Glen Campbell, Country music singer, guitarist and artist passes away at 81

[Commander Wallace]

Glen Campbell passed away today from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 81.
Glen's smooth vocals and great guitar playing made him a country music favorite for decades. Glen was very underrated as a guitarist.

Quote:"It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell ... following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease," a Facebook statement said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/entertainment/glen-campbell-dies/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3 A+CNN+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Yahoo+Search+Results

I knew we would hear of Glen's passing soon since he was in such poor health but it's still a shock and a loss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjzTNWWO7U0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh0F2sMcr_4

Rest in peace Glen and thanks for the great music.

[Reece]

One of my favorite singers, I have a few of his albums. Sad day!:wah:

[Gerald]

That's sad, very good music.:nope:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUg5p3BncuQ

[Sailor Steve]

But the Wichita Lineman is still on the line, and the Rhinestone Cowboy will always be Gentle On My Mind.

[em2nought]

Hooray for the man from Texas! Some bully shot! :salute: RIP

[Buddahaid]

But the Wichita Lineman is still on the line, and the Rhinestone Cowboy will always be Gentle On My Mind.

Nice!

[vienna]

A lot of people know of Glen Campbell mainly from his sort of 'pop-country' songs and/or his TV series on the US CBS Network; what an even larger number of people don't know is how great a composer, arranger, producer. and, most importantly, session musician he really was; the man could do just about anything in a recording studio. He was a very important member of the legendary "Wrecking Crew", an elite corps of studio musicians, the pride of Musician's Local #47 here in Hollywood, who played on recordings for just about every major recording artist from the late 50s to the early 70s; it's Glen who gave the brilliant guitar sound to the Beach Boys early recordings and who likewise enlivened The Monkess early hits. He could play just about anything in any style, yet he, himself, could not read sheet music; he mainly used rough chord charts. (I have long wondered about the connection between great musicianship and the inability to read music; look at the list of just a few: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Jagger, Richards, Hendrix, the list goes on and on...) When Glen was offered the opportunity to host his own TV show, he was reluctant because he was already making a sizeable income from his session work. His passing as a result of being afflicted with Alzheimer's is particularly sad; to be robbed of the mental facilities that had enabled him to perform so amazingly must have been a severe blow to him, but he seems to have taken the diagnosis with great grace and courage, something almost as great as his talent...

I'm posting two clips here. The first is Glen in his natural habitat, the recording studio along with other members of the Wrecking Crew, reminiscing about the great days of Hollywood recording history:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9-FfwwXRDg[/URL]


The second is an episode of his TV show with notable guests, Johnny and June Carter Cash, Buck Owens, Mel Tillis, Merle Haggard, Jerry Reed, among others, just a-pickin' and a-grinning and showing off the real heart and core of who was Glen Campbell...

[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhwu-0pXzRY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scqA1t97Bpo)


Commander Wallace noted Glen was underrated as a guitarist; he was underrated in a lot of aspects and, sadly, it will have taken his passing for a lot of people to realize just how much he will be sorely missed...

RIP, Glen, rest now that the pain is over and maybe pick out a tune or two with Johnny and June Carter...




<O>

[Jimbuna]

A great artist, someone who's albums I still have in my collection.

RIP Glen

[Commander Wallace]

A lot of people know of Glen Campbell mainly from his sort of 'pop-country' songs and/or his TV series on the US CBS Network; what an even larger number of people don't know is how great a composer, arranger, producer. and, most importantly, session musician he really was; the man could do just about anything in a recording studio. He was a very important member of the legendary "Wrecking Crew", an elite corps of studio musicians, the pride of Musician's Local #47 here in Hollywood, who played on recordings for just about every major recording artist from the late 50s to the early 70s; it's Glen who gave the brilliant guitar sound to the Beach Boys early recordings and who likewise enlivened The Monkess early hits. He could play just about anything in any style, yet he, himself, could not read sheet music; he mainly used rough chord charts. (I have long wondered about the connection between great musicianship and the inability to read music; look at the list of just a few: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Jagger, Richards, Hendrix, the list goes on and on...) When Glen was offered the opportunity to host his own TV show, he was reluctant because he was already making a sizeable income from his session work. His passing as a result of being afflicted with Alzheimer's is particularly sad; to be robbed of the mental facilities that had enabled him to perform so amazingly must have been a severe blow to him, but he seems to have taken the diagnosis with great grace and courage, something almost as great as his talent...



Commander Wallace noted Glen was underrated as a guitarist; he was underrated in a lot of aspects and, sadly, it will have taken his passing for a lot of people to realize just how much he will be sorely missed...

