Guitar Men, Part Three - Glen Campbell

Glen Campbell. The mere mention of his name often evokes chuckles, rolled eyeballs, and reminiscences of his variety show, "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour." And we can't forget about the mugshot, can we?

Glen Campbell was my mom's favorite pop singer; my dad hated him. I took my mom's side on this one. I thought his show was entertaining in a cornball kind of way, he had a phenomenal voice, and he was funny, good looking, and personable. If I was his high-school girlfriend's dad, I would have approved. Glen Campbell was absolutely huge in the late 60s, and everybody knows about his hits, his earlier clean-cut, boy next door image, and his later drug- and drink-fueled tumble from grace. A lot of people forget his formidable skills on the guitar.



It's his own fault, really - he rarely showed off his pickin' skills on record during the most popular phase of his career, and he usually limited himself to one or two fretboard workouts during his live show. But man, could he play! Early in his career, he put out a few instrumental bluegrass records performed on twelve-string guitar. He pretty much took the standard arrangement and stuck to it, which made for a fairly dull listen. So, even when he focused exclusively on the guitar, the stars still didn't shine. Of course, when songwriter Jimmy Webb and Al De Lory teamed up with him and put him over the top with songs like "Galveston," Gentle On My Mind," and "Wichita Lineman," much of his guitar work was overwhelmed by sweeping orchestral arrangements and his dramatic vocals. I revisited some of Campbell's biggest albums recently - "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "Gentle On My Mind," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Hey Little One" - and found, amidst the gloss, amazing moments on each. The arrangements, the song choices, the instrumentation, the mood that is set, the vocals, and yep, the guitar. The wide range of material he covered was very impressive, including songs by Roy Orbison, Donovan, Ernest Tubb, Bee Gees, Tim Hardin, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jerry Reed, as well as a slew of unknown session writers. I was pleased to see that on his just-released record, "Meet Glen Campbell," he returns back to the formula used so successfully in his heyday - covering songs by the likes of U2, Green Day, Tom Petty, John Lennon, and even Velvet Underground, and making them his own. And it sounds great.



This post will focus both on Glen's guitar highlights and the variety of styles he worked into his records. The first track, "Three's a Crowd," was released on the 1968 album "Country Soul," which was comprised of a bunch of earlier cuts thrown together by Starday Records to capitalize on Campbell's sudden success. "Three's A Crowd" is the only winner on this release, mainly because it is the only upbeat track on an album full of substandard, slow weepers. It has a strong Buddy Holly influence, a bass-heavy, primal production, and features a killer guitar solo. "If This Is Love," from the "Galveston" album, is a primo display of Campbell's inventiveness on the six-string. It is anchored by a dramatic, swirling blend of acoustic guitars and strings, and the features one of the sweetest solos Campbell has ever committed to vinyl. The last guitar showcase is a rippin' live version of the Boots Randolph/Chet Atkins instrumental "Yakety Axe." Also posted are a few highlights from his biggest albums - but not the hits. After all, you've heard the hits before, right?

Three's a Crowd from the album Country Soul (out of print)

If This Is Love from the album Galveston

Yakety Axe from the album Glen Campbell Live!

If You Go Away from the album Wichita Lineman

Elusive Butterfly from the album Hey Little One (out of print)

Oh What a Woman from the album Galveston

Here we have GC playing "The William Tell Overture" with a complete orchestra. Keep watching long enough to see him play it with the guitar on top of his head!



As you may know, GC filled in for Brian Wilson when the Beach Boys went on tour in the 60s. That meant, not only did he play bass, he also sang the highest harmonies of the bunch! Here he is performing a song Brian Wilson wrote for him in 1965 in gratitude for Glen's work on the road. It's called "Guess I'm Dumb." And it is lovely.

A Day in the Life

Some days are more eventful than others - here's my list of accomplishments for yesterday:

Drink coffee, read paper, check email, clean kitchen, do dishes, let chickens out of coop

Shower, clean kitty vomit from upstairs rug, sand wood-filler on new stair railing, dust bedrooms, vacuum upstairs, general cleaning, clean catbox

Begin modifying gutters to enable use of rain barrels, warn wife to listen for chicken commotion since neighbor cat has been seen stalking in back yard, go to hardware store to pick up downspout piece, lunch at West 5, browse records at Easy Street.



Arrive home, to find wife working on laptop on back deck wearing fuzzy coat and floppy hat. Informs me that yes, the chickens began freaking out, and she saw cat running after them. Wife rescued chickens, chased cat away. I put the two chickens (Kung Pao and Henny Penny) back in coop. Let injured chicken (Nuggets) out to run around as we are there to keep an eye out for kitty predator.

Cut and adjust downspouts and rain barrel project is done...except forgot to buy hose for overflow....will do today.

Dig out stain and brushes to finish painting fence. Finish the yard side, then go out to finish the street side. Major chicken commotion ensues. I run back in yard with paint bucket and brush in hand to find cat chasing Nuggets around. Wife had gone inside. I chase kitty predator out, rescue chicken, put her in cage, make note of where cat is exiting...need to block that off today. Finish fence project, clean brushes, find old brushes I soaked in paint thinner two weeks ago, ruined of course....sigh.

Come back inside, check email, crack a beer, print out tickets for Nick Cave concert tonight at Showbox.

Drive down to Showbox Sodo with wife, stop at taco truck for dinner, go across street to Hooverville bar for pre-show refreshments. Run into next door neighbor and friends, a girl from the grunge band days that I haven't seen in twenty years, and MV, who might just give me a job...cool!

