During his 50 years in show business, Campbell released more than 70 albums. He sold 45 million records and accumulated 12 RIAA Gold albums, four Platinum albums and one Double-platinum album. He placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or the Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Campbell's hits include his recordings of John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind"; Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston"; Larry Weiss's "Rhinestone Cowboy"; and Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights".
Campbell made history in 1967 by winning four Grammys total in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell appeared in the film True Grit, which gave him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. Campbell sang the title song which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Glen Travis Campbell was born in Billstown, Arkansas, to John Wesley and Carrie Dell (Stone) Campbell. He was the seventh son of 12 children. He started playing guitar as a youth and credits his uncle Boo for teaching him the guitar.
In 1954, Campbell moved to Albuquerque to join his uncle's band known as Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys. He also appeared there on his uncle's radio show and on K Circle B Time, the local children's program on KOB television. In 1958, Campbell formed his own band, the Western Wranglers.
In 1960, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician. In October 1960 he joined The Champs. By January 1961, Campbell had found a daytime job at publishing company American Music, writing songs and recording demos. Because of these demos Campbell soon was in demand as a session musician and became part of a group of studio musicians later known as The Wrecking Crew. Campbell played on recordings by Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, The Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Jan and Dean, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Phil Spector.
In May 1961, he left The Champs and was subsequently signed by Crest Records, a subsidiary of American Music. His first solo release, "Turn Around, Look at Me", was a moderate success, peaking at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. Campbell also formed The Gee Cees with former bandmembers from The Champs, performing at The Crossbow Inn in Van Nuys. The Gee Cees, too, released a single on Crest, the instrumental "Buzz Saw", which did not chart.
In 1962, Campbell signed with Capitol Records. After minor initial success with "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry", his first single for the label, and "Kentucky Means Paradise", released by The Green River Boys featuring Glen Campbell, a string of unsuccessful singles and albums followed.
From 1964 on, Campbell began to appear on television as a regular on Star Route, a syndicated series hosted by Rod Cameron,[18] ABC's Shindig!, and Hollywood Jamboree.
From December 1964 to early March 1965, Campbell was a touring member of The Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson. He also played guitar on the band's Pet Sounds (1966) album, among other recordings. On tour, he played bass guitar and sang falsetto harmonies. In April 1966, he joined Ricky Nelson on a tour through the Far East, again playing bass.
In 1965, he had his biggest solo hit yet, reaching number 45 on the Hot 100 with a version of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier". Asked about the pacifist message of the song, he elected to assert that "people who are advocating burning draft cards should be hung."
When follow-up singles did not do well, and Capitol was considering dropping Campbell from the label in 1966, he was teamed with producer Al De Lory. Together, they first collaborated on "Burning Bridges" which became a top 20 country hit in early 1967, and the album of the same name. Campbell and De Lory collaborated again on 1967's "Gentle on My Mind", written by John Hartford, which was an overnight success. The song was followed by the bigger hit "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" later in 1967, and "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" in 1968. Campbell won four Grammy Awards for his performances on "Gentle on My Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix".
In 1967, Campbell was also the uncredited lead vocalist on "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius, a studio group. The song reached number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The 1969 song "True Grit" by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and sung by Campbell, who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
His biggest hits in the late 1960s were the songs written by Jimmy Webb: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", and "Where's the Playground Susie". An album of mainly Webb-penned compositions, Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb, was released in 1974, but it produced no hit single records. "Wichita Lineman" (1968) was selected as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century by Mojo magazine in 1997 and by Blender in 2001.
After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell hosted his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, from January 1969 through June 1972. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published.
With Campbell's session-work connections, he hosted major names in music on his show, including The Beatles (on film), David Gates, Bread, The Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, and Mel Tillis. Campbell helped launch the careers of Anne Murray and Jerry Reed, who were regulars on his Goodtime Hour program.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit (1969) with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood (1970) with Kim Darby and Joe Namath.
After the cancellation of his CBS series in 1972, Campbell remained a regular on network television. He co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming (1974), with Robert Culp and up-and-coming teen idol, Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including 1976's Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976–78 and headlined the 1979 NBC special Glen Campbell: Back to Basics with guest-stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee.
