Posted on 08/14/2017 12:47:09 PM PDT by Twotone
Glen Campbell died last Tuesday at the age of 81, and I blush to realize that his only appearance in these columns to date has been a parenthetic reference in our Sinatra Song of the Century #77:
"Strangers In The Night" had a huge impact on the guy playing that "chinking rhythm guitar", too. He was a fellow called Glen Campbell. At the time, he was a session guitarist with no particular interest in singing. "I'd never really paid that much attention to it, because I'm really a musician at heart. Singin' was, like, secondary," he said. "But when I heard the way he phrases, I said, 'Wow, that's really cool.'" Playing the melody along with Sinatra, he started to notice the way the singer pushed certain words and held back on others. He was so fascinated by the vocal technique he couldn't take his eyes off Frank. At the end of the session, Sinatra said to Jimmy Bowen, "Who's the faggot on guitar?"
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Glen Campbell was quite underrated. When it comes to guitar virtuosity he was as good as Hendrix, Page, Clapton or any of the other so-call “guitar gods” of the 1960s.
A master.
And Glen had the good judgment to sing Jimmy Webb's songs.
For my money, that genius.
If this earth is still alive and kicking in a thousand years, people will still be listening to Glen Campbell.
For those that missed the Alice Cooper interview about Glen Campbell here is a link to it:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3575874/posts
Glen Campbell will go down as a great American artiste...one of the really great ones.
Great article about a great song about everyman.
Thanks for posting this!
bfl
One of the greatest songs ever written.
Yes, I should mention that this is great article about Campbell and Webb and “Wichita Lineman.”
When I was a kid in the early 70’s Campbell was very popular, and very highly regarded. His fall from public grace came as a result of his drunken rabble-rousing days with Tanya Tucker sometime afterwards.
Thanks for posting this. It was fantastic. Loved it.
Yes. Loved him back then.
Loved him even more when I learned his great role in the Wrecking Crew, and on Pet Sounds.
His virtuosity simply wasn’t the flavor the leftie/hippie critics adored.
Always a women : )
A beautiful song that was beautifully sung.
Steyn’s analysis is great.
Without fail, AFRTS would always manage to be playing Galveston on the drive back from whatever foreign deployment I was returning from:Korea, Gulf 1, Bosnia, Haiti, Gulf 2. It was kind of creepy but the song brings back memories, most of them good.
Thanks, twotone. One beautiful song that we can appreciate looking back on our lives and remembering.
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