“Who are your friends? They are the people who are there in hard times or when you’re hurting beyond words. Or with a few words of encouragement and concern, make you realize you’re really not lost at all. Friends comes in both sexes, in all shapes, colors and sizes, but the most important thing they have in common, is the ability to share with you, your best joys and your deepest sorrows, for they are your friends.”
Glen Campbell

Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy.

In June of 2011 the news reported by The Guardian was stunning.

It’s some time since popular music was strictly a young person’s game, but Glen Campbell’s reason for retiring is nonetheless striking: the veteran country singer, now 75, has announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Campbell – for more than 40 years one of US music’s best-loved acts and most instantly recognizable voices – gave the news via an interview with the US entertainment magazine People.  His openness was welcomed by campaigners for those with the disease.

While the Alzheimer’s is still in its early stages, Campbell plans to release just one more album, in August, before a farewell tour, which reaches the UK in the autumn.

“Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer,” his wife, Kim, told the magazine. “But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?’”

Campbell did endure well-publicized problems with alcohol and drugs but has been clean for some years. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six months ago, although his short-term memory has been poor for some time.

Glen Campbell turned 80 today. According to his lovely and supportive wife, Kim Campbell, Glen is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s and has lost most of his language skills.

This week on our feature, memories of a singing cowboy.

Tomorrow, Saturday would have been Roy Orbison’s 80^th birthday. We begin with Campbell performing Orbison’s “Crying” surrounded by celebrities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question: Does a country singer who hits the big time forget his roots?

 

 

 

 

Campbell’s body of work is amazing.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Wichita Lineman

Galveston

Try a Little Kindness

Where’s the Playground, Susie

Rhinestone Cowboy

Southern Nights

One of Campbell’s prettiest songs is one that normally isn’t mentioned in his litany of hits. Do you remember?

 

 

 

Here’s a wonderful medley from 1976 (remember, that was the disco era) covering two popular love songs. The recording went to #27 on the Billboard chart, #1 on the Easy Listening chart.

 

 

“He’s the sweetest person in the world, but he becomes combative when you try to change his clothes or bathe him,” said Kim Campbell.

During occasional “moments of lucidity,” he will “tear up and bite his lower lip and just say ‘I love you.’ It just rips your heart out because you feel like every time you have that moment, it might be your last.

“He’s lost most of his ability to communicate verbally, but he still understands the universal language of smiles and kisses. Our family (has chosen) to rally together in love and laughter and just support one another and try to make the best of each day and cherish every moment together.”

Almost everyone knows someone who has been touched by Alzheimer’s disease.

We lost my cousin Bob just before last Thanksgiving to the worst kind of Dementia. Here he is with our daughter Kyla the last time we saw him a few months before he died at a party atone of our cousin’s house.

Kyla (pictured above w/Bob):

“I wish we could have had one more party so we could see cousin Bob one last time.”

Every 66 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s.
More than 5 million Americans are living with this disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is the 6^th leading cause of death in the U.S.
1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another form of Dementia.

That’s it for this week’s segment.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

Glen Campbell is fortunate to have recorded one of the greatest country songs of all-time, so good that it crossed over well beyond the country audience.

The blog, “The Perfect iPod Collection” writes about this composition:

 The lyrics paint a picture of a natural love, the working man who thinks about his love while on the road, and visits when he can, but not because he has to.  Rarely do we see these sentiments in modern country music, where the standard ethic is that of fidelity.

MTV.com writes:

The song’s popularity is better measured by the number of times it has been recorded — between 400 and 600 times, by one estimate — and performed — more than 6 million, according to one count. The song also won three Grammys.

John Hartford wrote this famous tune… Swampland.com writes:

John’s classic song should, as picker Ricky Skaggs said about it, “encourage young songwriters out there to write that one mega-classic hit.” As Ricky further explains, a song like that could “set you up for your children and your children’s children.” And so it was for John. (This song) is the second most played song in the history of man, second only to the Beatles “Yesterday.” It has been played over 6 million times on radio and television. Over 300 people have recorded it. Such entertainers as, and I am not joking here, Frank Sinatra, Aretha, Burl Ives, Lawrence Welk, Lou Rawls, and Elvis!

Derek Halsey writes for swampland.com about John Hartford’s last days:

Even near the end of his life John never lost his sense of humor. The radio show called “Live at Mountain Stage” wanted to do a tribute for him while he was still alive. Many great musicians came and played many of his songs and it was released as a CD as well. At the end of the concert John came out to play a short set. He started by talking to the audience and the other musicians telling them that, “If I’m going to be true to form, I got to tell you like it is. I know why everybody’s here. They think I’m going to croak.” He went on to say that if he was going to do his part then he should croak within about three weeks so it would still be fresh in every ones mind. The problem with that was, as he put it, “We got the whole month of October booked.”

Hartford died in June 2001 of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 63. He left a masterpiece with great lyrics, a great arrangement, and a great singer to bring it to an undying life.

ENCORE!

ENCORE!