Glen Campbell

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  !  I'm Jumpin' John, and in this podcast edition I will discuss some of the highlights of Glen Campbell's extensive career.  

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
Multiple promo videos and photos for Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts are available on the following social media sites:

https://www.youtube.com/@RockandRollFlashback

https://www.facebook.com/rockandrollflashbackpodcast

https://www.instagram.com/jumpinjohnmcdermott/

Bill and John welcome your feedback and comments, and they can be emailed to rockandrollflashback@outlook.com.
Thank you for listening to Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts!
Until next time...
Rock On!

Transcript

Thank you for that introduction and welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  Hey there, how many people do you know who have the following music credentials?  This man was a talented guitarist with Los Angeles session chops.  This man was once a member of the Beach Boys.  This man was an award winning vocalist with an extensive solo catalog across multiple musical genres.  This man was an actor whose movie theme song was Oscar nominated and who also co-starred in that same movie with Oscar winner John Wayne.  This man was a TV personality who hosted a variety show for 3 1/2 years.  This man ran a Branson, Missouri theater for three years.  Of course, I could only be talking about the one and only Glen Campbell!  I'm Jumpin' John, and in this podcast edition I will discuss some of the highlights of Glen Campbell's extensive career.  

I originally set out to review the story behind one of my favorite songs, Jimmy Webb's composition entitled "Wichita Lineman".  As long time listeners will recall, Bill Price already reviewed two of Jimmy Webb's compositions, "Up, Up, and Away" and "MacArthur Park", back in Rock and Roll Flashback podcast episodes 56 and 57.  However, the more I delved into the story behind "Wichita Lineman", the more I realized that I would be remiss not give greater background discussion to the talented Glen Campbell.

Glen Travis Campbell was born in Billstown, Arkansas in 1936.  One of 12 children, Campbell grew up in poverty as the 7th son of an Arkansas sharecropper.  Rather than working the cotton fields to generate family income, Glen realized that playing guitar could mean more money for less labor.  By age 17, he’d left home to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico and join his uncle’s band, Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys.  Then he played the circuits with his own outfit, the Western Wranglers.  

In 1960, at age 24, Campbell relocated to Los Angeles.  That October he joined the Champs, who a couple years earlier had had a hit song called "Tequila".  In May 1961, Glen left the Champs and was signed by Crest Records, a subsidiary of American Music.  There he wrote songs and recorded demos.  Because of these demos, Campbell soon was in demand as a session musician and became part of a dedicated group of studio musicians later known as the Wrecking Crew.  If you want to learn more about The Wrecking Crew, be sure to check back in our catalog of past episodes of Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  

The Wrecking Crew backed an incredible array of artists.  Possessing exceptional musicianship and guitar skills, Glen Campbell would play on recordings by numerous recording artists.  He befriended Elvis Presley when he helped record the soundtrack for Viva Las Vegas in 1964.  From December 1964 to April 1965 Glen Campbell actually replaced Brian Wilson on bass and vocals and toured with the Beach Boys.  After that tour he returned to session work and began to concentrate on his solo career.  

As a solo artist, Glen Campbell would often record, backed by his Wrecking Crew session friends.  While he was very popular on the Country music charts, Campbell's hits also were successful crossing over to the pop charts.  Glen would end up placing a total of 81 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart.  29 of those tunes made the top 10, and 9 reached #1 on at least one of those charts.  Here is a brief review of five of his hits, along with some sound bites from each song.  These recordings are taken from his August 1994 live performances at the Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in Branson, Missouri.

•Here is a brief segment from a live performance of "Gentle on My Mind":

The “Gentle On My Mind” single was actually just a song demo.  Nevertheless, in 1967 "Gentle on My Mind" initially peaked at #30 on the Billboard's Hot Country Songs, and at #62 on the Hot 100.  The success of the song, which was originally intended for the country music market, helped Campbell cross over to the pop market.

