I asked him when I met him (John Hartford) what it took to be a #riverboatpilot? He recommended I not do it… He said there were way too many dangers, including horny males. I trusted him, so listened to him, and took his advice. ❤
Glen Campbell: Member of the famous "Wrecking Crew" of studio musicians, lauded by many professionals as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, part-time member of the Beach Boys, singer songwriter, 29 songs in the top 10, with 50 years experience before we lost him. John Hartford: Grammy award winning singer songwriter, could play banjo, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin with the best, expert river boat pilot, poet, author, music historian, the man could play a fiddle, sing, and clog at the same time. He was called a one-man band. Needless to say, these two phenomenal artists created a huge stir among their fans when it was announced that Glen would host a TV show. They are missed. Keep playing in heaven, boys.
I was 10 years old when this song hit the airwaves. It conjures up memories of that time...the Vietnam war, flower power, The Cowsills, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, The Doors, and so many more other memories of the time!
He should have credited Hank Snow too for his 1959 song " Rhumba Boogie" witch is " Gentle ... ". : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-405cmqNay5s.html
I turned 9 years old that summer and the best part of that year was the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and the Glen Campbell Show. They and John Hartford and Steve Martin were why I picked up a guitar and why decades later I spend way too much time humming and strumming!
As a banjo picker, inspired by John Hartford, among others, I disagree with you. It is impossible to spend too much time humming and strumming...or just pickin' and grinnin'!
Glenn put country music into the mainstream with the Glenn Campbell Good time hour! I watched it when I was a kid and Glenn had a natural ability in front of the camera. He was a great artist and one of the best guitar players ever! He was respected by the Greats from Sinatra to Elvis and his talent will be missed.
Interesting fact: Glenn couldn't read music. He learned in the mountains, where you just pick up an instrument when you're a kid and start playing. To the end of his career he had to have someone else play written music for him before he could play it himself (with appropriate upgrades, of course). I loved learning that, because I learned several instruments (guitar, banjo, mandolin) that same way.
@@normsaunders4980 Launched John Denver. At some point, Glenn becomes a six-degrees game for the pop music of a whole era, whether country, folk, or rock.
My father had Hartford's Earthwords and Music album when I was a preschool kid. He would play the whole thing over and over in the house on weekends, and I always waited with such anticipation for this song to be up. I was a teenager before knowing it was Glen Campbell who had made it famous, but for me John Hartford's original will forever be the best version.
So nice to see the song writer, Johnny Hartford, getting credit too; Glen was such a master at the guitar and had a voice like butter. When I hear Glen singing "the back roads of my memories" I think about his illness. I lost both parents to dementia, and I get choked when I play this one.
I read somewhere that after Glen Campbell became sick it was terrible, but if he was handed his guitar he played like nothing was wrong with him. The doctors said it was muscle memory. I know that had to be heartbreaking and beautiful for anyone that witnessed that.
I will never forget being at the Color Cruise near Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River. I began to hear Mississippi Dew and it was John's unmistakable voice! As I was trying to decide where it was coming from, I heard a steam whistle and looked to see a steamboat approaching the landing with John out on the starboard wing bridge playing and singing.
I actually watched that summer show at my grandparents' farm in NC (I lived in DC at the time). That's how I got interested in guitars, particularly Ovations.
One of my greatest thrills was to meet #JohnHartford in person. He was a true gentleman, gift to the world of playing music, fiddling, I never washed my fiddle after he played it. ❤
That "IT all starts with the composer"! "IT" was and is HIS creation with lived translations into the open minds' emotions, that tugs our common humility of savored memories.
Only recently did I learn who wrote the song. Mr. Campbell did a wonderful job when he recorded it. Mr/ Hartford did an outstanding job composing it. This is an iconic American song that history will treat very well.
Fell in love with them and this song on the smothers bros show way back then and it remains, as always, gentle on my mind. Ps john hartford had the softest hands i ever had the good fortune to shake. He and Marie at rest just up the road in a cemetery across from the national on gallatin rd/briley pkwy in nashville
I owned John Hartford's Aereoplain album. Very much tongue-in-cheek humor and wonderful bluegrass/country material and talent. Opened and closed with 'Turn Your Radio On'. Hartford was simply loaded with talent.
