Like a Rhinestone Cowboy

Like a Rhinestone Cowboy

Glenn Campbell, Leon Russell and the rest of Hal Blaine’s Wrecking Crew were anonymously responsible for almost all the hit records in the 60’s and early 70’s. My JukeBox Brain insisted on planting this Glenn Campbell massive hit song in my frontal lobes at 3 AM and I cannot get rid of it. I do not resent Mr. Campbell his success. He was a brilliant all around player and composer/arranger. And a really nice guy. I knew a group of pickers from Oklahoma who hung out with Glenn and emulated his talent. Good Luck with that. He was one of a kind. My first sojourn into the recording world in L.A.took place a mere week after arriving in tinsel town. Cutting an album by on old friend from Coconut Grove, Miami. Vince Martin. He was a folkie celebrity having cut “Tear Down the Walls” with immortal baritone, Fred Neil, also from the Grove. Vince had a hit with “Cindy, oh Cindy” back in the late 50’s .He still had his chops and invited me along to play on his tracks in the belly of the Capitol Records beast on Vine Street in the building that looks like a stack of 45s. Reeking with history I wandered the basement rooms in the middle of the night watching the masters at work cutting acetates of Beatles albums. I chanced upon a session in progress in cavernous studio A with Glenn Campbell and Steve Goodman cutting their guitar version of Dueling Banjos. A notoriously tricky instrumental Appalachian tune from the movie, “Deliverance.” Glenn was in his element, smiling, keeping it light weight while Steve, no slouch himself, was sweating bullets. Take after take ground to a halt after Steve would hit a clam during his solos. “We can fix it in the Mix” Glenn joked. An impossible feat with a song florid with arpeggios. I left them to their Sisyphean task and went back in studio B where the Beatles had cut many tracks and Vince was laboring on his originals backed up by a first rate group of musical mercenaries; Van Dyke Parks was picking out melodies on marimba like picking daisies, Joni’s husband on bass loved the way I played and offered to start a band with me. The engineer had one comment, “Hal Blaine can’t even do that” when remarking on my steady time. All seemed good but I soon heard from my Okie friends a remark they attributed to Glenn Campbell when asking him what was it like to “Really Make It” in the music business? His answer; “You never really Make It.” I tried to remember that answer.