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Ghost on the Canvas - Share your thoughts!

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robduloc
Posts: 398
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:43 pm

Re: Ghost on the Canvas - Share your thoughts!

Post by robduloc »

I just read about the passing of Guy Clark here, a household name and fixture, Clark has been the subject of many dinner conversations over the years and good name will continue to inspire and delight.

Thank you.

I hope my last two post weren't over the top.

I don't read, write or play but I have a lot of music in me, and I would rather be the first and last to attend or leave a show hoping to get a glimpse of my icon, than be in a garage band or practice scales at home, although I am getting older and starting to feel like I am on a time clock.

Standing in the street or on some lonely brick, an artist always knows who are the people that secretly hope to make contact.

No, there is a line there, but when people stop looking or standing and waiting there is a shift.

I totally respect the hierarchy, arc even.

What's it like to have a bus as a home and office on wheels, dine and sleep in five star hotels or little motels off the motorway, always on the move in someway, where do you find peace and time to yourself amid a grueling schedule and demands from town to town, and country to country.

That's why the first song on Ghost On The Canvas means so much to me.

A Better Place

As an artist slips past the throngs of onlookers and into their room for the night, they must have a way of carrying their home inside themselves.

Someone once told me they stuff all the hotel information and brochures into a drawer and call home, that way even though they are far away, it feels like they're only in another room of a bigger house.

A Better Place

From the first the notes or strike of the guitar chords, I am at home with myself and subject of the song.

The opening guitar work for A Better Place, is most likely a steel string instrument, but it is played delicately like a nylon string, true artistry, or mastery of the instrument.

Each note that strikes the strings is like melting wax from a burning candle, the artist is holding vigil.

I can see a shadow or sillhouette of a man praying, looking up to the walls of his bedroom or hotel.

Light bulbs inside his mind and very soul are going off, the angels are listening and know this man's heart, a good husband and father, partner or friend, there is no end to the road, only a better place.

To have loved and lost and have the strength to hold on to what is good and rightfully yours, and earn the trust and respect of all your associates who work with you and know you the most.

Always asking for help from a higher source, phoning in all your needs to an ever loving father, patience and faith will be rewarded.

Good to the fans and audience in every town, learning to to look out into the murky depths and see rows of smiling faces, a great source of comfort at the end of the day, a very good exchange.

There are many towns and many roads to traverse before a tour is finished, what's it like to live for a song.

The road to you and A Better Place.


robduloc
Posts: 398
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:43 pm

Re: Ghost on the Canvas - Share your thoughts!

Post by robduloc »

A man wants to use his wife and sons to tell his little girl it is a great big beautiful world out there and the world is going to take a shining to you... all of you...

And now I am going to drum up the courage to say something on the eve of the original release of The Beach Boys Pet Sounds album today.

Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas is my "Pet Sounds".

Hear me out.

All the accolades, banter and chatter can not begin to approach the life experiences and musical range that Ghost On The Canvas has to offer and afford.

Most ironic that I received my GOTC picture disc in the mail today, an album that continues to feed me.

Yes, I am one of the lucky dogs that received my first copy by the label after its' initial release.

I did the same thing that I did when I discovered the beauty and wonder of Pet Sounds, I went off for three or four years to soak it up, Pet Sounds opened the door for me in my early twenties to other artist, books, records, and live concerts, getting married, having children....

Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas takes me beyond that range.

I think Don Everly said it best in an televised segment somethig along the lines when you are young, you feel the blues at a deep level when you are older you feel them at an even deeper level.

You see?

Lord knows, that I can only pray, Julian Raymond, Glen Campbell & Company know in their heart what they had on their hands.

Yes my family have tickets too see Brian perform all of Pet Sounds one last time this coming fall, I have been a faithful follower a long time. I am far from being done listening to all his album projects, joyfully and most welcome.

I just want to set the record set for my children. Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas is my number one favorite album of all time.

I never intended it to be that way, it found me and hit me like a sledgehammer or plank between the eyes, not just the music, the recording levels and the way it was mixed, packaged and released.

I was very scared to listen to it on headphones the other night, it was just one more top score, the producers know people use them a lot these days, more than ever, you know what... it sounded every bit good on my cheap CD player and 50 dollar headphones as when I play it on my 200 dollar speakers!

