Saw the Glen Campbell documentary I’ll Be Me, which is a very powerful look at his struggle with Alzheimer’s.
I’ve long admired his guitar-playing, but I’m not a huge fan of his singing. Are there albums, or compilations, that feature just - or mostly - instrumentals that I can look for?
Not that I’m aware of. But bounce around Youtube and you can find things like this. And this. And check out the guitar breaks here and here.
The Astounding 12-String Guitar of Glen Campbell
I think you can find all of the songs on youtube.
This thread made me curious, so I went to youtube, and enjoyed Glen Campbell’s classical Gas
But I was very surprised to find him playing the 1812 Overture !
Umm, that’s the William Tell Overture*, but still exciting. Shreddin’ Glen!
*Which is kind of silly, because I started mentally humming William Tell as soon as I read your post, and then thought, “Wait, no, that’s wrong.”
I’ve not looked for his instrumental work, but assume there are examples out there. I just want to come into the thread and agree with the admiration for his playing. Really good.
And it was amazing how he could still play complex guitar solos as his disease progressed - on nights when he could not remember lyrics. That was a heartbreaking documentary.
I suspect that’s because playing guitar solos, for a guitarist of his calibre, was a lot of muscle memory. And I don’t think Alzheimer’s and other Dementias affect muscle memory stuff as much as memory of names, lyrics, etc. My mom might not remember the question she asked you 2 minutes ago or the names of the people who shared a table in the dining room with her 3 times a day, but she always remembered how to use utensils to get the food to her mouth.
It was fairly clear in the documentary that Campbell was progressing from mild to moderate dementia. With severe dementia he’d have far more problems. It looked like they cut off the tour (at the end of 2011) because things were getting worse. He “can no longer play music or carry a conversation” according to a recent article. He’s been in a full-time care facility since April 2014. And his daughters are suing his wife to take away her control. There are no good endings with Alzheimer’s.
That’s a great link, thanks.
I was thinking more of the type of music he used to regularly play on Hee Haw, like this one, Glen Campbell & Roy Clark Play “Ghost Riders in the Sky”. He and Clark did a lot of duets.
Quite apart from his own recorded output, Glen Campbell was a steady member of The Wrecking Crew in the early Sixties.
The Wrecking Crew was loosely defined group of L.A. session musicians who played on a huge number of hit records. Along with drummer Hal Blaine, pianist Leon Russell, bassist Carol Kaye and a few others, Glen played guitar on all kinds of pop hits.
Years back, I heard a prominent rock drummer (I forget who) say, “I didn’t know it but about 10 of my favorite drummers turned out to be Hal Blaine.” Well, a lot of your favorite guitar solos on Beach Boys or Monkees records may actually have been Glen Campbell.
Did nobody bother to check the links I posted in the very first response?
No. Because you didn’t tell us what the were.
Click this, this, this and this, isn’t very informative.
My bad. When I looked at the thread I hit chappachula’s links and the Ghost Riders song popped up next to them. I hit them because he spelled out what they were, but as OP I should have gone through all the links.
I’ve been walkin’ these streets so long
Singin’ the same old song
I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kAU3B9Pi_U
1976, I am 4 years old, sitting on the linoleum floor in the kitchen, playing my dad’s LP of Rhinestone Cowboy. But it wasn’t working very well and I couldn’t figure out why. I was spinning it on the floor and using my finger for a needle but no music was coming out! My father was quite surprised to see me enjoying his record so much. He had to explain to me that wasn’t actually the way it worked. Skip a few years ahead to 5 or 6th grade, no damaged LP this time but once I found my dad’s 8-Track copy of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hit’s… played that 8-track over and over and over. I’m glad my father has such good taste in music. Merle Haggard is also one of his favorite musicians.
I once decided that one of the vinyl records from my superstars of the 70s box set was expendable so I threw it on the floor, and then I started trying to stamp it out of existence. (Not out of hatred for the music at all, just being young) As I was moving it across the floor with my foot I could distinctly hear “take it easy” by the Eagles. A piece of dust can play a record. This is a true story.
I like Glen Campbell mostly for seeing that John Hartford got lots and lots and lots of money for writing “Gentle on my Mind,” enabling John Hartford to do pretty much whatever he wanted for the rest of his life.
Steam-Powered Aeroplane is one of the coolest albums ever made.
And inventing Newgrass music was another nice accomplishment.
And his version of the song was superior.