Near the end of Adiós, the last studio album Glen Campbell ever made, there is a song called “Postcard from Paris.” Ashley, Shannon and Cal Campbell join their father on one line: “I wish you were here.” The song had first come out 27 years earlier, sung by John Denver.
A Lonely Letter Home
Jimmy Webb, the man behind “Wichita Lineman” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” wrote “Postcard from Paris” as a traveler’s letter to someone he left behind. The narrator climbs the Spanish Steps in Rome and finds the old city has lost its shine. In Paris he climbs the Eiffel Tower and prays at Notre Dame, but the romance never comes. Even the couples walking the Champs-Élysées seem to see what is wrong with him.
The last stop is London, in the rain. He writes from a plane bound for New York, sipping cheap champagne, wondering how two people drifted so far apart. He promises he will never leave her alone again. Every chorus comes back to the same four words: wish you were here.
John Denver’s 1990 Recording
John Denver was the first to release it. “Postcard from Paris” appeared in September 1990 on The Flower That Shattered the Stone, an album he co-produced with Roger Nichols for his own Windstar label. On some pressings the song is listed as “Wish You Were Here (Postcard du Paris).”
It was an album track, not a radio hit. Webb recorded his own version three years later for his 1993 album Suspending Disbelief, produced by Linda Ronstadt and George Massenburg. Time magazine described the song as “a renewal of devotion via long distance.”
Glen Campbell’s Song
Glen Campbell had been singing Jimmy Webb songs since 1967, and he never let go of this one. He recorded it for See You There, an album built from vocals cut around the time of his 2011 record Ghost on the Canvas and released in 2013. His daughter Ashley later called it one of her dad’s favorite Jimmy Webb songs.
Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011 and spent 2011 and 2012 on a farewell run of shows known as the Goodbye Tour. When the tour ended in late 2012, his wife Kim, his family and his old friend Carl Jackson decided to get him into the studio one more time, while he could still play and sing.
Line by Line in Nashville
The sessions took place at Station West in Nashville between November 2012 and January 2013. Jackson had joined Campbell’s band as an 18-year-old banjo player in 1972 and later became Ashley’s godfather. Now he produced the record, played guitar and cut rough tracks for Campbell to practice with.
The lyrics were the hard part. Jackson printed them in large type and stood with Campbell in the vocal booth, going through each song one line at a time. What Campbell had not lost, Jackson said, was the music itself.
He “didn’t lose his melodies, and that beautiful perfect pitch and tone.” — Carl Jackson
“Postcard from Paris” made the final track list. On this version, Ashley, Shannon and Cal sing “I wish you were here,” the line a lonely traveler once wrote on a postcard home, now sung by his own children.
Adiós
Adiós was released on June 9, 2017, with four Jimmy Webb songs on it, including the title track. Glen Campbell died on August 8, 2017, nearly two months later.
The song John Denver had introduced in 1990 ended up as part of Glen Campbell’s goodbye.