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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. A Better Place |
| 2. Ghost On The Canvas - written by Paul Westerberg |
| 3. The Billstown Crossroads |
| 4. A Thousand Lifetimes |
| 5. It's Your Amazing Grace |
| 6. Second Street North |
| 7. In My Arms featuring Chris Isaak, Dick Dale, Brian Setzer) |
| 8. May 21st, 1969, |
| 9. Nothing But The Whole Wide World - written by Jakob Dylan |
| 10. Wild And Waste |
| 11. Hold On Hope - written by Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) |
| 12. Valley Of The Sun |
| 13. Any Trouble |
| 14. Strong - featuring Dandy Warhols |
| 15. The Rest Is Silence |
| 16. There s No Me Without You - guitars by Billy Corgan, Marty Rifkin, Rick Nielsen |
Product Description
Review
Rehabilitating the sound and vision that created a musical legend - let's call it the Johnny Cash American Recordings model - is now standard practice for artists in their advanced years. The latest recipient is Glen Campbell, whose first 'renaissance', 2008 covers album Meet Glen Campbell, was intermittently great, and strangely disconnected (knowing committed Christian Glen was singing The Velvet Underground's Jesus straight was an especially weird, if compelling, sensation). But guided again by producer Julian Raymond, former vice president of Capitol Records, home of Campbell's finest recordings in the late 60s, Ghost on the Canvas is the real deal, musical and emotionally true and sometimes devastating, on a par with Cash's performance on Hurt. It turns out Campbell has early stages Alzheimer's, and Raymond's lyrics for the album's five co-composed songs were based on comments the singer made while recording the previous album. In other words, we finally get to meet Glen Campbell.
He may be 75 and a frail ghost of his former hell-raising self, but vocally Campbell still sounds surefooted, hitting wistful, golden notes. The contributing cast of 'stars' supply unerring melody and no small amount of emotional triggers. Take the title-track, written by Paul Westerberg (The Replacements), full of the same aching longing that distinguished Campbell's impeachable Wichita Lineman. Westerberg's other offering, Any Trouble, appears to have Gentle On My Mind on its mind. Raymond/Campbell's A Thousand Lifetimes also appears to tap Wichita Lineman without feeling manipulative. The DNA of The Rest Is Silence, one of six instrumental interludes, is pure Beach Boys, recalling the time guitar-for-hire Campbell worked on Pet Sounds and was Brian Wilson's stage stand-in during the same era. This is history in the re-making.
But Ghost on the Canvas isn't simply nostalgic. There's No Me� Without You, Strong and Teddy Thompson's In My Arms (surely the gutsiest track Campbell has ever cut) are aimed at Campbell's wife Kim, who saw him through his alcohol and cocaine addictions that blighted his 70s. There's No Me... which closes the album, has its own coda of elegant, elegiac guitar solos from Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), Brian Seltzer (Stray Cats) and Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), which says more about Raymond's little black book than Campbell, but collectively they hit the mark.
In the title-track, he sings "People don't know when they're looking at soul." You wouldn't expect soul from a Glen Campbell record, but it takes many forms. A veteran who needs help to express his memories of a life less ordinary, but ironically sounds on the top of his game, is clearly one of them.
--Martin Aston
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
About the Artist
In an age where there are so few true hit makers, the breadth of Glen Campbell s career is hard to process. The guy has sold 45 million albums, had 81 songs on the charts, won Grammys and numerous other awards, been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, had a TV show where 50 million people tuned in weekly, played with Sinatra, Elvis, the Beach Boys (on Pet Sounds no less), owned a theater in Branson, acted and did a song for the original True Grit alongside John Wayne, and did it all rising from being the seventh son of a poor Arkansas sharecropper who eventually moved to LA with $300 in his pocket. You can t even make this stuff up. Glen Campbell became a country-pop crossover star of mind-lashingly megalithic proportions. Perhaps the greatest compliment you can give Glen Campbell, though, is his final album Ghost On The Canvas. For starters, no lesser songwriters than Robert Pollard (from Guided By Voices), Paul Westerberg (from the Replacements) and Jakob Dylan have written for this thing. Think about that for a second. Hipster cult god-beings like Westerberg and Pollard aren t supposed to be fans of this kind of thing. But that s how heavy Campbell s impact has been. Wichita Lineman, Rhinestone Cowboy, the title track on the Highwaymen album. It s just undeniable. Oh, and a few guitarists decided to show up, too. You know, little known guys like Dick Dale, Billy Corgan, Rick Nielsen, Brian Setzer. It turns out that when you really take a close look at it Glen Campbell is one of popular music s most under sung guitarists, too. From his amazing 12-string guitar work on his own albums to his session guitar work as part of the Wrecking Crew (who were Phil Spector s go-to guys) and on albums by the Monkees, Sinatra, Haggard, Dean Martin and a couple hundred others, Campbell s guitar has coiled its way deep into the DNA of American music. Consciously bowing out at the tail end of sixty years in popular music, Glen Campbell hits a serene reflective note on Ghosts On The Canvas. He ditched the booze, drugs, women and song decades ago for a life of reverent religious dignity and he s written and told his story different times and in different ways before, but here he sings and interprets with the naked humility of a massive lifetime s twilight.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Glen Campbell was seventy-five old this year. Yup, you heard that
right. Seventy-Five!! All the more remarkable, then, that his new
album 'Ghost On The Canvas' deserves our full attention and admiration.