RIP, Glen, rest now that the pain is over and maybe pick out a tune or two with Johnny and June Carter...




<O>

Nice piece of Background Vienna. I should have known you would " fill in the blanks. You always do. :up: I knew Of the "wrecking crew " as well. You mentioned the Beach Boy's and Glen Campbell actually replaced Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys From December 1964 through early March 1965. Glen was a touring member of The Beach Boys playing bass and singing Brian Wilson‘s high falsetto harmony part. He had played on many of their studio sessions, but never got his photo included on one of their many picture sleeves, and this was the first time he went out on the road with them.

Nashville and popular contemporary music has a way of pushing older, established musicians who are great at what they do, to the side, in favor of younger, less talented individuals. Btw, you can add the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan to the list of musicians or great guitarists who couldn't read music. They were both great guitarists and artists though.

http://kool.cbslocal.com/2012/07/03/how-glen-campbell-become-a-member-of-the-beach-boys/

Glen was a musician's guitar player and was well known in guitar playing circles much like rock / Jazz fusion player Joe Satriani or Robben Ford , just to name a few. They are not mainstream musicians but are true talents. Another major talent is none other than Roy Linwood Clark. Roy Clark was best known for being a co host on Hee Haw paired with Buck Owens. Roy was forced to " Dumb Down " his guitar playing as Buck Owens wasn't even close in talent and Roy would have made Buck look bad.

Roy Clark is a rare talent who can play violin / fiddle, banjo, guitar and anything else with strings and could probably make rubber bands and a cardboard box sound good, literally. Both Roy and Glen recognized each other for the talents they both are and enjoyed playing together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-sExIVBVaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOtgTiDdoXM


Roy Clark making an appearance on an early sitcom, " The odd couple "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilm2qeJndWo

[fred8615]

Glen was very underrated as a guitarist.

He could also play the bagpipes.

[vienna]

He could also play the bagpipes.


He certainly could:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_DqmyI_YNE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q89RraCMyWc


I included Mull of Kintyre because I love that song...

Glen, as a session musician, had to double in brass, as did all the other session players. Recording studio time was very expensive and there was a great fear of eating up time, by waiting for a player of a particular type of instrument or musical style to appear if the producer suddenly got it in his head he needed that sound in the recording. Most sessions musicians, and certainly all of the great ones, could play multiple instruments or were, at least, very quick studies who could "wing it" on an instrument if needed; there is an anecdote in one of the prior clips I posted where there talking about the late, great, legendary guitarist/stringed instrument player Tommy Tedesco, where they describe how, at one session, Tommy was blocked from sight below his had level by a partition from the view of the producer. The producer couldn't decide what string instrument sound he wanted, so he kept asking Tommy if he happened to have a particular instrument available;

"Tommy, let's try a take with a banjo this time";

Tommy puts down his guitar, leans down, picks up his instrument, and proceeds to play a banjo part;

"No, that's not it. Tommy, let's try a take with a classical guitar this time";

Tommy puts down his classical guitar, leans down, picks up his instrument, and proceeds to play a classical guitar part;

...and so it went on as the producer asked to hear takes with varied stringed instruments. Mind you, all that was visible of Tommy was his head and shoulders. Glen was so curious about how Tommy was able to produce and play so many instruments so readily, he leaned over to look behind the partition: all Tommy had was his single guitar; he had just been going through the motions of retrieving various instruments and had been able to approximate their sounds just by using his own talents...

That was the environment and expectations of studio musicians in the time Glen was working recording sessions; if you wanted the gigs and the callbacks and to be a "first call" player, you had to be able to be flexible and multi-talented. Glen certainly fit that description...

BTW, the main reason record companies used studio players in place of the actual members of the groups they were recording was basic economics; as noted, studio time was expensive, so, rather than let some newcomers stumble and bumble around in the studio expending precious studio time and money, producers chose to use the proven talents of the studio musicians. This extended to even the most famous of artists: uncertain of the actual playing abilities of one group's drummer, a producer decide to sideline the drummer and bring in a session pro to play on the group's first single; that's why George Martin replaced Ringo Starr with Andy White on the Beatle's first session...





<O>

[Commander Wallace]

He could also play the bagpipes.

You're very right Fred. I did forget Glen Campbell played bagpipes as well. Thanks for the correction and reminding all of us who didn't know or forgot. :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

[fred8615]

I included Mull of Kintyre because I love that song...


I have a bagpipes only version, so I never heard the words before.

Bonaparte's Retreat and I'm Gonna Love You are the only two songs I know of (and own) where he played the bagpipes. I've always wondered if there were more.