Glen Campbell Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame 2024 nominees

Blige, Carey, Cher, Matthews, Eric B., Foreigner, Frampton, Jane’s., Kool, Kravitz, Oasis, O’Connor, Osbourne, Sade, Quest.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2024 nominees were announced recently. They are Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Eric B. & Rakim, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Jane’s Addiction, Kool & the Gang, Lenny Kravitz, Oasis, Sinéad O’Connor, Ozzy Osbourne, Sade & A Tribe Called Quest.

Yes, please don’t tell me it doesn’t matter. I might even agree with you. But I loved visiting Cleveland in 1998 and 2016 to see the exhibits anyway.

For some years, I know precisely which three or four people I would vote for in the fan ballot, for which you can vote until April 26. I vigorously supported underappreciated artists such as Fela Kuti, John Prine, and Warren Zevon when they were recently on the ballot, but they were not inducted.

The nominees

This year, there was only one sure thing: Cher. Curiously, I don’t have any of her albums, though she does appear on compilations I own. She’s gone from being a background singer for Phil Spector to her days with Sonny Bono to becoming an icon. I watched her shows with and without Bono. Not that it’s particularly relevant here, but she was good in a trio of 1980s movies: Silkwood, Mask, and Moonstruck. Absolutely YES.

I scattered my votes – one can vote for seven instead of five this year – among 11 artists.

Mary J. Blige: I have none of her music. Yet her influence is well-documented. PROBABLY YES.

Mariah Carey – I have her greatest hits album on CD. Still, I didn’t bother voting for her because 1) she’ll get in without my help, and 2) she has a five-octave voice, which she often uses unnecessarily to the music’s detriment. NO

Dave Matthews Band – I don’t own any of the music. A funny thing about me and Dave Mathews: I saw him at the Willie Nelson 90th birthday bash and the Rock Hall induction, and I NEVER recognized him, visually or sonically. MAYBE.

Eric B. & Rakim – I don’t own their music, but I appreciate their contribution. MAYBE.

Foreigner – I have a couple of their LPs and some irritating live CD. MAYBE.

An old Ray Charles song

Peter Frampton – I have Frampton Comes Alive. But my YES vote comes from his brief tenure with Humble Pie, particularly Rockin’ The Filmore, an LP I own. Specifically, I Don’t Need No Doctor was a staple of FM radio in the 1970s.

Jane’s Addiction is a group I don’t own, but again, I recognize their importance, in this case, to alternative rock. MAYBE.

Kool & the Gang – I have one of their LPs. Of course, it contains Celebration. And Pulp Fiction brought back Jungle Boogie. I am inclined to favor older acts, and they first charted in 1969. YES.

Lenny Kravitz – There are a LOT of artists for which I have one of their albums. I have one Kravitz CD. MAYBE

Oasis – Ditto. MAYBE.

Sinéad O’Connor – I have only her albums, the one with Nothing Compares 2 U, a video that has always gutted me. And it was before she died. But she became a probably YES after I heard the Coverville tribute to her.

Ozzy Osbourne – I wasn’t into Black Sabbath. Ozzy, I know more as a personality on that MTV show. He’ll get in, I’m sure. NO.

Sade – Lovely voice. I own one of her albums. Also, Rebecca Jade will be doing a show of Sade songs plus her own in Philadelphia on my next birthday. MAYBE.

A Tribe Called Quest – They show up on a couple of my compilations, and I love what they do. YES.

Voting

So that’s six YES or PROBABLY YES, two NO, seven MAYBE. I’ll admit to a certain bias. In Bernie Taupin’s acceptance speech, he pointedly lifted up articulate women and black people. It was a clear rebuke of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and his comments about why his then-current book included only white men. The statement got Wenner removed from the board of directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

Who would you vote for?

The folks who decide on the new inductees can also select people in the category of Musical Excellence, which “shall be given to artists, musicians, songwriters and producers whose originality and influence creating music have had a dramatic impact on music.” Taupin, the lyricist for most of Elton John’s songs, was selected this way.

Besides Kuti, Prine, and Zevon, I’d like to see more of the Wrecking Crew picked, particularly Carol Kaye, who created the bass line for Sonny and Cher’s The Beat Goes On in the studio. They should also pick Glen Campbell, a mighty guitarist, before having success as a singer.

