Song 683: This week on the playlist you’ll find By The Time I Get To Phoenix by Glen Campbell, written by Jimmy Webb, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this entertaining GC excursion started coming across the airwaves near the end of the summer of 1967, just before my HS junior year, I had been scratching my head about the new psychedelic direction that the Fab Four and some others had started heading towards, and so I had a better initial reaction to the more conventional tones that came along from certain sources. I had gotten roped in by Mr. Campbell's lifts - particularly Gentle on My Mind (Song 368), and this followup sounded like another good trip to take. I have a vague memory of hearing the tune, probably from a transistor radio, while outdoors with my mother, and it brought a smile to her face. My parents and grandparents despised the devil's music and some of the rougher sounds that came from the radio might trigger strongly-negative reactions, but sometimes a gentler feel would get a favorable response, which might surprise me but then would make it easier for me to hear the song another time. By the time I actually did get to Phoenix, I had almost reached the end of my twenties, and that made me appreciate the sunshine there and the remarkable views even more than I might have a decade earlier.
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