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

[vienna]

Originally Posted by fred8615

He could also play the bagpipes.

He certainly could:






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...





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