STAX

Finally, they need Estelle Axton, the co-founder of STAX Records, in, as I have been nagging about since 2015. As I noted, her brother, Jim Stewart, was inducted in 2002! My late friend Dustbury opined: ” So why is Stewart in the Hall and Axton not? Because Stewart, who couldn’t comprehend contract law, signed all those early Stax masters over to Atlantic, and at the Hall, Ahmet Ertegun sits at the right hand of God. Estelle, had she seen the paperwork, would have figured out the deal from day one.”

Estelle Axton for the ROCK HALL. Estelle Axton for the ROCK HALL. Oh, and Estelle Axton for the ROCK HALL.

Expressing “Not my thing” on Facebook

You might have heard about this eclipse in the United States recently. And frankly, it wasn’t that impressive in my area, which was overcast and was going to be only 67% complete. Maybe some lunatic would drive 875 miles just to get a few pictures but for the rest of us, it was only so-so.

But my, I really enjoyed watching OTHER people, in Oregon and Tennessee and South Carolina, revel in the moment. Tears of joy, and shouts of exhilaration. I never got the protective glasses for the 2017 event, and if I had, I’m not sure they’d be OK for 2024, when the next eclipse will be much closer to me.

I don’t get this need to rain on others’ parades. An actress who, for some reason, I follow on Facebook, wrote, right after singer/guitarist Glen Campbell died, “I was not a fan.” And then when some folks complained that she was being insensitive, she gave them the dictionary definition of a fanatic. What she probably SHOULD have said was… nothing.
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About a month ago, there was this story about a couple caught having sex in water park parking lot. Now, I didn’t much care until people started making assumptions about the couple.

First, I had to find the original articles; you’d be amazed how many hits water park sex gets. I took the name of the guy in the narrative, and on the first page of Google, I found nine stories about the couple. Six featured HER picture, while none showed his. Maybe it was because she resisted arrest, or that she was smiling in her mug shot.

People’s opinions often suggested “she’s a slut” and/or “she’s on drugs” because of the picture. One guy boldly declared that they probably hadn’t met before that day.

This assertion suddenly made me really curious. The 10th page I found on Google for the guys name was his Facebook page, and as of a week after the incident, it hadn’t been updated. But I discovered the couple had gone out foe a time four years ago, they broke up as she moved away, and they were a couple again as of mid-July.

I don’t need to make excuses for the couple to note that a lot of opinions spewed about them was bogus.

Glen Campbell, legendary singer and guitarist

He, along with three of his six children, went on one final tour, recorded for the documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.

The first time I became really aware with Glen Campbell was when he became the host of something called the Summer Brothers Smother Show, the summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in late June through early September 1968. It even featured the Smothers’ Presidential “candidate” Pat Paulsen. I watched it and liked it.

He had already had a couple crossover hits: Gentle on My Mind was penned by John Hartford, a regular on the show. By the Time I Get To Phoenix was written, as many of Glen’s recordings were, by Jimmy Webb. Plus he had a couple country hits.

Then he starred in the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour from January 1969 to June 1972, which I also viewed. It coincided with more hits such as Wichita Lineman, which has possibly THE most romantic couplet in pop music. Also Galveston, the Texas city I visited in 1995 or 1996 and kept singing in my head.

Sometime around this time, I learned that he had filled in for Brian Wilson on the Beach Boys tours for six months in the 1960s, and I thought that was cool.

I never saw him in the movie TRUE GRIT with John Wayne, for which the Duke won an Oscar. And I stopped paying attention to him as he went through what my buddy Johnny Bacardi called “his excessive wild man ’70s and ’80s-up phases, coke, and Tanya Tucker and all that nonsense.” But like Johnny, I learned he was part of the legendary Wrecking Crew of session musicians, and I developed a huge, newfound respect for him.

In this 2007 interview, Glen Campbell discusses his forgetfulness, which he attributed to his wild lifestyle of the past. But in 2011, it was announced that he had Alzheimer’s disease.

Then he, along with three of his six children, went on one final tour, recorded for the documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, which I thought was extraordinary.

On Facebook, Jimmy Webb wrote: “I watched him in awe executing his flawless rendition of ‘“The William Tell Overture’ on his classical guitar in his Vegas show. Jazz he loved. He claimed he learned the most about playing the guitar from Django Reinhardt.”