I give the artist and engineers full credit, they knew exactly what they were doing, delivering the goods and instinctively rewriting history in the process.

Let us pray more consumers will be converted into true believers!

Pet Sounds and an audio canvas, there has to be a connection somewhere.

Happy Anniversary Pet Sounds and Oh, Happy Day Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas

I'm so there for you~

Love,
Rob


robduloc
Posts: 398
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:43 pm

Re: Ghost on the Canvas - Share your thoughts!

Post by robduloc »

Thank you, Cowpoke,

I mean really, thank you!

The other night, I listened to Glen Campbell Light Years and Somebody Like That.

They have songs people write and sing after getting married.

For me, Ghost On The Canvas goes beyond that.

Yes, there are parts for me on GOTC, where the man is telling his woman, there is no me without you, very personable, powerful and intimate, a revelation that we as the listening audience are lucky to hear and share and burn or sear into our memory cells, a love realized and fulfilled before dying or leaving this lifetime, we should all be so lucky to reach or attain an immortal love like that.

But most of the songs aren't to the wife because the husband and wife over time have become one, yes, that is right, one person, it's how the elderly look and after and take care of each other, they are taking care of themselves in the face of all trials the world deals as one body.

Wherever you go I go.

So a lot of the songs to me are not the standard love confession or pledge.

And most the songs on GOTC aren't about about a father's feeling for his son's either, they are at his flank and by each of his side acting as one body or full armament as well, when the woman may not have the strength to do it alone.

it's a lot like how men work or take over a family farm or enterprise, when a man steps out the door it's not alone joined by good works and family name as the glue.

And so, that leaves what I feel a lot of the songs on Ghost On The Canvas covers or explores, the special feeling or place in a man's heart reserved only for his daughter.

Shouldn't that be so?

Sons carry on the family name, but a father has to be prepared one day give the bride away, a big part of the true unspoken bloodline.

The sons know and respect their dad has feelings for her unlike anybody else, he wants the world to welcome and embrace his daughter, respect and appreciate the child has come of age and has all the strength and reserves the rest of their family draws upon. more even, by nature.

This doesn't mean that I am infatuated, i just hear little motifs and melodies in the arrangement what it's like to raise a child from the cradle into a full grown working adult, the love, wealth of talent that'd make any father proud, bursting with pride and love, means more to a man than any other kind of lasting fame or legacy.

It is true, we are entering a time of the world to get excited about the next generation, and pass on all our gifts and resources, I can't think of a better testament than Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas.

And the Campbell's lasting legacy. Keep on writing, performing... and hang on to singing!

Thank you, everyone, keep your babies close to you, give them room to stretch their wings, and watch them fly~

Love,
Rob
In tribute to Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas*((+))


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Cowpoke
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Re: Ghost on the Canvas - Share your thoughts!

Post by Cowpoke »

Rob (and everyone else who likes to join in of course) let's try and build a little online monument for that truly moving album called Ghost on the Canvas.

I'll start off with some quotes by Glen himself about the album and the songs.
"Regret? I've never thought about it. They work me to death," Campbell laughs. "No. I like to sing and play and the thing I've done with Julian (Raymond), boy, this is one of the best things I've done lately. He put whatever we needed together and I said, 'Here, do a good one.' All I had to do was go in and sing, I really liked that. I didn't put myself in the way of anybody, I'll put it that way. I said what I wanted, 'I'd like to do something here and a little something there.' All I wanted to do was sing or maybe do a couple of hot licks on the guitar, that was really it. It was very, very easy, there was no tension or anything, it's like sitting down here and talking, it was fun."

Raymond pipes up, "Most of it started right here in this room in this house. We'd just take out the guitars and I'd show Glen some tunes and he'd sit and revise what he didn't like. Then obviously we reached out to some friends of ours who sent us some songs and a few of those we really liked. Jakob Dylan sent us a great one called 'Nothin' But the Whole Wide World,' Glen loved that song, so we cut it. And Paul Westerberg, same thing with him on 'Any Trouble' and 'Ghost on the Canvas,' Glen liked those, so we decided to cut those songs."

"Everything I have in this world I give to you. It's your amazing grace," Campbell sings. "It's a great, great song, is that going to be a single?"

