"J.R. Cobb’s songwriting skills touched millions": This week's newspaper column

[Willie G. Moseley]

J.R. Cobb’s songwriting skills touched millions

You’ve heard J.R. Cobb playing music. It’s also probable that you’ve heard many of the songs he co-wrote; there are more of those than you might know.

James Barney Cobb was born in Birmingham in 1944 and was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. During part of his childhood, he was compelled to live at the Baptist Children’s Home, as his parents had divorced and his mother was struggling as a single parent (Cobb was the oldest of seven children).

“I respected it and appreciated it a lot more after I got out,” he said of his children’s home experience. “It came along when I really needed it. I could very easily have gone the other way.”

Cobb began playing guitar while still in school, and was influenced by instrumental artists such as Chet Atkins, the Ventures and Duane Eddy.

However, his guitar prowess isn’t the keystone facet of his legacy—his ability to craft hit songs was nothing less than legendary.

J.R.’s first band of renown was the Classics IV. During his tenure, he met promoter Buddy Buie in Clearwater, Florida. Buie had a knack for songwriting. Even though Buie was not a musician, he had musical ideas.

Together, Buie and Cobb would compose some of the most memorable hits in pop music history—“Traces,” “Stormy” and “Every Day With You Girl” are exemplary. “Spooky” was a jazz instrumental to which Cobb and Buie added lyrics.

J.R. also wrote with others. He described his collaboration with Ray Robert Whitley on “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” (a hit for the Tams) as “a beach music anthem.”

Cobb moved to Atlanta in the mid-‘60s, and departed the Classics IV to concentrate more on session work and songwriting. He and Buie partnered with music industry moguls Bill Lowery and Paul Cochran to build Studio One, a state of the art recording facility in Doraville.

Paralleling the construction of Studio One was the founding of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, a sextet of accomplished studio musicians (including Cobb) who wrote and recorded their own material and toured to support their albums. Such a concept had never previously been implemented in the music business.

J.R. continued his songwriting efforts with Buie (who was the band’s producer) and also wrote with other band members, crafting hits like “Do It or Die” and “Champagne Jam.” He recorded 13 albums with the ARS (one of which was never officially released; another was a live effort that was marketed 19 years after it was recorded).

After a decade and a half with the ARS, Cobb departed to concentrate more on family life and occasional studio work, but he also spent several years as a guitarist and backing vocalist for the Highwaymen, a country supergroup whose frontline members were Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.

Buddy and J.R. went through some times of estrangement, but reconciled and continued to write together. One latter-day success was Wynonna’s 1994 hit “Rock Bottom.”

J.R. would play guitar at Buddy’s funeral in 2015. The producer/songwriter had informed his wife Gloria that he wanted “Traces” and “Moon River” played at his final ceremony.

“I played them and got through them,” J.R. recalled, “but it was the hardest two-song set I’ve ever done.”

My own friendship with J.R. Cobb was far too brief.

Of course, he wasn’t the same slim rock guitarist with a Wilford Brimley-type mustache that ARS fans might recall from the ‘70s. Perhaps the best term to describe J.R. in more recent times is “jolly”—a bit archaic but applicable, because one of the interpretations of “jolly” can be “full of life.” In the two and a half years I knew him, J.R. had a humorous disposition and a positive, humble attitude about his accomplishments over the decades.

J.R. Cobb and Buddy Buie created hit songs that were iconic. Over half a century after most of them were first heard on the radio, many of us can still sing along with them.

That’s the kind of legacy to which any songwriter should aspire.

 

 

 

 

 

[Steve Haynie]

The Classics IV have a tribute to Cobb on their homepage.  They should, because his songs are a big part of their shows. 

[MCChris]

Big fan of the salad that bears his name.