Posted on 08/05/2023 12:38:49 PM PDT by FLNittany
Long interview, but the best and most in depth interview I've ever seen with Jimmy Webb.
I had no idea he worked for Motown writing songs at age 17. The songs (their rights) they let him walk away with (free) when he left is chuckle worthy.
IIRC, Glen actually toured with the BB briefly and almost joined the band permanently
At this stage in my life, that song brings a tear to my eye also........
I agree!
Very romantic!
*sigh*
They put out such trash nowadays, it’s awful!
Guess I’m just getting old...
That was amazing
I stand corrected. Carol Kaye did do the intro according to the wiki for the song. It didn’t mention who played the solo but did list the personnel and credits Glen Campbell as playing a Danelectro Longhorn 6 string baritone. I’ll have to listen to the song again but the intro and the solo song like the same baritone guitar. Did Carol Kaye play the intro with Glen’s baritone?
Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman with STP
Here's some specs on that Danelectro Longhorn baritone
Yup. Have to pick the days I decide to listen to my ‘oldies’....they are so beautiful, but they are also my ‘saddies’.
I think what may have happened is that Carol improvised or came up w/ the opening, but Glen likely repeated it on the recording.
Well, that moment has come that we have known was an inevitable certainty and yet stings like a sudden catastrophe. Let the world note that a great American influence on pop music, the American Beatle, the secret link between so many artists and records that we can only marvel, has passed and cannot be replaced. He was bountiful. His was a world of gifts freely exchanged: Roger Miller stories, songs from the best writers, an old Merle Haggard record or a pocket knife.
He gave me a great wide lens through which to look at music. The cult of The Players? He was at the very center. He loved the Beach Boys and in subtle ways helped mold their sound. He loved Don and Phil, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, Flatt and Scruggs. This was the one great lesson that I learned from him as a kid: Musically speaking nothing is out of bounds. Of course, he lavished affection and gifts on his kids, family and friends.
His love was a deep mercurial thing and once committed he was a tenacious friend as so many in Nashville and Phoenix, L.A. and New York, compadres all over the world would testify. One of his favorite songs was “Try A Little Kindness” in which he sings “shine your light on everyone you see.” My God. Did he do that or what? Just thinking back I believe suddenly that the “raison d’etre” for every Glen Campbell show was to bring every suffering soul within the sound of his voice up a peg or two. Leave ’em laughin.’ Leave them feeling just a little tad better about themselves; even though he might have to make them cry a couple of times to get ’em there. What a majestically graceful and kind, top rate performer was Glen on his worst night!
When it came to friendship Glen was the real deal. He spoke my name from ten thousand stages. He was my big brother, my protector, my co-culprit, my John crying in the wilderness. Nobody liked a Jimmy Webb song as much as Glen! And yet he was generous with other writers: Larry Weiss, Allen Toussaint, John Hartford. You have to look hard for a bad song on a Glen Campbell album. He was giving people their money’s worth before it became fashionable.
I am full of grief. I am writing because I think you deserve some sort of message from me but I am too upset to write very well or at any great length. It’s like waking up in the morning in some Kafkaesque novella and finding that half of you is missing. Laura and I would call upon you to rest your sympathy with Kim Campbell and her children Cal, Shannon and Ashley; his older children Debby, Kelli, Travis, Kane, and Dillon; grandchildren, great- and great-great-grandchildren. Perhaps you could throw in a prayer for the Webb kids, Chris, Justin, Jamie, Corey, Charles and Camila who looked upon him as a kind of wondrous uncle who was a celebrated star and funnier than old dad.
This I can promise. While I can play a piano he will never be forgotten. And after that someone else will revel in his vast library of recordings and pass them on to how many future generations? Possibly to all of them.
A great interview with Mr Jimmy Webb. I saw it about an hour after posting and have watched it a couple of times now.
Was very interested in Jimmy’s description at about 7:40 of the “prairie gothic”, “lonely songs” and “flat country” songs that you can see for 50 miles in every direction. He hit the ethos perfectly for such songs.
Loved his tribute to Al De Lory, who arranged these songs for him.
Totally disagree. There is a boatload of indie stuff these days. Hard to find, but it's out there. Record labels suck, but there are always actual musicians out there doing interesting things. Some of the most interesting IMO, is so different the first time you hear it, that you might completely dismiss it, until the 2nd time.
Rock/Pop music is now basically where classical music is.
All the good stuff has already been done, and people are now listening to the “classics”. The Beatles are the new “Beethoven”.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl2Hl8RSFok&pp=ygUjc3RvbmUgdGVtcGxlIHBpbG90cyB3aWNoaXRhIGxpbmVtYW4%3D
Glen playing it with a bari longhorn.
Did I tell you that?
It was you, but it was most likely after showing me the Stone Temple Pilots video.
STP were a great band.
I learned to respect them. Very competent musicians and some good songwriting. At the time I lumped them into the grunge category with other bands I wasn’t crazy about back in the 90s.
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