This was a never forgotten moment in my life. I finally got to see John at the Ryman when he opened the show for the historic return of the Everly Brothers !
Classic performance. I remember watching the SB's show back in the day as a kid when this was on, also watching GC on the summer series. They had some great talent on both shows.
Was able to see Mr Hartford in concert at the Ark, and he sang this so achingly wistful, I still remember- he also stayed and talked with people even though he was in such back pain he laid flat on the floor - a truly marvelous gentleman.
@@thomdombrowski8572 the Ark in Ann Arbor MI is on its third(?) incarnation with the first two being houses, according to its website, Cream did not play there
@@poisonsumc7426 ahhh back in 68/69 there was a place in Boston, called the Ark.. If memory serves it is one of the places Cream played.. very few folk showed up, as they had never heard of them. sadly I was like 15 or so and could not go.
Wow that's a long time ago. The song is special to my daughter and I she is 23 and while she was gone in the Navy we shared the song and it would always tear me up
I can't believe I am also turning 69 in a few weeks. Where did the dang time go? I remember very clearly coming into focus and starting to learn about politics and current events at the time this show aired. Unfortunately the Smothers had and extremely left wing point of view with little balance. GIven the state of legacy media outlets today, it's hard to imagine that their POV got them into trouble with more centrist or even right-leaning elements at the network, but it did.
I love, gentle on my mind. I was a young teenager, fullof hopes and dreams.this song calm my restless soul. Back then we had flower power, Vietnam War, laugh in ( with Goldie Hawn), three dog night, and mama's home cooking. Times were more calm, not like today. Sweet memories. Rip Glenn and John.
Someone once said that Glen Campbell had way more talent than one person outta have. No doubt. Hartford was a great songwriter who never really got his due, and Gentle on My Mind is certainly a masterpiece in its ability to evoke images and emotions. Glen Campbell was truly a class act and I didn’t recognize until more recently how big a part he played in my youth in the 1960s.
" Gentle .." actually it's a copy of Hank Snow's 1959 " Rhumba Boogie". And Hank plays the guitar, as always, in it : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_fxRL1WyXsA.html
@@artcflowers That's how it works. Take a song, alternate a little to the right and left and there's a new tune. I love H. Snow, he was a great singer and composer and what a guitar player he was. He made 2 instrumental Lps with Chet Atkins in the early 60s. You can hear it here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k2qcDlNxK5M.html
@@catholiccowboy8545 i have my Pops' lps, hank snow amongst them! John Hartford had the softest hands i ever shook. I loved the smothers bros and the glen campbell shows.
Big Fan of both John Hartford and Glen Campbell, and it's great seeing them together. The second song on this clip, "Thank U Very Much" was originally recorded by The Scaffold, and was written by Mike McGear/McCartney. Tom, Dick and Glen re-worked some of the lyrics for this broadcast.
I love playing Gentle on My Mind on my banjo when I perform. I saw John Hartford a couple of times in Jacksonville, Florida, and did dueling faces at a small venue called Apple Jacks.
No doubt that they were walking a fine line with the network for their political commentary. They were always in trouble. Righteous rebels, those two. Bloody brilliant.
Saw John H in at a random outdoor,summer folk music festival in the middle of Nowhere, IN, in the middle of a Saturday, in the middle of the 70s. He played fiddle and sang while clog dancing on a large piece of plywood. He’d gone full bore back to his roots as a riverboat country troubador. Very impressive to watch…cardiovascularly if nothing else!
The irony of this whole situation is, Glen Campbell actually took their job the next year. Smothers Brothers were two in your face political, and they gave Glen his own Glen Campbell Good Times show the next season.
Following this appearance 1968 when the Smothers Brothers show took their summer break, Glen Campbell replaced them with the Summer Brothers Smothers Show.
