There’s a song by Dawes I like — the title song of the band’s fourth album, “All Your Favorite Bands.” Here’s part of the second stanza:
I hope your brother’s El Camino runs forever
I hope the world sees the same person
That you’ve always been to me
And may all your favorite bands stay together.
That’s relatable to most of us — at least the part about not changing and all our favorite bands staying together. Lately, unfortunately, the hope is that all my favorite bands stay alive. This year has seen the deaths of many iconic names in music history.
Three of these musicians composed a large chunk of the music I listened to growing up and through my teenage and adult years.
My parents’ Glen Campbell (April 22, 1936 – Aug. 8, 2017) albums are the soundtrack of my childhood. My favorite song (of all time) has long been his 1967 Grammy Award-winning song written by John Hartford, “Gentle on my Mind.” It’s been covered by dozens of musicians, but none quite so famously as Campbell.
On the day of Campbell’s death, my son Maxwell was attending a John Mayer concert in Nashville. Mayer announced the news by playing his favorite song (by memory), “Gentle on my Mind.”
The Jimmy Webb songs, “By The Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman” (also recorded by R.E.M. and James Taylor), sealed the deal for me and Glenn Campbell. I wish I had listened to more of Campbell in recent years; it’s not too late.
Walter Becker (Feb. 20, 1950 – Sept. 3, 2017), co-founder of Steely Dan, and Tom Petty (Oct. 20, 1950 – Oct. 2, 2017), are the other two music artists who we recently lost; I will write about them in my next blog.
