Some covers are more equal than others. Good, Better, Best looks at three covers and decides who takes home the gold, the silver, and the bronze.
In terms of commercial metrics, like the number of plays on US radio, or the number of cover versions released, John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind” is massively popular and always has been since its 1967 debut. And yes, the most successful version of Hartford’s hit is a cover: namely Glen Campbell’s arrangement, which he recorded with the Wrecking Crew in LA within months of Hartford’s original release.
Both Hartford’s version and Campbell’s version earned Grammys (in different categories) in 1968. Every subsequent cover of “Gentle on My Mind”–and there are several hundreds of them–is most likely a take on Campbell’s version. Hartford didn’t seem to have a problem with Campbell stealing his thunder–see this video in which the two artists perform “Gentle on My Mind” together on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour TV show. Both artists revisited the song multiple times through the decades to come; the best of these may be this one, in which Hartford convenes a few bluegrass and country music legends to pick and grin on it.
The song’s chances of success must have seemed thin in 1967 when Hartford first shopped it around. “It violates all the principles of songwriting,” Hartford told an interviewer in 1987. “It’s a banjo tune, it has no chorus. It has a lot of words so that it’s hard to sing.” Indeed, it’s too bare-bones, musically, to amount to much. There’s no chorus, no bridge, no catchy instrumental riff. Second, the song doesn’t slot into any particular genre–it’s not quite bluegrass, country, folk-rock, or pop–it’s all of the above and therefore none of them. Finally, Hartford breaks basic lyric-writing rules (and he breaks them beautifully). His verses are long-winded; his rhyme scheme is offbeat. He crams in janky words and phrases that are difficult to sing. Lines like “I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin’ cracklin’ cauldron in some train yard” would have most vocalists calling for a rewrite. But this free-spirited prose poem is deeply American in the Walt Whitman/Jack Kerouac tradition, as is fitting for a song of the open road, a song of freedom. The song that shouldn’t work at all works perfectly.
If traveling the backroads and riding the rails and hanging out in hobo camps is the life, why is the song’s narrator always thinking of one special person back home? Who is the person whose door is always open and who is ever in his thoughts? Hartford himself never committed to one definitive interpretation of the song. He admitted that if he had been trying to write a hit song, he would have written it differently.
Hartford also revealed that this quintessentially American song was actually inspired by Doctor Zhivago, the epic Russian novel (and 1965 David Lean film) about the Bolshevik Revolution. And with that, comrades, it’s time to look at three interpretations of this undyingly popular song…
The Proclaimers–”Gentle on My Mind” (John Hartford/Glen Campbell cover)
If a more energetic and shouty cover of this gentle song exists, I missed it. But those brotherly harmonies make this uptempo rendition come across as artful, not merely overheated. The Proclaimers come in hot, but they do quiet down for the third verse, delivering a welcome moment of tenderness and reflection after all. But when the band surges back in, it does so with a vengeance–and a big honking sax solo. An exuberant and imaginative recasting of a song that is too often treated too gently.
Molly Tuttle–”Gentle on My Mind” (John Hartford/Glen Campbell cover)
Molly Tuttle was a relative unknown of 22 when this performance was captured in 2015. Interesting to see the YouTube commenters back then predict she’d go places–they called it. By the time Tuttle turned 30 she had won all the major awards in the Bluegrass category for her singing, for her songwriting, and for her guitar picking. Her only rival for the Best Americana Musician of her Generation is her frequent collaborator Billy Strings. (Both artists have gradually expanded well beyond the bluegrass and country circles they started in; they continue Hartford’s project of blending bluegrass with other forms and infusing new ideas into the acoustic roots tradition).
Speaking of collaborators, her bandmates in this video are top-notch. Missy Raines is one of the most sought-after bassists on the Americana circuit (she is not recorded well in this particular clip). Banjoist Wes Corbett plays in Sam Bush’s band (Bush recorded and performed with John Hartford as they pioneered the “progressive bluegrass” movement in the early 70s). Multi-instrumentalist John Mailander has recorded with Tuttle, Billy Strings, and other heavy-weights, and currently plays in Bruce Hornsby’s band.
Robert Ellis & Courtney Hartman–”Gentle on My Mind” (John Hartford/Glen Campbell cover)
Once in a while it’s a modest and moderate adaptation that wins the day. Robert Ellis and Courtney Hartman are not out to win points for innovation or displays of virtuosity with their remake. The duo’s guitar playing is loose and elegant–two acoustic guitars locked in an rich but unhurried conversation. Their voices blend together (and veer apart) as they negotiate the gentle curves of the ballad. The overall vibe feels spontaneous, practiced but not polished to excess. In a word, it’s honest. This quietly graceful piece is a highlight on their 2017 Dear John album, a 10-song tribute to Hartford’s wide-ranging songwriting talent. If I meet someone who has missed out on “Gentle on My Mind,” I just might start them here with the Ellis/Hartman version.
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Bestest?
Collin Raye with Rick Scaggs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BID6ePXci_g
Just cuz it’s Glen’s and my Dad loved him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGX3dR2Dnp8
Lou Rawls. Seriously.