS WEED PSALM ONE-FIVE-O I. SONGSELLER II. DOROTHY CHANDLER BLUES III. JERUSALEM THREE SONGS: (LET IT BE ME, NEVER MY LOVE, I WANNA BE FREE) ONCE BEFORE I DIE MET HER ON A PLANE ALL NIGHT SHOW ALL MY LOVE'S LAUGHTER HIGHPOCKETS MARIONETTE LASPITCH ONE LADY IF SHIPS WERE MADE TO SAIL POCKETFUL OF KEYS SEE YOU THEN GALVESTON CAMPO DE ENCINO LOVE HURTS SIMILE HURT ME WELL ONCE IN THE MORNING CATHARSIS SONG SELLER WHEN CAN BROWN BEGIN PIANO LOVE HURTS (single version) OCEAN IN HIS EYES FEET IN THE SUNSHINE CLOUDMAN LADY FITS HER BLUE JEANS JUST THIS ONE TIME CRYING IN MY SLEEP IT'S A SIN ALYCE BLUE GOWN LAND'S END ASLEEP ON THE WIND THE HIGHWAYMAN IF YOU SEE ME GETTING SMALLER I'M LEAVING MIXED-UP GUY CHRISTIAAN, NO MOMENT IN A SHADOW SUGARBIRD WHERE THE UNIVERSES ARE P.F. SLOAN DANCE TO THE RADIO THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS SKYLARK (A MEDITATION) NO GOOD INDIAN JET LAG RAG YOU MIGHT AS WELL SMILE WHISTLETOWN IT WILL STAND HOT ROD QUEEN SEE THAT GIRL IT AIN'T RAINING VAGABOND QUEEN IF THIS WAS THE LAST SONG SATURDAY SUIT CLOUDMAN FINGERPAINT ME CATHARSIS SIMILE PIANO Jimmy Webb & Harry Nilsson OVERTURE SLEEPIN' IN THE DAYTIME BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX MACARTHUR PARK WICHITA LINEMAN DIDN'T WE POCKETFUL OF KEYS WHEN CAN BROWN BEGIN ONCE IN THE MORNING SONG FOR MY BROTHER WHERES THE PLAYGROUND,SUSIE? JERUSALEM GALVESTON WHISTLETOWN PIANO WICHITA LINEMAN