Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor & Nick Lowe - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-16-1999

For a few years, the BBC had a musical TV show alternately called "Songwriters' Circle" or "In the Round." In it, they would bring three singer-songwriters together and have them take turns playing songs. I particularly like it because in most cases the artists would participate with each others' songs, creating some interesting moments.

I've posted one of these shows already. It brought together Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, and Loudon Wainwright III. You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/12/richard-thompson-suzanne-vega-loudon.html

I hope to post more, when I find good versions. Unfortunately, I've found only a few, so if you have any, please let me know.

This particular show brought together Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor and Nick Lowe. I'll bet you know Jimmy Webb, or at least know many of his songs. Although he never had a big commercially successful solo career, he wrote many classics, like "Up, Up and Away," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," and "MacArthur's Park." Chip Taylor is much less of a famous name. But he also wrote some classic songs, such as "Wild Thing," "Angel of the Morning," "I Can't Let Go," and "Any Way that You Want Me." Nick Lowe I consider a songwriter's songwriter. He hasn't had many big hits, but he seems incapable of writing a bad song. His hits include "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass," and "Cruel to Be Kind."

For the duration of this concert, Webb played the piano while Taylor and Lowe played guitar. Generally speaking, they played on each others' songs most of the time. For instance, Taylor commented how surprised and delighted he was to hear Webb play a piano solo to his song "Wild Thing." However, I've only included more than one name in the song credits when there was some shared lead vocals near the end of the show. 

One interesting facet of this show is that both Webb and Taylor played an original song that they apparently never have officially released. I'm pretty confident about the names of these songs because the YouTube video of this show has the names of the songs at the bottom of the video for a few seconds when they start. The original song by Webb is "Rich Kids Can't Play the Blues." The one by Taylor, "Talking the President," is commentary about US President Bill Clinton's sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, which was very big news at the time the show was recorded.  

This concert is 48 minutes long.

01 Highwayman (Jimmy Webb)
02 talk (Chip Taylor)
03 I Can't Let Go (Chip Taylor)
04 talk (Nick Lowe)
05 What's Shakin' on the Hill (Nick Lowe)
06 talk (Jimmy Webb)
07 Galveston (Jimmy Webb)
08 talk (Chip Taylor)
09 Angel of the Morning (Chip Taylor)
10 talk (Nick Lowe)
11 Without Love (Nick Lowe)
12 talk (Jimmy Webb)
13 Rich Kids Can't Play the Blues (Jimmy Webb)
14 talk (Chip Taylor)
15 Talking the President (Chip Taylor)
16 Man That I've Become (Nick Lowe)
17 talk (Jimmy Webb)
18 Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb with Chip Taylor)
19 talk (Chip Taylor)
20 Wild Thing (Chip Taylor with Jimmy Webb & Nick Lowe)
21 talk (Nick Lowe)
22 [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding (Nick Lowe with Chip Taylor & Jimmy Webb)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15274924/WebbTaylrLwe_1999_SongwritrsCrcleSubteraniaClbLondnBritain__7-16-1999_atse.zip.html

The cover is a screenshot I took from the YouTube video of this show. It's not a great one, but it's one of the very few moments I could find where all three of them were in the same shot. Webb is far back playing piano, Taylor is in the middle, and Lowe is the largest and closest.