Gentle On My Mind

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Glen Campbell after a battle with Alzheimer's. What a country music giant. He had such a pure voice and amazing guitar skills and listening to his music brings me back to my childhood.  One of the last, if not the last, song he recorded was, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You."  It is about Alzheimer's and is extremely touching.  You can click the arrow and watch the video below and if you don't tear up, you are a lot tougher man than I:

In case you can't watch the video, here are the lyrics:

I'm still here, but yet I'm gone

I don't play guitar or sing my songs

They never defined who I am

The man that loves you 'til the end

You're the last person I will love

You're the last face I will recall

And best of all, I'm not gonna miss you

Not gonna miss you

I'm never gonna hold you like I did

Or say I love you to the kids

You're never gonna see it in my eyes

It's not gonna hurt me when you cry

I'm never gonna know what you go through

All the things I say or do

All the hurt and all the pain

One thing selfishly remains

I'm not gonna miss you

I'm not gonna miss you

What a beautiful, but absolutely heart-breaking song.  I can't stay there.  Let me change the subject...

I don't know if you ever do this, but I'll pull up You tube and go down a "rabbit hole."  I'll pull up an old song and play it and then similar songs appear on the right side of the screen.  I'll click one of those and listen to it and then another and another and before you know it, I'm looking at the clock and it is after midnight and I have work in the morning!

In doing so with Glen Campbell songs, it is like getting into a time machine.  Playing "Gentle on my Mind," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Southern Nights," "Country Boy," brings me way back.  When I play "Rhinestone Cowboy," it reminds me of family vacations in the back of the station wagon with the whole family singing every single word to the top of our lungs as we barreled down the highway.  I can remember singing "You Light Up My Life," by Debbie Boone too.  Wow, that must have sounded bad!!

So as I think of that old music, it reminds me of HOW we used to listen to music, too.  My parents had an old console stereo, pretty similar to the one below. The top would slide back and forth and I can remember getting my fingers smashed in those sliding doors.

If you opened it, it had a stereo and a record player in it that played the big 78 RPM vinyl records.  It looked sort of like the one below on the inside, except for the fact that the area on the right was for storing all the 78 vinyl records.  If I recall, Mom and Dad had Burt Bacharach, Barbara Streisand, Herb Alpert, and the Tijuana Brass Band, The Soundtrack to "The Graduate," etc.

Whoa!  Would you look at that.  It is 11:49 pm and I have work in the morning.  I gotta sign off...  Music, and life, seemed much more pure back then.  In many ways I know it wasn't, but the memories are truly Gentle on My Mind.  RIP Glen.