The Music Legacy Of Glen Campbell.
The
second in our series of key music stars and artists have been lost in the
shuffle of a music industry in flux; we take a look at the career of Glen
Campbell. When it was announced that he
was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, there was a serious wave of shock,
anger and surprise from the many who knew him and enjoyed his music for
decades. He had had recent personal
troubles, but has remained a favorite of music fans fart beyond the home of his
genre of Country Music. In his time, it
was still known as Country & Western and the genre had not been sold out to
slickness, flash and warmed-over sounds from other genres.
Ironically,
his work in the late 1960s was a breakthrough for the genre nationally with his
album By The Time I Get To Phoenix,
a smash hit with a fresh new sound for the genre and the first Country Album to
ever win the Grammy for Album Of The Year.
This would increase the popularity of Country Music worldwide, make an
underrated wave of Country Pop in the 1970s possible and Campbell also found himself doing acting work
and having a very popular hit TV music series.
Before
his success, he was a session musician with a record that rivals that of a
pre-Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page playing guitar on cuts from Elvis
Presley, Frank Sinatra, Merle Haggard, The Association, The Mamas & The
Papas and The Monkees, as well as on The Beach Boys’ landmark classic album Pet Sounds, later touring with the band
when Brian Wilson went into seclusion. He
was also part of a session musician group dubbed “The Wrecking Crew” who turned
out to be as significant as Motown’s Funk Brothers.
Moving to
Capitol Records, his breakthrough was made possible in part by cutting many
records by the late, great Jimmy Webb including By The Time I Get To Phoenix, Galveston, Wichita Lineman, Where’s The Playground Susie, Highwayman
and Honey, Come Back. He had several hit duets with Bobbie Gentry,
best known for her classic Ode To Billy
Joe and other hits like Gentle On My
Mind, It’s Only Make Believe and I Wanna Live. The mid-1970s saw a resurgence of hits
including Southern Nights, Sunflower, Can You Fool and Rhinestone
Cowboy, a hit so huge that it became one of the iconic hits for that whole
decade.
If you
want to really appreciate Campbell’s
work, find a newer this set with all the above songs included. After listening, you’ll understand just how
much Country was changed forever by his artistic, critical and commercial
success.
- Nicholas Sheffo