Went across street to Showbox Sodo, a cavernous place with bad sound, just in time to see opening band Earth start. Not quite sure what so many people like about them - very slow, atmospheric, drones, all in the same key, all songs sounding the same. Is it the mystique of Dylan Carlson, who used to be Cobain's best friend and dope buddy? I dunno, but I just don't get it. Ran into musician BF and his wife S, who passed along some exciting news of an upcoming show, as well as the boys from Gravelroad, and my old friend TH. Nick Cave took the stage and all memory of previous events of the day vanished as he overwhelmed the room. Yes, the sound was bad, but Cave gave all he could give, and offered up a ferociously rocking show. His late 90s show at the Fifth Avenue Theatre was one of the best I have ever seen; there, he sat at the piano most of the set and made everyone uncomfortable with his brooding musical nightmares. This show was completely different, as he stalked around the stage, mike in hand, sometimes employing a guitar around his neck. The crap sound diminished the effect, but it was still a tremendous show. Bravo.

Guitar Men will resume in a bit, but meantime, here's a random bit of tuneage to keep your day busy.

Get Ready For Love - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
By the Time I Get to Phoenix - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
By the Time I Get to Arizona - Public Enemy
Entertainment - Really Red
Evolucion - Nahuatl

Buy Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Buy Public Enemy
Buy Really Red
Buy Nahuatl

Guitar Men, Part Two - Tony Mottola

Bandleader, producer, and sound crafter extraordinaire Enoch Light was best known for his innovative record labels, Command and Project 3, which were active from 1959-1965 (Light's tenure at Command) and 1965-74 (his tenure at Project 3). With the records on these labels, Light expanded the boundaries of hi-fi sound with such methods as wide channel separation (with no phantom center channel), recording on 35mm tape, quadrophonic recordings, and experimentation with microphone placement. His studio productions, combined with Lew Davies' arrangements, were nothing short of brilliant, and the musicians he hired for these sessions were top-notch. Most of the Command/Project 3 albums were packaged in double-thick gatefold glossy covers complete with detailed descriptions of the arrangements and instrumentation. Enoch Light is truly an audiophile's idol, and a genius at packaging and marketing his total sound experience to music fans all over the world.

Of the many virtuoso musicians Light employed on his sessions, guitarist Tony Mottola and organist Dick Hyman were the most frequently utilized. Prior to working with Light, Mottola did sessions with Perry Como and Frank Sinatra, wrote scores for television shows, and was one of the original members of the Tonight Show band. Mottola typically had a warm, lovely guitar tone and a delicate touch, but he was not afraid to experiment, as evidenced on his version of the Beatles' "Come Together" featured here, from one of the 30-plus albums he recorded on Command/Project 3, "Tony Mottola's Guitar Factory."

This album was in constant rotation in my parents' house when I was growing up, and is one of the more successful attempts of an older generation of musicians interpreting the hipness of the late 60s vibe. On "Come Together," despite the cheesy singing by a trio of female vocalists and an obvious flubbed note by bassist Russell George, the guitars save the day. Mottola's wah-wah guitar work is, how should I put it, hmmm....outta site! Out of his "comfort zone" perhaps, but definitely in the zone, Mottola is one of three guitarists on this track - Jay Berliner and Vinnie Bell also add to the psychedelic wall of swirling, dueling axes here.

Also included on the album is the flip side of the "Come Together" single, George Harrison's "Something." This features a more typical Mottola touch, as he is true to the original arrangement during the verse, while inventing a multitude of impressive vamps, fills, and brief, speedy runs up the fretboard. During the "middle eight," the band switches to a bossanova rhythm before Tony takes on the solo, which begins as a note-for-note replication of Harrison's solo only to switch into a beautiful jazzy Mottola improv for the latter half. It's a sweet interpretation, and one that has been part of my own practice routine for many years. Tony Mottola died in 2004.

Tony Mottola

Come Together
Something

Buy Tony Mottola on Amazon

Guitar Men, Part One - Harlow Wilcox

I started learning how to play guitar when I was four years young (1968), and I've been spanking that plank ever since. When I was growing up there was always music being played, usually at loud volume, at our house. My dad had a pretty big record collection, which in ten years time would at least triple due to his purchase of about 500 albums at a single yard sale. He loved good guitar and organ instrumentalists, Johnny Cash, Dixieland, Big Band, and the ever-present studio musician interpreters of rock hits of the 60s era. I absorbed all of it, and much of it rubbed off on me.



One of my earliest influences was a country session guitarist from Oklahoma named Harlow Wilcox. In 1969 he released an album called "Groovy Grubworm and Other Golden Guitar Greats." As a five-year-old, the album cover alone, with its colorful depiction of a green grubworm wearing a floppy hippie "Love" hat, peace symbol necklace, hoop earrings, and cowboy boots slithering out from the soundhole of a guitar, was enough to attract my attention. Inside the grooves were his interpretations of country and pop guitar instrumental like "Raunchy," "Wipeout," and "Under the Golden Eagle," as well as some of his own original compositions, such as the title track. Listening now, Wilcox is no shredder by any stretch; in fact his playing is fairly pedestrian. But to a kid, it was revelatory. His versions of these songs were easy to learn, and I still can play most of the album by heart. Harlow Wilcox and the Oakies only released one other album besides Groovy Grubworm, "Cripple Cricket and Other Country Critters" - both are fairly impossible to find. The single "Groovy Grubworm" made both the Billboard pop and country charts, and hit number 1 on the Cashbox country chart. After these two albums Wilcox pretty much disappeared from the music world (as far I know). He died in 2002.

Harlow Wilcox & His Oakies

Groovy Grubworm
Under the Double Eagle
Guitar Boogie
Walk Don't Run