The voice is intact, wonderfully so. Smooth as velvet without even the
slightest trace of a wobble in the upper register which can come with age.
There are sixteen tracks in the collection (admirably produced by Julian
Raymond) and Mr Campbell does no more than is necessary to make them
all come alive with his warm enunciation and unimpeachable performances.
There is a coherence and consistency running through this project which
quite takes one's breath away at times, Whether in the stirring (no matter
if you are of a spiritual disposition or not) opening song 'A Better Place',
where he gives thanks to his God for the good things in his life; the gently
lilting country strains of the perfectly lovely title track; the heavier
accented (thanks to The Dandy Warhols) slow rocking anthem 'Strong'; the
powerfully articulated sentiments of 'It's Your Amazing Grace', or the simple
rolling beauty of 'Nothing but The Whole Wide World' (written by Jacob Dylan),
one cannot help but be in thrall to Mr Campbell's stamina, versatility, bravery
(he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease two years ago) and honest vision.
A man in a million with a song to sing and a bunch of stories still to tell.
This fine album will stand as a bold testament to his consummate artistry.
Essential.
right. Seventy-Five!! All the more remarkable, then, that his new
album 'Ghost On The Canvas' deserves our full attention and admiration.
The voice is intact, wonderfully so. Smooth as velvet without even the
slightest trace of a wobble in the upper register which can come with age.
There are sixteen tracks in the collection (admirably produced by Julian
Raymond) and Mr Campbell does no more than is necessary to make them
all come alive with his warm enunciation and unimpeachable performances.
There is a coherence and consistency running through this project which
quite takes one's breath away at times, Whether in the stirring (no matter
if you are of a spiritual disposition or not) opening song 'A Better Place',
where he gives thanks to his God for the good things in his life; the gently
lilting country strains of the perfectly lovely title track; the heavier
accented (thanks to The Dandy Warhols) slow rocking anthem 'Strong'; the
powerfully articulated sentiments of 'It's Your Amazing Grace', or the simple
rolling beauty of 'Nothing but The Whole Wide World' (written by Jacob Dylan),
one cannot help but be in thrall to Mr Campbell's stamina, versatility, bravery
(he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease two years ago) and honest vision.
A man in a million with a song to sing and a bunch of stories still to tell.
This fine album will stand as a bold testament to his consummate artistry.
Essential.
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I have followed Glen since Galveston and the Jimmy Webb days. Seen him in concert and got most of his material. Have been waiting so long for Ghost on the Canvas. What a brilliant album. Thought 'Meet Glen Campbell' was exceptional and this one is definitely growing, growing, growing on me. In other words I love it! I only hope that it will NOT be his last album. However, should this be the case, I wish him a great retirement and thank him for his great voice and musical talent. A triumph yet again.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I overall agree with the good reviews but I was somewhat dissapointed to find six short instrumental numbers spread over this CD. So, out of the sixteen listed tracks, only ten are left to showcase Glenn's latest (and final?) release. And the closing track 16, which clocks at 6:17, seems to have been artificially extended. Anyway, any GC fan will want to own this CD and let's concentrate on the quality rather than the quantity.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good music
Good music and well-produced. My first GC cd. Ghost On The Canvas not only grabs you straightaway, it grows on you. How rare is that! A deserved 5 stars.
Published 4 days ago by Rap Howard
fab!
wow it's a great album, I never bought anything by Glen Campbell before but I can not stop playing this.
Published 2 months ago by MANTY STANLEY
Ghost on the Canvas by Glen Campbell
I had never bought a Glen Campbell album before but after hearing some of the tracks being played on the radio, I decided to buy this album. Read more
Published 3 months ago by June Doll
Ghost on the Canvas
I brought this album for my mum as she loves Glen Campbell.
I ordered it and well... mums listened to it every single day since it arrived we are now heading to 3 weeks!!! Read more
I ordered it and well... mums listened to it every single day since it arrived we are now heading to 3 weeks!!! Read more
Published 3 months ago by jaide coquelin
Excellent album, great service
CD was as advertised and arrived in the specified time. Truly great album of fine songs incredibly well sung by Glen Campbell.
Published 3 months ago by Peyton
Glen Campbell has matured gracefully
I bought this album after attending Glen Campbell's concert in York where I was impressed with him as an artist, a person and a family man who was travelling and performing... Read more
Published 3 months ago by owlett103
superb album
This album is an incredible postscript from a real musician. A fusion of country & Rock tunes with mostly poigniant lyrics (some strange ones too) I can't stop playing it! Read more
Published 3 months ago by richard
Wow
It's a tour de force. Buy it today. Not one weak song. Glen back to his very best.. at 75 he's still got it.
Published 4 months ago by Jerseyboy
You MUST buy this album
I was never a huge fan of Glen Campbell. He was more for my mother's generation - I remember Witchita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy being played when I was little. Read more
Published 4 months ago by C. Bellis
Great purchase!
I bought this CD for my mum for her christmas present and she loves it! The CD was delivered 5 days earlier than expected and listening Glen Campbell is now my guilty habitual... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ms. M. Balogun
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