Glen never meant for the original to be released, not in the form it was anyway. He’d heard John Hartford’s original and wanted to pitch his record company on him doing it. So he rounded up some fellow members of the Wrecking Crew and cut a demo in about 20 minutes and gave it to the A&R man to listen to. The record company liked it so much, they removed the band members talking during the recording and released it without telling Glen.
I’ve seen video of him 20 years later saying that was just a rough cut and he didn’t think his vocals, in particular, were very good.
Great story, Groo. I didn’t know that. The version you grow up on is always the one you remember as being the “true” version. Hard to believe that was a “rough cut.”