"I think the first single's 'Ghost on the Canvas,'" says Raymond.

Campbell sings a phrase from "Ghost on the Canvas" and then returns to warbling, "It's your amazing grace-- maybe that one on 'Leno' though, huh? Get that one started. That one?"

"You can do any one you like," grins Raymond.

I ask Raymond how long it took to create the new album.

"The whole process from beginning to end was about two and a half years and the reason why it took so long is Glen was working a lot, I was working a lot, but we'd get together occasionally to work on these songs," replies Raymond. "It took an enormous amount of songs before we decided on the 10 we loved because Glen is very hands-on and very picky about lyrics and melodies and arrangements and we went through a lot of songs that didn't make the cut. We were very pleased with the outcome. We took our time, we weren't worried about it, we were doing it on our own. We did this without a record company."

"That's as good as anything I've done," Campbell adds.

"And you've done some great stuff," says Raymond.
http://www.dabelly.com/features/feature346.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I'm a carefree, range ridin', driftin' cowpoke...
robduloc
Posts: 398
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:43 pm

Re: Glen Campbell Discography

Post by robduloc »

I am getting very emotional, right now, thank you, cowpoke, you did that.

Yes, please pull anything that you have on hand or at your arsenal for VIP's!

I listened to Ghost On The Canvas last night, it feeds me.

There has to be a set of unwritten rules for musicians and artist on the road and in the studio, or street corner, for that matter.

That's what blows me away, Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas, the humanity.

Is there anywhere that I can go here to explore that more.

Thank you
Rob


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Cowpoke
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Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2014 1:52 am

Re: Glen Campbell Discography

Post by Cowpoke »

Hi Rob,
you know one of the things that has intrigued me about the instrumental/musician side of Ghost on the Canvas is... how much guitar playing did Glen do himself? Especially on "There's No Me Without You" which ends gloriously with all those guitar solo merging into each other. I once tried to decipher which guitar solo is played by whom, based on the type of guitar and the style, but that is very hard to do. I will try and dig up what I have written down on that subject.

An other thing I would like to comment on is the fact that Julian Raymond did so well in selecting musicians that understood Glen and also triggered Glen, seeing himself surrounded by A class players to bring out the A game in his performance again. Same with Meet Glen Campbell.

Lastly, Rob, I would like to pull our discussion about Ghost on the Canvas over to the separate topic under the All Things Glen forum to see if we can get more participants. Would that be okay with you?


I'm a carefree, range ridin', driftin' cowpoke...
robduloc
Posts: 398
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:43 pm

Ghost on the Canvas - Share your thoughts!

Post by robduloc »

Glen Campbell Ghost On The Canvas

Personnel
Glen Campbell - acoustic and electric guitar, vocals
Additional musicians and composers
Kim Bullard - keyboards
Shannon Campbell - vocals
Chris Chaney - bass guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta - drums
Katie Cole - vocals
Billy Corgan - electric guitar on "There's No More Me... Without You"
Dick Dale - electric guitar on "In My Arms"
George Doering - acoustic guitar, banjo, and mandolin
Eric Dover - vocals
Jakob Dylan - composition
Jason Falkner - acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar
Josh Freese - drums
Jessie Green - violin
Justin Grey - composition
Peter Holmström - electric guitar on "Strong"
Steve Hunter - electric guitar
Chris Isaak - vocals on "In My Arms"
Corky James - acoustic guitar
Danny Levin - trumpet
Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. - keyboards, vocals
Wendy Melvoin - electric guitar
Rick Nielsen - electric guitar on "There's No More Me... Without You"
Tim Pierce - acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin
Robert Pollard - composition
Zac Rac - keyboards
Julian Raymond - vocals, arrangement, production, co-writing
Marty Rifkin - dobro and pedal steel guitar on "There's No More Me... Without You"
Brian Setzer - electric guitar on "In My Arms" and "There's No More Me... Without You"
Eric Skodis - vocals
Aaron Sterling - drums
Courtney Taylor-Taylor - keyboards on "Strong"
Teddy Thompson - composition
Keith Urban
Michael Ward - electric guitar
Paul Westerberg - composition
Todd Youth - electric guitar


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