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Originally Posted by 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...
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...
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Nice piece of Background Vienna. I should have known you would " fill in the blanks. You always do.
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/...he-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
Roy Clark making an appearance on an early sitcom, " The odd couple "