Glen Campbell Forums

Thanks for clarifing Mike. Now I wonder, is that one of Glen's own guitars or did he borrow it from the Stone Temple Pilots?
And thanks for all your comments so far guys and girls. It's fun to discuss a video in such detail with you.

Mike, I think you're spot on with this comment:

I like it especially for the very relaxed feel to it. Very much in the style of the original record. Sometimes people try to sing it with too much emotion and over cook it. As Glen said once, if the lyrics and the song is good don't get in the way of the words.

And it fits in perfectly with Randy's comment:

Witchita is a song to me that is difficult to sing well unless u are an A team singer. In fact, I've never heard anyone come close to Glen on it.

I think the reason practically no-one is able to sing it well, is that unless you are able to sing it with subdued emotion, it just doesn't come across the right way. Case in point (for me anyway), is Billy Joel's cover of the song on Jimmy's Just Across the River album.

This is Glen playing a 6 string bass guitar on Wichita Lineman.
The 4 string bass guitars are tuned to the four bass strings of a normal guitar only at a lower actave. (I.E). E,A,G,B
on a six string bass guitar they add a low B sting and a high C string (I.E) B - E- A-G- B- C so the usual 4 strings are now the middle four strings.

Glen is playing a six-string bassguitar, which is not the same as the regular bass, which is played by Robert DeLeo.

Robert DeLeo: Bass
Dean DeLeo: Guitar
Glen Campbell: Six-string bass, Vocals
Brendan O'Brien: Keyboards
Eric Kretz: Drums, Percussion

Maybe one the guitar experts can explain the difference?

Right, siblis, Glen had taken Brian Wilson's place in late '64 to May 1965, so he played bass guitar then.

Dee.....I thought Glen said once in an interview that he played Bass while playing & touring with the Beach Boys

Thanks, Randy and Mike. I think you both nailed it.

I did some googling to try to find out if “WL” was part of a longer session that maybe included “Galveston” since the STPs mentioned this song at the end of the video. Found some interesting info about Glen’s WL session with them on the Stone Temple Pilots online discography:

http://www.belowempty.com/sia.php?do=sh ... n_campbell" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sounds like mutual love and appreciation—under a rainbow!

And appreciation for Jimmy Webb’s songs by the STPs, too. Also maybe a good feeling of a relaxed session just like the ones in the sixties?

I didn’t know that Glen played a bass guitar; this wasn’t his norm, was it?

Dee

It is a great performance from glen and the boys in the band. I like it especially for the very relaxed feel to it. Very much in the style of the original record. Sometimes people try to sing it with too much emotion and over cook it. As Glen said once, if the lyrics and the song is good don't get in the way of the words. The same was said about his recording of Gentle. If he had thought it would be the master cut would his laid back approach to the vocals been as good and suited the song as well as they did.
I think Glen has always appreciated good musicians and I think he may have felt emotional because it all seem to come together so well, and he was obviously overjoyed at the result of the performance. Music can get you like that when its done well. Given that Glen has performed it so often I think its great it still has that deep connection with him. That certainly shows how good a writer Jimmy is.

Dee, I think he is touched by their love/appreciation of him.

Btw , I don't know much about them either but I do know from younger people I have talked too they are good!

I am sort of embarrassed to admit that I don't know anything about the Stone Temple Pilots including their music.
But this video makes me want to find out who is this group that has so much respect for Glen and plays so great on WL.
I understand what you mean, Randy, by becoming an instant fan of STP.
Instrumentally, I think this version might be even better than the original WL...the guitars "sing" here. Does anyone else feel this way? or maybe not?
Glen sounds great, vocally.
One thing that has always puzzled me...why do you think Glen cries at the end of this song, at this particular recording session?

Well it made me an instant STP fan. I've watched this video many many times and love it. Witchita is a song to me that is difficult to sing well unless u are an A team singer. In fact, I've never heard anyone come close to Glen on it. Cowpoke this is a topic I really like , because I enjoy the YT videos. I'm not that good on all of Glen's history or discography so this is more my cup of tea. Very few if any days I don't click on YT and watch a GC video.

The thing I get is a mutual respect between STP and Glen. More than anything though, I feel their respect for Glen is off the charts and that is really saying something as their success is awesome too.