In the mid-1970s, he had more hits with "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Southern Nights" (both U.S. number one hits), "Sunflower" (U.S. number 39) (written by Neil Diamond), and "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)" (U.S. number 11).
"Rhinestone Cowboy" was Campbell's largest-selling single, initially with over 2 million copies sold. Campbell had heard songwriter Larry Weiss' version while on tour of Australia in 1974. Both songs were in the October 4, 1975 Hot 100 top 10. Campbell also made a techno/pop version of the song in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video.
"Southern Nights", by Allen Toussaint, his other number one pop-rock-country crossover hit, was generated with the help of Jimmy Webb, and Jerry Reed, who inspired the famous guitar lick introduction to the song, which was the most-played jukebox number of 1977.
Campbell made a cameo appearance in the 1980 Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can, for which he recorded the title song. In 1991, he provided the voice of the Elvis Presley sound-alike rooster Chanticleer in the Don Bluth film Rock-a-Doodle. He gave up smoking on March 15, 1992, and believed his singing voice improved as a result. In 1999, Campbell was featured on VH-1's Behind the Music, A&E Network's Biography in 2001, and on a number of CMT programs. Campbell ranked 29th on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003.
In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.[29] It was announced in April 2008 that Campbell was returning to his signature label, Capitol, to release his new album, Meet Glen Campbell. The album was released on August 19. With this album, he branched off in a different musical direction, covering tracks from artists such as Travis, U2, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne, and Foo Fighters. It was Campbell's first release on Capitol in over 15 years. Musicians from Cheap Trick and Jellyfish contributed to the album, as well. The first single, a cover of Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", was released to radio in July 2008.
In March 2010, a then-farewell album titled Ghost on the Canvas was announced which served as a companion to Meet Glen Campbell (2008). Ghost on the Canvas was released on August 30, 2011, with collaborations that include Paul Westerberg (writer of the title track), The Wallflowers singer Jakob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Rick Nielsen and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.
Following his early 2011 Alzheimers diagnosis, Campbell embarked on a final "Goodbye Tour," with three of his children joining him in his backup band. His final show was on November 30, 2012, in Napa, California. After the end of the tour, Campbell entered the studio in his home town Nashville to record what would be his final album, Adiós, which wouldn't be revealed until five years later. According to his wife, Kim Campbell, he wanted to preserve "what magic was left", in what would be his final recordings. In January 2013, Campbell recorded his final song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You", during what would be his last recording sessions. The song, which is featured in the 2014 documentary, Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, was released on September 30, 2014, with the documentary following on October 24. On January 15, 2015 Campbell and fellow songwriter Julian Raymond were nominated for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.
In April 2017, Campbell's final album, Adiós, was announced, featuring twelve songs from his final 2012-13 sessions. The album was released on June 9, 2017.
In June 2011, Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease six months earlier. According to his family, symptoms of the disease had been occurring for years, becoming more and more evident as the years progressed.
Campbell went on a final "Goodbye Tour," with three of his children joining him in his backup band. His final show was on November 30, 2012, in Napa, California. He performed "Rhinestone Cowboy" as a goodbye at the 2012 Grammy Awards ceremony held on February 12, 2012, his final televised on-stage performance.
In April 2014, news reports indicated that Campbell became a patient at an Alzheimer's long-term care and treatment facility. On March 4, 2015, Associated Press reported that two of Campbell's children, Debby and Travis, sought legal action against Campbell's wife Kim, with the assertion she "secluded" the singer and prevented them from "participating" in Campbell's medical care.
On Campbell's 80th birthday, Jimmy Webb, with whom Campbell frequently collaborated, announced he would launch a special edition of his national touring show on May 3, 2016, called "Jimmy Webb: The Glen Campbell Years" at Nashville's City Winery.
Campbell died of the disease in Nashville, Tennessee on August 8, 2017, six years after his diagnosis.
