Glen Campbell made the song "Galveston" expedient

Stranger than fiction? It took some balls to outwardly protest the Vietnam war in 1969. If you were in commercial entertainment, you still had to be careful. Respecting authority is important in corporate America. U.S. authority felt it had to keep its military commitment in Southeast Asia. And why? 

The popular song "Galveston" of 1969 started out as a pretty direct protest song. It should have stayed that way. 

Songwriter Jimmy Webb, he of "MacArthur Park" fame and others, was spot-on when first creating his lines of lyrics. Don Ho recorded the lyrics that way. It was a highly commendable thing that the Hawaiian did. 

I remember Ho's TV show during his prime, each episode starting with an American tourist family introducing themselves with the spectacular beach in the background. I'm reminded of the "wish you were here" postcards. (A friend and I once joked that New Effington SD should have a postcard like that!) 

Ho's version of "Galveston" was slower. It promoted more contemplation. It really sounded beautiful. But it was Glen Campbell who seized the song and sent it into the pop stratosphere. He had quite the innate talent for that. Don't see why he needed to be married four times or to cut three of his biological children out of his will. His musical gift was enormous. 

The song "hook" for "Galveston" is really just the song title itself. It resonates with such a sense of reach. 

I can think of Galveston TX today because of news of another big hurricane approaching the Gulf coast. Galveston was struck by a hurricane out of hell in 1900. Speaking of hell, there was Vietnam in 1969. I was too young to fear the draft: age 14. My Minnesota Twins were winning the West Division of the American League in the first year of the divisional alignment. I could enjoy such things, free of draft anxiety. And surely the U.S. would be done with its war business by the time I'd be draft-eligible. 

I could follow the Vietnam war sort of in the abstract, nothing that would suck me in, most likely, and it was ditto for older chest-thumping men who might intone "America, love it or leave it." 

The war was part of a strange dichotomy. Our pop culture was delivering such joyful things for us to consume, like the Don Knotts movies. Such innocence and fun. My late father was a huge fan of the "Reluctant Astronaut" movie. My dad served in World War II. He never had anything favorable to say about Vietnam, I can attest. He may have seemed ambivalent for a time. Eventually he'd drop the remark "that war is a bad deal." 

Dad taught at an institution of higher education where young men went to get their deferments. I guess Dick Cheney was quite the fan of deferments. And Donald Trump had his little "bone spur" issue. I guess he can't remember what foot. 

Have we forgotten those times? Just as hurricanes re-visit the Gulf coast, the U.S. can have renewed nightmares with ill-fated military adventures. A huge problem is the knee-jerk way in which a certain high percentage of Americans feel they have to thump chests, to "defend freedom" and the like. Which is all well and good, I mean the belief in freedom, as long as enough American have access to a life free of hardship. 

(vinylminerecords image)

So Glen Campbell in 1969 with his tremendous entertainment savvy did not want to go with Jimmy Webb's original conception of the song. I find that historical accounts try to be generous with Campbell. And with Webb, who acquiesced to changes that at least watered down the song's original message. I have read accounts that say the changes just made the message "neutral." The accounts imply that the mere longing for home and fear of death promoted war skepticism. Well I'd politely say balderdash. 

It is an absolute given that men in war miss home and fear death. This applies to the most defensible of wars like WWII. "Galveston" went from a restless statement type of song to garden variety about men's emotions in war. Even in 1969, I guess, Americans were not ready to appreciate a stinging assessment. 

 

Numbers had gravity

How many U.S. soldiers died in 'Nam in 1969? The number is 11,780. This was down from the peak of 16,899 in 1968. In '68 I observed the Detroit Tigers win the American League pennant and the World Series over the Cardinals. How blessed I was to have my priorities organized in such a way. 

War protests accelerated here in the spring of 1969. Our troop strength in 'Nam reached its peak at nearly 550,000 men. I imagine the female involvement was token. I guess we can blame men for all the great wars. Women are programmed for nurturing. Men seek to dominate and kill. 

We have evolved quite a bit from that. Not enough, perhaps, as our exit from the 20-year quagmire of Afghanistan illustrates now. Some pundits were quick to say "don't compare this to Vietnam." Well, why not? It appears exactly the same. After Vietnam we went through the malaise decade of the 1970s. So, what awaits the U.S. now? Remember "Studio 54?" 

Webb wrote "Galveston" to evoke an image of a soldier separated from his significant other. Originally the lyrics had the man put down his gun when memories of his flame overwhelm him. The focus was on the fears and struggles of young servicemen. Is this really so original? Hasn't this ground been pretty well trampled? I mean, "Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me" (Andrews Sisters). 

Don Ho rendered the song with Webb's original imagery and message. Campbell intervened and went to a patriotic feel. We learn that "In Campbell's version, the song found the same soldier proudly protecting his girlfriend's freedom." Pop music historians refrain from calling this a sellout, strangely. It is a sellout. 

No one suggests that freedom is a bad thing. But "fighting for freedom" can be co-opted by the jingoistic mindset. And that appears to be exactly what happened. Just because the guy finds war to be a bummer, doesn't automatically imply that this is an anti-war song. Of course war is a bummer. And WWII was not "the good war" - necessary perhaps but not good. 

The chest-thumpers always create a smokescreen. Maybe it's just the macho impulse that remains in most men. Consider the sheriff character in the idiosyncratic Clint Eastwood movie "Bronco Billy." 

The soldier in Glen Campbell's "Galveston" does not "put down his gun," rather he cleans it while using memories of home as motivation to remain brave. Hey, it actually sucks. (I smile as I remember the episode of TV's "F-Troop" called "Polish the Cannon.") 

And Webb became a sellout. After Campbell's expedient tinkering, which would have offended me if I'd been the songwriter, Webb put his imprimatur on it. Well, they all took it to the bank. 

Meanwhile, I smile as I weigh my own theory, that people loved the song "Galveston" just because it sounded so good - the music - the rousing feel when he just sang "Galveston, oh Galveston." 

 

How about New Effington?

Glen Campbell had a run of spectacular song hits that had a quite consistent thread: Here's a man thinking about a woman who is not near him at the moment - he pines or obsesses, sometimes convinced that she is thinking the same thoughts about him. I wouldn't be so sure of that. And often the songs are built around a place name: "Phoenix, Wichita, Galveston." So you might call it a "formula." It sure worked. 

I just wish the Don Ho version of "Galveston" had vaulted to the top of the charts. Even in 1969, too many artists were "chicken" about being truly anti-war. The TV series "Star Trek" had "subtle" anti-war messages. Oh, it had to be "subtle." And Martin Luther King Jr. was considered subversive for being ahead of the crowd seeing the war for what it was. So very strange. We are so human an animal.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com