Glen Campbell died at the age of 81. Here’s an interview with Alice Cooper talking about his late good friend.

Listen to

Turn Around Look at Me, pop #62 in 1961, his first charted hit
Brenda, the B-side

Gentle on My Mind, pop #62 in 1967, #39 in 1968; country #30 in 1967, #44 in 1968

By the Time I Get To Phoenix, pop #26, country #2 in 1968

Wichita Lineman, pop #3, country #1 for two weeks
“And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.” – Jimmy Webb

Galveston, pop #4, country #1 for three weeks in 1969

Rhinestone Cowboy, pop #1 for two weeks, country #1 for three weeks, his signature song

Some Dustbury links, including Adios, recorded in 2015 but released in July 2017.

VIDEO REVIEW: The Wrecking Crew

Some of the extra material was clearly done after 2008

I was old enough to remember when it was “shocking” news that the singing Monkees were not really playing their instruments on those first couple albums, and in fact, weren’t even allowed to. The music was provided by a fairly regular crew of session musicians. They may have been known as The Wrecking Crew, though some dispute the label. It was said the mostly men who had played on sessions in earlier times wore suits and ties, and it was feared that these more casually dressed crew was going to wreck the industry.

In fact, in many ways, they enhanced it. Bassist Carol Kaye sees the written bass line from Sonny and Cher’s And The Beat Goes On and changed it to what we heard on the record. They WERE Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. They interpreted Brian Wilson’s thoughts, not just on Pet Sounds but on a few earlier albums.

The movie The Wrecking Crew was a labor of love for director Denny Tedesco, whose dad, Tommy, was one of the great Crew guitarists. The first day of shooting brought drummer Hal Blaine (member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), bassist Carol Kaye, saxophonist Plas Johnson and Tommy Tedesco (all of whom should be) together.

Whatever the movie’s value for 90 minutes, and it is considerable, the EXTRAS on the Wrecking Crew DVD, which run over five hours, was often more useful.

There are stories about the legendary Gold Star Studios, the Franks Sinatra and Zappa, and much more. The repeated “I saw her” at the beginning of a chorus of the Mamas and the Papas’ I Saw Her Again was a mistake. Guitarist Don Peake explains how he was saved by Ray Charles in the Deep South. Cher tells about a drunk Leon Russell at a Phil Spector session, a story Leon acknowledges.

Other interviews, some of which made it into the film, included Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, Barry McGuire, Jackie DeShannon, the three surviving Monkees, Richard Carpenter of Carpenters, Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean, Petula Clark, plus a lot of musicians, engineers, producers and the like.

The reviews were generally favorable. One critic wondered if all the love Danny Tedesco was hearing about his late father was a result of people telling him to want they want to hear. I can’t answer that, but in the scenes with his colleagues, and by himself, Tommy Tedesco (d. 1997) was a very engaging fellow.

Another critic suggested that this was a rush job; it was anything but that, taking over a decade to finish. It was completed in 2008 but had “been screened only at film festivals, where clearance rights were not required. The film finally saw theatrical release in 2015, after musical rights were cleared.” Some of the extra material was clearly done after 2008; Bill Medley just turned 75, but was 71 at the time of his interview.

Any fan of this era – this means you, Dustbury – should watch this, including the extra material.

Here are links to just a few of the songs that featured The Wrecking Crew.

1962
The Lonely Bull – Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. Herb then went out to find guys to emulate them for the road. This is often the case.
He’s a Rebel – The Crystals. Cher was only 16 when she became a background singer for Phil Spector.

1963
Surf City Jan and Dean. Brian Wilson gave this to the duo, which irritated Murry, Brian’s dad, and the soon-to-be-fired Beach Boys manager.
Be My Baby – The Ronettes

1964
I Get Around – The Beach Boys

1965
Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds. Roger McGuinn got to play on the record, but the other band members were furious to be left out. When the band did record, it often took dozens of takes, whereas the Wrecking Crew only needed a handful.
This Diamond Ring – Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The vocals were also doubled by a session singer.
California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & the Papas. This was going to be a Barry McGuire song, but when he heard their background vocals, he changed his mind. Much later, he realized his voice is on the recording.
Eve of Destruction – Barry McGuire
I Got You Babe – Sonny & Cher

1966
No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In) – The T-Bones
Strangers in the Night – Frank Sinatra. Many times, the Crew took only one or two takes to satisfy the Chairman of the Board.
These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ – Nancy Sinatra. The descending line hook was created by a Wrecking Crew member.

