Source: The Australian
For as long as I can remember Glenn Campbell has always been there. On my parents’ record-player, TV hosting his own show on TV and on regular rotation on my own playlists.
He features in my CD collection, in my Apple Music Library as well as in playlists of the 60s, 70s, Songs I Love and even on my Gym playlist! So, it was with much sadness that I record his death.
I was aware of the many trials and tribulation he’d faced. He had his challenges, including his battle with Alzheimer’s which he made public in 2011. That may have curtailed his concert tours but not his recording which culminated with his last album Adios released in June of this year.
I am glad my parents introduced me to Glen Campbell, as he is someone I would never have found from my more usual sources of listening. He just wasn’t fashionable as a teenager but he was part of the soundtrack of my life.
Jimmy Webb’s Galveston, I know not necessarily sung as Jimmy Webb had intended is a classic. It gives me a spring in my step every time I hear it. At the gym I have it booming through my headphones and often on repeat. I never tire of it.
As I sit at my desk combing through the mounds of literature for my PhD, I find myself regularly listening to his music the ones we all associate him with Wichita Lineman, Gentle on my Mind, Try a Little Kindness, Where’s the Playground Suzy and of course Galveston, but there is so much more. Whether it’s a cover of another Jimmy Webb classic Macarthur Park, the stunning version of Jackson Browne’s, These Days and songs that just don’t seem right but are, like The Foo Fighters,Times like These or Green Day’s, Good Riddance (Time of your Life) – they are all great.
Reading an obituary in The Australian Financial Review, I noted the reflection made by Glenn Campbell himself that lyrics from Rhinestone Cowboy were his own autobiography,
“There’s been a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo”
but as I listened to his music today I found one of his more recent songs resonated with me.
It was Jackson Browne’s, These Days. Here are the lyrics & link to Glenn Campbell’s version
Well I’ve been out walking
I don’t do that much talking these days
These days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
For you
And all the times I had the chance to
And I had a lover
It’s so hard to risk another these days
These days
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I have made in song
Well it’s just that I’ve been losing so long
Well, I’ll keep on moving, moving on
Things are bound to be improving these days
On of these days
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don’t confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them
His music is and always will be there to be enjoyed. It soothes, makes me smile,and brings back memories.
Glen Campbell – Rest in Peace.
It’s always sad when we lose one of our musical heroes, as you’ll no doubt have seen from some of my posts over the years. Glen Campbell’s passing has generated an outpouring of love, which is nice, but although I like a lot of country music I’m afraid he’s one of the artists who has never done much for me. Sorry! The important thing is that we are all different in our musical tastes, and what does it for one person won’t for another. Nothing wrong with that, and I’m glad that you’re finding solace in listening to his music.