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R.I.P. Glen Campbell. Dead at 81.


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http://s4.zetaboards.com/OurGlen/index/

 

I used to run a Glen Campbell forum.

 

I have a special section in my vinyl collection for most of his discography from the early sixties to the early eighties.

 

Whenever his name would come up in conversation, I would spit out random facts about his session days, contributions to pop culture, and anything that came to mind. Did you know he once had the largest house in Los Angeles? Besides his two television shows, he also had a golf tournament. Before breaking out as a session guitarist and Pop/Country/Folk idol, he played guitar on Shindig. He was also an official member of the Champs, toured in Brian Wilson's spot for the Beach Boys, and played guitar on so many different songs/albums. He's the guitarist on Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night." You know the cool guitar parts on Kenny Roger's band's song "What Condition My Condition Was In"? Glen Campbell played the electric parts on that song. I guess his most notable session work is on Pet Sounds considering it's one of the most influential albums of all time.

 

But Glen had a great voice that kept getting better.

 

 

 

 

 

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Glen Campbell was indeed a member of the Shindig band...they were originally called 'The Shin-Diggers' then later adopted the much cooler name of 'The Shindogs'

Glen Campbell was in esteemed company;

check out the list of notable musicians that comprised that great group..to wit;

 

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He was just a monster talent - an incredibly gifted and fluent musician.

 

As a kid growing up at the time, his 60's era music left an indelible imprint on my musical soul.

 

I was so sorry that he (or anyone) had to face Alzheimer's. I lost my grandmother to it just a couple of years ago. It's a devastating disease. :(

 

My condolences to his family, friends and fans.

 

 

 

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For me it'd have to be "Wichita Lineman".

 

Unfortunately there isn't a particularly good version of it on YouTube ATM... there's a live one with Glen playing a Bass VI, but the audio quality is pretty poor.

 

I think I'll go see if it's on Spotify. That's probably my favorite song of his (and Jimmy Webb's) too.

 

 

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As a kid I remember watch the "Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour" (which used "Gentle on My Mind" as the theme song). He is one of the reasons I ended up picking a guitar all those years ago.

 

For me I always liked "Galveston". It wasn't till I became an adult that I really understood just how powerful that song is.

 

 

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For me it'd have to be "Wichita Lineman".

 

 

Really good article over at the BBC on Glen Campbell and the song "Wichita Lineman" (http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40861326). A couple of things in there I had never heard before was that Jimmy Webb never "finished" the song. He sent it over to the studio before he could write a third verse.

 

Also, he hated the line "I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time. And the Wichita Lineman, is still on the line." Webb said he initially considered that famous couplet "the biggest, awfulest, dumbest, most obvious false rhyme in history". Over the years, he realized his discomfort over the rhyme had blinded him to the words' raw power. "Had I known what I was doing, I wouldn't have written that line. I would have found a way to make it rhyme," he told NPR in 2010. "It was only years later that I became aware of what a songwriter was even supposed to do. I was really just a kid who was kind of writing from the hip and the heart."

 

Great article. Wish the BBC interview from 2011 was still available.

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Galveston touched the hearts of the many guys serving in the Military Viet Nam era.

Everyone was wistfully thinking of their personal 'Galveston' ...their own Hometown.

However, the line in that song; 'I clean my gun, and dream of Galveston' was kind of an antithesis of the slogan that was driven into the brains during Basic of any grunt or recruit who called their weapon a gun..

 

'This is my rifle, this is my gun,

this is for fighting

this is for fun.' 😊

 

 

I don't know how many of you guys are aware of this... [uSER=27709]Phil[/uSER] O'Keefe, from what I have been told, served his Country proudly as a Marine Corps Officer.

so,

So MAA3 Luke17 would like to report; 'Make a hole...Officer on Deck!'

 

Thank you for your Service, Phil.

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I just read an article claiming his music saw a 5000 percent increase in sales. I'm not sure how anyone came up with that number.

 

Honestly, I have listened to him every day since the news, but I was playing some of his music for my wife just last week. I was planning on reviewing his music on my blog for a while, and already had a couple reviews. At one point, I had a tribute blog dedicated to his music.

 

As relieved as I was that he's no longer suffering, it really hits home for me. My mother and I bonded over his music, an ex-girlfriend and I listened to him heavily through my early college years, and his music always made me feel content as if I was in a different time or place.

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I just read an article claiming his music saw a 5000 percent increase in sales. I'm not sure how anyone came up with that number.

 

Soundscan. Streaming numbers. BMI / ASCAP reporting... there are various ways. As far as whether that number's true or not, I have no idea, but I have zero doubt that his plays and sales have skyrocketed since his demise.

 

It's a morbid fact of the record industry - nothing bumps up a successful artist's sales like their own passing.

 

Honestly, I have listened to him every day since the news, but I was playing some of his music for my wife just last week. I was planning on reviewing his music on my blog for a while, and already had a couple reviews. At one point, I had a tribute blog dedicated to his music.

 

See? There you go. With the news of his passing, everyone who remembers Glen has been talking about him, everyone who he touched with his music has been going back and revisiting some of their old favorites. That alone accounts for a huge increase in streams.

 

As relieved as I was that he's no longer suffering, it really hits home for me. My mother and I bonded over his music, an ex-girlfriend and I listened to him heavily through my early college years, and his music always made me feel content as if I was in a different time or place.

 

I also have very strong "time and place" memories of hearing Glen's music... I associate it with our family's first vacation place up in the mountains, which we got in the late 60s. That's one of the things I think is fairly unique about music (although certain smells can sometimes do the same sort of thing...) and that is its ability to take you back to a time and a place, or to take you away in some manner.

 

It's powerful stuff, this thing called music. And Glen certainly had a gift.

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