•Here is a brief segment from a live performance of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix":

Released on Capitol Records in 1967, Campbell's version of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" was #1 on RPM's Canada Country Tracks, #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.  BMI named "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" #20 on BMI's Top 100 Songs of the Century, and BMI noted that the song was the third most performed song from 1940 to 1990.   It was #450 on Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Songs of All Time.  In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories.  For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western; "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop.  Interestingly, after Campbell's success with "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", the recording of "Gentle on My Mind" was re-released in 1968.  The new release of the "Gentle" single sold more copies than the original release.  The second time around it peaked at #44 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles, at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at #8 on the Easy Listening chart.

•Here is a brief segment from a live performance of "Galveston":

Campbell's version of "Galveston" went to #1 on the country music charts in 1969.  On other charts, "Galveston" went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the "Easy Listening" charts.  It was certified gold by the RIAA in October 1969.  In 2003, "Galveston" ranked #8 in CMT's 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music. 

•Here is a brief segment from a live performance of "Rhinestone Cowboy":

Released in May 1975, "Rhinestone Cowboy" immediately caught on with both country and pop audiences.  The song spent that summer climbing both the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Billboard Hot 100 charts before peaking at #1 by season's end.  It stayed #1 for three nonconsecutive weeks on the country chart and for two weeks on the Hot 100.  It also topped the charts in Canada and several other countries.  Billboard ranked "Rhinestone Cowboy" as the #2 song for the year 1975.  

•Here is a brief segment from a live performance of "Southern Nights":

Released as a single by Campbell in January 1977, "Southern Nights" became a hit with both country and pop audiences.  In late March, "Southern Nights" spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, making it Campbell's fifth and final #1 country hit.  In late April, the track reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, making it Campbell's second and last #1 pop hit.  "Southern Nights" also spent four weeks at #1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart.

These five track segments I have used thus far in this podcast were taken from Glen's live performances in 1994.  If you are interested in hearing the complete album, it is called Glen Campbell Live! His Greatest Hits.  That LP was the 54th album by Glen Campbell, and it was recorded on August 9th and 10th, 1994 at The Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in Branson, Missouri.  

As mentioned earlier, I want to spend a little more time discussing another hit:  Glen Campbell's 1968 version of "Wichita Lineman".  After the success of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", Glen Campbell asked Jimmy Webb to write another geographical song.  Musically, Jimmy Webb came up with a new song of melancholic, jazz-tinged chord progressions.  The use of major sevenths and suspended fourths reinforced the song's indeterminate nature, as the music modulated from F major to D major and back without ever fully resolving.  D represents the relative minor key to F, however there is no D minor section in the song.  It can be argued that Webb's using of D major contributed to the unique and appealing character of "Wichita Lineman".   The end result is a beautiful, melodic setting that suggests subliminally what the eventual lyrics suggest poetically:  the lonely journeyman, working solitarily atop that telephone pole against that desolate prairie landscape and yearning for home.

Despite being initially hesitant to write another geographical tune for Campbell, Webb was struck by an image from his childhood.  The image was from his childhood on the flat plains in Oklahoma's panhandle, driving by endless telephone poles on a rural stretch of road.  That imagery of telephone wires against the desolate landscape in the middle of nowhere, inspired Webb as he wrote the lyrics for "Wichita Lineman".  Webb said in a 2017 BBC interview [and I quote], "In the heat of summer, with the heat rising off the road, the telephone poles gradually materialize out of this far, distant perspective and rush towards you.  And then, as it happened, I suddenly looked up at one of these telephone poles and there was a man on top, talking on a telephone." [end quote].  Webb never expected a song about a lonely, blue collar lineman in rural America to become a smash success and a crossover pop hit.  

Webb took a demo of the song, without lyrics for the last verse, to Campbell and his producer, Al De Lory.  They loved the song, and decided to record it without telling Webb.  Several Los Angeles backing musicians, the previously mentioned Wrecking Crew, played on the initial recording.  One of them, bassist Carol Kaye, contributed the descending six-note intro.  A second six-note bass lick improvised by Kaye was copied for strings by De Lory and used as a fill between the two rhyming couplets of each verse.  Glen Campbell himself eventually replaced the missing last verse with an epic and now-classic bass solo on a Danelectro Longhorn bass guitar.  The basic instrumental tracks were recorded on May 27th, but the song wasn't finished.  

