Posted on 07/21/2017 4:43:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It's been nice to see that with the release of Adiós, his new — and almost certainly final — album, Glen Campbell is finally getting his dues from critics.
Campbell has always been a hard critical sell, especially among people steeped in the Whig Interpretation of Pop History who don't own copies of Southern Nights but think that, say, Brian Wilson was some kind of genius because he introduced animal noises into mediocre pop songs. (Clearly these are people who have never browsed the racks at their local Goodwill, where roughly 50 percent of the records are goofy but very innovative novelty albums doing the same thing. The only meaningful difference between Pet Sounds and Jungle Drums by Morton Gould and His Orchestra is that the latter has better cover art.)
Which is not to say that Wilson isn't a great talent. Campbell himself, who played guitar on Pet Sounds and whose best early single was the Wilson-penned "Guess I'm Dumb," would have been the last to disagree with that. But put beside the achievement of half a century of Glenn's catalogue, Today! and Wild Honey and Surf's Up and — maybe — Love You! look pretty thin.
The man from Billstown, Arkansas, has had enough careers for five great musicians. Campbell was a brilliant session guitarist and since the early '60s has been pop's most versatile interpreter not named Barbra Streisand. He was country's best ballad man in his heyday and had an unfailing instinct for spotting songwriting talent. This is a man who introduced Donovan to American audiences and discovered Alan Jackson. He could slay in a duet with Johnny Cash, but he was also the crown prince of easy listening.
The best place to start for people who think of Campbell as "That guy who did 'Wichita Lineman'" is the brilliant two-disc collection The Capitol Years, whose compilers had the good sense to look past the chart toppers, brilliant as most of them were. "The Universal Soldier" is the best anti-war ballad ever sung by a guy whose politics basically consist of the sentiment that draft dodgers should be hanged. "Less of Me," from his album of duets with Bobby Gentry, will make Byrds fans and Merle devotees alike salivate. Sorry, Nilsson fans (of whom I am certainly one): "Marie" is easily the best cover of a Randy Newman song ever. Then there the ones people do tend to know: "Gentle on My Mind," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Galveston," which belongs on any short list for best pop single of all time, and various cuts from Rhinestone Cowboy, the greatest country record released in the '70s and a fine rebuke to hipster cultists who imagine that outlaw posturing was the genre's be-all end-all.
If the album had been compiled a few years later, it might have been expanded to a third disc. Unlike virtually every single one of his contemporaries, Campbell managed to recover from a slump in the '80s and make a huge amount of relevant and interesting music in the last two decades. No compilation of his best work could be complete without his staggering take on Jackson Browne's "These Days," which makes Nico's version sound like tin-eared elevator music. I like to imagine Campbell driving around in his truck and hearing Green Day's "(Good Riddance) Time of Your Life," which I used to consider one of the most annoying songs by one of the most annoying bands of all time, on the radio and thinking, Hell, that's a great tune: He makes the world-weary nostalgia only implicit in the melody and lyrics come to life in a way that could never have been possible for someone with Billy Joe Armstrong's limited vocal abilities. "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" is my early pick for song of the decade.
But the most salient fact about Campbell and his career is that he was always very consciously making music for adults. If there is anything that could do with a revival in 2017, it's well-crafted, lushly produced records of men and women singing recognizable songs accompanied by traditional instruments. I don't know who Ed Sheeran is, but I get the sense that most of his recorded output is not exactly at the "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" level of relevance for people who, whatever their real age, are not emotional teenagers. Campbell's songs are about loneliness, melancholy, spouses, children, and God, real things that people come to grips with when they're old enough to have been really hurt. He sings about love not as some kind of intoxicating Platonic ideal but as something hard and difficult that we could all use a little more of in a fallen world full of misery.
Adios is a case in point. Who would have thought it was possible to do anything interesting with "Everybody's Talkin'" in 2017? The youthful ennui so familiar from Harry Nilsson's classic recording is entirely absent here, replaced by a fragile, haunting ballad about what it's like to lose your mind. According to his wife, Kim, Adios was recorded as Campbell was descending into the final stages of Alzheimer's. As of this writing, he has no idea that the album even exists. Which is all the more reason to celebrate his extraordinary achievement.
Wichita Lineman, Galveston, Rhinestone Cowboy, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Where’s the Playground, Susie?...
Campbell is one of those rare singers with the ability to magnify and make you feel the “story” of the song in voice and instrumentation.
One of the greatest guitarists ever. Period.
Two other guitarists in that same mold...Roy Clark and Jerry Reed. Most people know them from their various movies or TV shows, and don't appreciate just how great guitarists they were.
I liked all that he did in the 1960’s and 1970’s..
Whoops, sorry, I was posting while you were with the same Youtube cut, you beat me to it!
Turn Around, Look at Me (1961)
Wichita Lineman was my favorite, then Galveston. I liked Glen Campbell. Still do. Remember watching his TV show when we were kids.
Gentle on My Mind.
In that rendition of Gentle on My Mind, Campbell dances circles around the melody, darting in and out and always returning on the very next note. I am not a musician so that’s the best I can do in describing what he was doing. Masterful!
His kids are very talented and his daughter Ashley has a few songs out herslelf
The guy is truly an artist.
After watching him in "True Grit," though, I'd have to say he's better off sticking to music over acting.
I was into jazz, blues and rock and never took notice of Campbell until late one night years ago he was on some TV show playing instrumentals, not his hits, and just tore it up. I gained a whole lot of respect for him after that. Same with Lyle Lovett. Both can/could play the hell out their six strings.
I use to play Gentle on My Mind on the guitar
:)
Little Sister was a dumb bunny...
This a great video of Glen playing guitar (pre-Jimi Hendricks era):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrtWZiguvuY
he’s the main reason i started to play and study the guitar back in the 60’s (i still have the ovation i worked and saved up for): happy trails Glen. i pray that you’ve found peace.
thanks for the post.
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