Like a Rhinestone Cowboy

As a young kid, we didn’t have smartphones that played our favorite music, nor Apple AirPods or wireless headphones. We had nothing like that. In fact, my music choices were rather limited. I had to listen to whatever my mom had on the radio, when we went for a drive, or the singers and musicians who appeared on the 1970s variety shows that seemed to dot the Prime-Time Television landscape.

Oh sure, my brothers had an old record player that they occasionally played and would later have eight-track players, but when I was an elementary school-aged kid, my choices were slim pickings. To make matters worse, most of what I heard I didn’t understand. The songs talked of broken love and rundown trucks and grooving and swaying to the music.

One day out of nowhere, though, the radio DJ played a song that talked about cowboys. I loved cowboys and dreamed of having my own horse and riding through the country, especially when my mother yelled for me to come inside to eat and get a bath. The cowboys I saw on TV never had to worry about getting yelled at by their mothers. I was hooked. I had a new favorite song.

Now, I had no idea what a Rhinestone Cowboy was, I couldn’t have picked out a Rhinestone from a Ruby from a Diamond, but I figured it couldn’t be all that bad.

Falling in love with a song

Despite it all, I fell in love with Glen Campbell’s 1975 hit song Rhinestone Cowboy. I remember running around our house singing “like a Rhinestone cowboy” on a rotating loop. I mumbled the next few lines, because I couldn’t remember the words, but the rhyming and rolling nature of the song drew me in to the story.

Yes, I had to be the most annoying kid in the world, but that didn’t stop me.

“There’s been a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me.

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers comin’ over the phone.”

The song caught on with both country and pop audiences and spent the summer of ’75 climbing the charts. Billboard ranked it as the number 2 for the year. It also topped the charts in Canada and several other countries.

In my house, though, the song had definitely run its course. My brothers threatened to punch me if I kept it up. They were tired of my constant blather. Fortunately for my own health, I got the message to stop bothering them.

Image by Pexels.

Seeing where the interest goes

My parents listened to lots of twangy country music, which I absolutely hated, but a few months later my middle brother played The Bay City Rollers on his record player and it sounded pretty good. I had no money to buy records, I was still rather young, but I remember thinking that S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night! S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night! S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night sounded pretty fun.

I came to like Bye, bye, baby too, but since it was his record and his record player, I only got to listen to it, when he felt in the mood. Oh the joys of music.

I can’t say that I’ve listened to Glen Campbell or the Bay City Rollers in a long time. As I got older, my musical tastes have gone in different, more refined directions, if I do say so myself, but I’m still grateful that they introduced me to a whole new world. Now if only I had some Glen Campbell or Bay City Rollers merchandise from back in the day, now we would be talking!

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This is the fourth in a series this week on the ways music touches our lives. Let me know the first record or single that you liked and what you think of the series.