1967
Never My Love – The Association. Another song where the band was totally displaced.
Woman, Woman – Gary Puckett and the Union Gap

1968
Wichita Lineman – Glen Campbell. He was a member of the Crew before he became a successful solo artist.
Midnight Confessions – The Grass Roots
Valleri – The Monkees
Classical Gas – Mason Williams

1969
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In – The 5th Dimension. Billy Davis Jr. of the 5th Dimension lost his wallet, and that led to the “Hair” medley.
The Boxer – Simon & Garfunkel

1970
(They Long to Be) Close to You – The Carpenters. Though Karen was a fine drummer, the music came together when she came out from behind the kit.
I Think I Love You – The Partridge Family

1971
Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves – Cher
Don’t Pull Your Love – Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

1972
Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu -Johnny Rivers
Mother and Child Reunion – Paul Simon

1973
All I Know – Art Garfunkel

1974
The Way We Were – Barbra Streisand

1975
Love Will Keep Us Together – the Captain & Tennille

MOVIE REVIEWS – Love & Mercy; Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me

The last major scene was Glen Campbell recording a song Gonna Miss You, for his wife,

You don’t have to be a fan of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys to like the film Love & Mercy, but it may enhance an appreciation of the music.

After The Wife and I saw it at The Spectrum Theatre in Albany when we both had a Monday off, she asked to borrow Pet Sounds, for she had never heard the album, while I might put it on a Top Ten list. She was most struck by I Guess I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times [LISTEN], which, for her, seemed to encapsulate the message of the movie.

In the mid-1960s, as the creative soul of the Beach Boys, Brian was hearing sounds that he just had to get out, even if they weren’t the songs about cars and surfing, the themes most associated with the group.

As Brian quit touring, he got Hal Blaine and other professionals, known collectively as the Wrecking Crew, to help produce the intricate music. The band had fired Murry Wilson, the abusive father of Brian, Dennis, and Carl, but Brian went literally crazy still trying to please him.

In the 1980s, a quack named Dr. Eugene Landy (a brilliant and hirsute Paul Giamatti) controlled Brian with pills and an ever-present coterie of bodyguards. Brian meets Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) while trying to buy a car, then their relationship gets more complicated.

This movie works, and works well, even though perhaps it should not. Paul Dano as the younger Brian and John Cusack as the older version don’t especially look alike. Yet during the weaving back and forth between past and present, the narrative was clear, as clear as a story about a man who suffered a mental breakdown can be in painting a portrait of a brilliant, complicated man.
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Country-music legend Glen Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. Glen and his wife Kim shared the news with the world.

The farewell tour, with his three youngest children in the band, was documented in the film Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me (2014), which I watched on CNN recently. It showed how the music, for a time, may have slowed down the ravages of the disease, for his guitar skills remained intact for much of the journey.

But as the three-week engagement turned into 151 shows, we see how nerve-wracking it was, especially for Kim, her kids, and the crew he’d worked with for years but could not always remember their names. It was quite telling that, early on, he mocked the disease, saying that he was happy to forget some things, notably his failed marriages.

When he got a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2012, he could not remember why we were going. I wondered when Paul McCartney hugged him afterward whether Glen, best known for songs such as Rhinestone Cowboy, Wichita Lineman, and Gentle on My Mind, even knew who he was. He didn’t even always recognize films of himself.

The Campbell saga was broken up by other musicians, such as Kathy Mattea and Bruce Springsteen, talking about how they dealt with their family members dealing with the illness. The last major scene was Glen, who was briefly a Beach Boy, recording a song, Gonna Miss You [LISTEN], for his wife, backed by Hal Blaine and others from the aforementioned Wrecking Crew, of which Glen Campbell before he became famous, was once a member.

Despite the sadness of the disease, this was an emotional, intimate, and triumphant look at life fully lived. Here’s Mark Evanier’s take; since it’s probably not CNN anymore, catch it on video.