With the news that Glen Campbell had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2011, fans, other artists and associates turned their attention back to a man whose career had slipped in and out of the spotlight for the past 50 years. It had been a long time since he had accumulated across the board hit singles, but suddenly he was being recognized not just as a successful singer, but as an artist who had helped push the parameters of country music and made it palatable to pop audiences as well. His partnership with Jimmy Webb in the mid ’60s — Webb being the man who wrote Campbell’s most successful songs early on, songs like “Galveston”, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, and “Wichita Lineman” among the many — established both men’s career credentials early on and turned Campbell into a star.
It was quite an accomplishment for a musician who started as a studio standby and whose guitar playing helped fortify chart successes by the likes of Dean Martin, the Righteous Brothers, the Monkees and, of course, the Beach Boys, with whom he also toured. However, as the liner notes to this Rhinestone Cowboy reissue explain, by the mid-’70s, it seemed his career had clearly peaked after its prime. That said, “Rhinestone Cowboy”, an obscure country hit by an even more obscure singer/songwriter named Larry Weiss became his salvation. It immediately returned Campbell to the top of the charts in 1975 and became the basis of an album that was somewhat derided at the time — thanks in large part to the cover photo of Campbell, dressed as a cowboy all in white and waving from the back of a prancing stallion.
Happily then, in retrospect, the garish cover art does nothing to diminish the material within. Other than the title track, the album’s standout is the similarly themed “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)”, a song that, like the title track, expresses the incongruity of finding stardom at the expense of one’s original ideals. “Living in the city ain’t never been my ideal of gettin’ it on / But the job demands you make your plans before your big chance is gone…” It’s a telling tune, and one that reveals rather intimately just how authentic Campbell’s humble good-old-boy persona really was.
Other standouts included a poignant take on Randy Newman’s sad and somber “Marie”, a surprisingly successful redo of the Temptations’ “My Girl”, and two songs that are said to have described Campbell’s personal life at the time, “We’re Over” and “I Miss You Tonight”. All were quality compositions. Still, the most telling song of all proved to be “Comeback”, another show biz themed entry that served as true to life narrative at the time.
The overly amplified arrangements and an occasional clunker like the schmaltzy “Pencils For Sale” aside, Rhinestone Cowboy makes for an album well worth rediscovery. A handful of bonus tracks, including remixes of “Country Boy” and “Rhinestone Cowboy” add only incidentally to the mix, but offer further evidence of Campbell’s singing skills, as if any was needed. Taken in tandem, it’s a worthy addition to the wave of rediscovery that marks Campbell’s sad final ride into the vast horizon.