In a YouTube interview with Rick Beato, Jimmy Webb mentioned the second phase of the recording of "Wichita Lineman."  In mid-June 1968 Glen Campbell and producer Al De Lory happened to visit Webb's house.  Jimmy showed them an interesting feature of his home church organ.  One of the bells and whistles of that Gulbransen organ was a repeating note feature.  Jimmy called it a ring-a-ding sound, like a satellite.  De Lory loved the sound and wanted to put it on the recording.  So De Lory arranged for the 1000 pound organ to be trucked from Webb's house to the Los Angeles studio, and a repetitive note was added to the choruses and the outro.   Jimmy Webb himself contributed an overdub of reverberating electronic notes and open chords heard in the intro and fadeout of the finished track, played on his Gulbransen electric organ.  De Lory then arranged the strings on the song and used a repeating, monotonic 'Morse code' keyboard and flute motif.  This was meant to mimic the electronic sounds a lineman might hear through a telephone.  The orchestral overdub was completed on August 14th.

Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" single was released in October 1968.  It reached #3 on the US pop chart, remaining in the Top 100 for 15 weeks.  On November 30th it topped the American country music chart, staying #1 for two weeks.  It also was #1 on the adult contemporary chart for six weeks.  It was certified gold by the RIAA in January 1969.  In Canada, the single topped both the RPM national and country singles charts.  In the UK, it reached #7.   The single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.  In 2019, the Library of Congress preserved "Wichita Lineman" in the National Recording Registry.  In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" ranked "Wichita Lineman" at #206.                      

In 1969 Glen Campbell dipped his toes into acting and played a supporting role to John Wayne in the film True Grit.  Glen's performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer.  He also sang the title song, "True Grit", which was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Song - Original for a Picture.  Amazingly that year, 1969, Glen Campbell's records outsold the Beatles.  Then from 1969 to 1972, Campbell was the host of The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on TV.  Tens of millions people a week watched it, with up to 50 million a week tuning in.  From 1971 to 1983, Campbell was the celebrity host of the Los Angeles Open, an annual professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour.  In 1994 Glen opened the 2,200-seat Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in Branson, Missouri.  Campbell would perform there for three seasons, through 1996.

After receiving his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 2010, Glen was determined to persevere with what he loved to do best.  He continued making music, producing three new albums.  He also launched a final “The Glen Campbell Goodbye Tour,” with his children becoming key members of his band.  Sadly, on August 8th, 2017, Glen Campbell died at the age of 81, following a long and brave battle with Alzheimer’s disease.  

Glen Campbell's contributions to popular music were undeniable, and his legacy continues to inspire new generations of musicians and fans alike.  Glen Campbell was many things:  a country singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actor.  Glen's repertoire was diverse and his individual accolades are many.  He had hits and awards in the country, pop, and gospel genres.  As I mentioned earlier, he had 81 songs on the charts.  He released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.  Several of his hits won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards, while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the CMA (Country Music Association) and the ACD (Academy of Country Music ).  In 1968 Glen Campbell took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. 

Glen Campbell was an incredibly prolific and versatile musician, and his session work is a testament to his talent and popularity.  According to various sources, including the Nashville Musician’s Association and the Grammy Museum, Glen Campbell played on over 500 albums and thousands of recordings throughout his career.  For example, Glen's guitar can be heard on the following artists' recordings:  Elvis Presley on “Burning Love” and “Suspicious Minds”, The Beach Boys on “Pet Sounds” and “Good Vibrations”, The Byrds on “Mr. Tambourine Man” and  “Turn! Turn! Turn!”, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound productions for The Ronettes and The Crystals, Frank Sinatra on "Strangers in the Night", and on many country and folk artists.  He also played on numerous film soundtracks, including the previously mentioned “True Grit”.

Glen Campbell was an amazing guitarist, singer, and entertainer.  During several of his concerts he was even known to take his guitar and play, lightning fast, the theme song from the Lone Ranger TV show!  Now I know what you're thinking.  You're asking, "Jumpin' John, does this mean that you are going to do a Rock and Roll Flashback podcast episode about Rossini and the William Tell Overture from Rossini's famous "William Tell" opera?"  All I can say is to stay tuned, Campers!  You never know what will be broadcast in future episodes of the Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  So for now, I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and until next time...Rock On!