Glen Campbell

[Bebé Bruno]

See ya around Glen.

Lyrics
[spoiler]
It's knowin' that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowin' I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind
It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that bind me
Or something that somebody said because
They thought we fit together walkin'
It's just knowing that the world
Will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're movin' on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman's cryin' to her mother
'Cause she turned and I was gone
I still might run in silence
Tears of joy might stain my face
And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see
You walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind
I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron
In some train yard
My beard a rustlin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waitin' from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind
[/spoiler]

Same song, but Glen shows off just how good a guitar player he was on this version....

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Glen was an excellent guitarist and a great singer.  He made significant contributions to music in his day.  Sorry about his Alzheimer's.  That's a horrible way to fade into oblivion.  But his legacy is intact.

[Bebé Bruno]

His music, and other artists from his generation are the virtual soundtrack to my childhood. Being born in the mid-60's I grew up listening to whatever muzak my mom and dad had playing on the radio (AM) while we were in the car driving or watching and listening to the popular programs of the day on the one and only TV we had in the house (Black and white) such as programs like Glen's or other mainstream artists of the day (Like the Sonny and Cher program, or Johnny Cash's show...remember Flip Wilson?)

So the popular songs of the day, especially in late 60's and early 70's is what I heard most until I was old enough to choose and pick my own music.

"Gentle on My Mind" was one of the earliest songs I learned to play and sing on the guitar when I was a child, and my father would ask me to play it over and over...(That and Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, by B.J. Thomas, which was Dad's all-time favorite, but I didn't like to play it, bleh...though that's a great scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids)

When I hear these songs now it takes me back to that time and place...squeezed into the back seat of my parents car in between my older sisters in the middle of the seat (I hated the fucking middle seat) listening to CKLW on the radio out of Canada playing all of the current hits, or sitting on a pillow on the floor of our little den watching the black and white tv in my pajamas, maybe listening to Glen sing and perform like  "Rhinestone Cowboy", or perhaps "Rainy Days and Mondays", by the Carpenters.

With the passing of folks like Glen it really brings that era to an end...

[Sandra Craft]

I've been listening to "The Wichita Lineman" nearly non-stop since yesterday.

[Icarus]

 I was never a country music fan but Glen Campbell was one I favored and admired. He was a down home style entertainer. His considerable talent with the guitar was worthy of praise. I'm going to miss him. He was in the same entertainment ball park as John Denver. Pleasingly and pleasantly popular.