Since 1962, Campbell has recorded and released 58 studio albums and six live albums. He has also lent his vocals to four soundtracks for motion pictures (True Grit (1969), Norwood (1970), Rock-a-Doodle (1992), and the 2014 documentary film Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me). He has placed a total of 82 singles (one of which was a re-release) on either the Billboard Country Chart, the Billboard Hot 100, or the Adult Contemporary Chart, nine of which peaked at number one on at least one of those charts. He has released 15 video albums and has been featured in 21 music videos. His first two music videos, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman", were directed by Gene Weed in 1967 and 1968 respectively. Campbell released his final music video, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" in 2014 to coincide with the release of the documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me. His final studio album, Adiós was released on June 9, 2017.
Dock of the Bay
Glen Campbell Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes
Watchin' the ships roll in
Then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away
Just sittin on the dock of the bay
I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Frisco Bay
I have nothing to live for
Look like nothing's gonna come my way, yeah
So I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away
Yes, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time
Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So, I guess I'll remain the same
Sittin' hear resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone, yeah
But two thousand miles I roam
Just to make this dock my home, yeah
Now I'm sittin' at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away, yeah
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wasting time
Glen Campbell's cover of Otis Redding's "The Dock of the Bay" tells the story of a man who feels defeated and hopeless, escaped his old life in Georgia, and now finds himself sitting on the dock of the bay in San Francisco. The man's loneliness is palpable as he watches the ships roll in and roll away again. The repetitive, lazy nature of the lyrics in the chorus echoes the man's feeling of timelessness and unproductiveness. The final verse reveals that the man has traveled 2,000 miles just to sit on the dock of the bay, a clear indication of his feeling of deep disillusionment with his previous life. The song as a whole conveys a sense of frustration, loss, and emptiness of the central character.
Line by Line Meaning
Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I am seated on the dock of the bay, basking in the rays of the morning sun.
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes
I plan to remain seated here until evening time.
Watchin' the ships roll in
I am observing the ships as they come into the bay.
Then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I also watch the ships as they depart from the bay and head out to sea.
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
This line refers to my current location, which is seated on the dock of the bay.
Watchin' the tide roll away
My attention is now focused on the ebb and flow of the tide as it rolls out to sea.
Just sittin on the dock of the bay
I have no particular plan or destination in mind, only to remain seated on the dock of the bay.
Wastin' time
This line implies that my current activity of simply sitting and watching the tide is a form of wasting time with no productive purpose in mind.
I left my home in Georgia
I have recently departed my home state of Georgia.
Headed for the Frisco Bay
My travel destination was the city of San Francisco, referred to locally as Frisco Bay.
I have nothing to live for
The singer of this line is expressing his lack of purpose or meaning in life, a sentiment that led him to travel such a great distance to reach the dock of the bay.
Look like nothing's gonna come my way, yeah
The artist assumes that his current state of dispassion will continue and he has no hope for any positive developments in his life.
Look like nothing's gonna change
The singer is expressing here that he has no expectations for anything in his life to improve or to be different than what it is at present.
Everything still remains the same
The line emphasizes that everything in the singer's life is unchanging and static.
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
The singer is expressing his independence of spirit and lack of willingness to be influenced by other people's opinions or expectations.
So, I guess I'll remain the same
The artist of this line is resigned to his current state of being and expects no meaningful changes in his personality, life prospects, or worldview.
Sittin' hear resting my bones
The line reflects a need for rest after a long journey and signifies that the artist is taking a moment to catch his breath.
And this loneliness won't leave me alone, yeah
The singer is expressing a sense of emotional isolation and longing that he cannot shake off, despite his travels.
But two thousand miles I roam
This line specifies that the singer has traveled roughly two thousand miles from his home in Georgia to reach the dock of the bay.
Just to make this dock my home, yeah
The line reveals the artist's desire to find a sense of belonging and meaning by making the dock of the bay his chosen place of rest and contemplation.
Now I'm sittin' at the dock of the bay
The artist is again situating himself on the dock of the bay.
Watching the tide roll away, yeah
The artist's attention is still focused on the ebb and flow of the tide as it rolls out to sea.
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
The singer reiterates a sense of calm, stillness, and contemplation in his present situation.
Wasting time
The artist reiterates again his focus on seated in idleness, reflecting on his situation rather than taking any action.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Steve Cropper, Otis Redding
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind