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    Glen Campbell

    RIP

    #2
    End of the Line, eh?

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      #3
      'Galveston, oh
      Galveston, I am so afraid of dying,
      Before I dry the tears she's crying,
      Before I watch your sea birds flying in the sun, at Galveston.'

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        #4
        Singer of my favourite song.

        RIP.

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          #5
          That doc, I'll Be Me, had me teary eyed as it reminded me so much of my own dad's sufferings.

          Can't think of Glen being 81 - he always looked so youthful. An amazing guitarist, loads of stuff on youtube, but particularly loved his version of Classical Gas.

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            #6
            Last album, packaged with his greatest hits and already on the charts, was called Adios.

            Bowie's passing made some light bulbs go off at major labels, didn't they.

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              #7
              Album sales are so low this month that a #1 for Adios is very possible. He played on some Beach Boys sessions before taking the country route.

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                #8
                Yeah, he was considered part of the informal collective of LA session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew who played on ridiculous numbers of hits in the 1960s and '70s. But he found stardom fairly early in the rise of the Wrecking Crew. If he hadn't, we might have heard his guitar on the Partridge Family's songs.

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                  #9
                  Glen Campbell was popular with my parents, and my elder sister growing up, so while I wasn't a fan, I heard a lot of his stuff.
                  Wichita Lineman, Galveston and his version of Every ones talking - are as glued in my head as my Dad's Johnny Cash and Rat Pack favourites, and my brother Marty Robins' songs.
                  As G-Man said he was a member of the Wrecking Crew session players in LA - read he had been the guitarist on the Beach Boy's I get Around., so pretty damn fine legacy.

                  I hated Rhinestone Cowboy though.
                  Stetson

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                    #10
                    Loved his Interpretations of Jimmy Webb songs. I was astonished to learn recently that "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" never made the charts in the UK. It's perfection.

                    Once read an interview with Webb in which he said that although they got on pretty well, he always had to bite his tongue a lot in Campbell's presence if politics came up as he (Campbell) was a Conservative.
                    Webb didn't want to fall out as they produced such good work together. In particular He never let on that "Galveston" was written with Vietnam in mind as he knew Campbell wouldn't have recorded it if he'd realised.

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                      #11
                      Very sad. I have the album of remakes that he did with his children about three or four years ago, and it's superb.

                      Special hats off, by the way, to Jimmy Webb, who wrote Galveston and Wichita Lineman (amongst others) by the time he was 21 years old.

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                        #12
                        Tombstone (shadow) Cowboy

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                          #13
                          I recently read Jimmy Webb's bio (see books). He writes about the day he heard Glen Campbell for the first time on the radio. IIRC he was about fifteen, working on his grandfather's farm. he had his transistor on and suddenly there was this voice... He drove the tractor he was on into a ditch, and swore to himself that if he ever got make a record Glen Campbell would sing on it. The story sounds a bit embroidered, but I'm sure it's close enough to the truth to be valid.

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                            #14
                            Brilliant singer. Sad loss.

                            I like Rhinestone Cowboy. It's one of those up tempo songs that you suddenly realise is full of despair when you actually listen to it.

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                              #15
                              Rhinestone Cowboy is great, though I'd have liked to hear Neil Diamond sing it. It sounds like as Neil Diamond song, and he probably had lots of rhinestones on his lamé jumpsuits.

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                                #16
                                Someone dies, like Glen Campbell, and you hitherto think fondly of him. You know "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "Rhinestone Cowboy" etc. Then they have a tribute to him on TV which you turn on only to see him absolutely slaughtering "God Only Knows". Ignorance really can be bliss on occasion.

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                                  #17
                                  There are times when you really get it wrong, y'know?

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                                    #18
                                    Campbell (and/or Webb) must have done more for a series of nondescript American towns than any mayor ever could. I've never been to Wichita, Phoenix or Galveston but they all seem about as enticing as Swindon. Until you start humming ...

                                    Mind you, I never liked compromisin' / horizon.

                                    (shame-faced edit: it wasn't Jimmy's fault. That explains it).
                                    Last edited by tee rex; 12-08-2017, 00:47. Reason: defaming Mr Webb

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                                      #19
                                      I can't speak for others but I find Galveston fascinating, both historically and aesthetically. I've been a couple of times now and long to spend a few days there with a camera.
                                      Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 12-08-2017, 01:54.

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                                        #20
                                        Yeah. Same here. I spent about 4 days there in the winter in about 2012. It's a fascinating mix of trashy, of deserted wintertime seaside resort, of a port town, of Texas, and of history. It's not somewhere I'd choose to live (Texas gulf coast humidity is murderous), but it's a really interesting place to visit.

                                        Phoenix. Now that's somewhere I struggle to find charm. Its setting of desert mountains is very pretty, and I love Tucson to the south. Even Scottsdale in the Phoenix 'burbs has some charm. But Phoenix itself? It's not got a whole lot of anything (except racist retirees from the Northeast).

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                                          #21
                                          Phoenix is a lot of what is wrong with America and I won't be sad at all when it is rendered uninhabitable by climate change.

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                                            #22
                                            I think Galveston has been battered by at least one hurricane in recent times.

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                                              #23
                                              Campbell was a big fan of amateur soccer and would often visit a drizzly Hackney Marsh while in London. To be seen in his jacket gamely signalling throw ins and offsides. The Windcheater Linesman.

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                                                #24
                                                Hurricane Ike hit Galveston in 2009, but was not as deadly there as initially feared.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                                  Phoenix. Now that's somewhere I struggle to find charm. Its setting of desert mountains is very pretty, and I love Tucson to the south. Even Scottsdale in the Phoenix 'burbs has some charm. But Phoenix itself? It's not got a whole lot of anything (except racist retirees from the Northeast).
                                                  That's why the narrator of the song doesn't hang about there by the time he gets there.

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