Iconic Songwriter Jimmy Webb Tributes Glen Campbell

(Radio.com) Legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb has penned a touching tribute to his friend and collaborator, Glen Campbell. The two partnered on several classics, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Witchita Lineman," "Where's the Playground, Susie?" and the epic "Galveston."

After a battle with Alzheimer's Disease, Glen Campbell died at 81 last Tuesday (Aug 8).Webb writes, "Well, that moment has come that we have known was an inevitable certainty and yet stings like a sudden catastrophe. Let the world note that a great American influence on pop music, the American Beatle, the secret link between so many artists and records that we can only marvel, has passed and cannot be replaced. He was bountiful. His was a world of gifts freely exchanged: Roger Miller stories, songs from the best writers, an old Merle Haggard record or a pocket knife.

"He gave me a great wide lens through which to look at music. The cult of The Players? He was at the very center. He loved the Beach Boys and in subtle ways helped mold their sound. He loved Don and Phil (Everly), Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, Flatt and Scruggs. This was the one great lesson that I learned from him as a kid: Musically speaking nothing is out of bounds. Of course, he lavished affection and gifts on his kids, family and friends. His love was a deep mercurial thing and once committed he was a tenacious friend as so many in Nashville and Phoenix, L.A. and New York, compadres all over the world would testify. One of his favorite songs was 'Try A Little Kindness" in which he sings 'shine your light on everyone you see." My God. Did he do that or what? Just thinking back I believe suddenly that the 'raison d'etre" for every Glen Campbell show was to bring every suffering soul within the sound of his voice up a peg or two. Leave 'em laughin'. Leave them feeling just a little tad better about themselves, even though he might have to make them cry a couple of times to get 'em there. What a majestically graceful and kind, top rate performer was Glen on his worst night!

"When it came to friendship Glen was the real deal. He spoke my name from ten thousand stages. He was my big brother, my protector, my co-culprit, my John crying in the wilderness. Nobody liked a Jimmy Webb song as much as Glen! And yet he was generous with other writers: Larry Weiss, Allen Toussaint, John Hartford. You have to look hard for a bad song on a Glen Campbell album. He was giving people their money's worth before it became fashionable." Read more here.

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