Jimmy Webb's Immortal "Wichita Lineman"

but i agree...they're the same song!

wichita lineman is the better of the two though. in fact, its the best song ever (apart from ooh i like it)

Urge O. was a pretty good cover band. Their version of "Emmaline" by Hot Chocolate is also nifty.

One time at this pub where Finley Quaye was playing snooker I put Witchita Lineman on the juke to play 4 times in a row, thinking if he was down he would show some pleasure. Sad to say not a single person in the pub jumped for joy on hearing the song 4 times in a row.

Wichita Lineman is the greatest song ever made and here's why:

1. The descending base intro (played by Carole Bayer Sager apparently). Well, it's just perfect isn't it? a five note orgasm of the senses.

2. The imagery. there are only 37 different words in the whole of the song, Bob Dylan never created an image as evocative as this in his whole musical career of 3 and a half billion words.

3. The poetry of the thing. It's only possible comparison is Wordsworth's "Solitary reaper" for sheer poetic beauty.

4. Martin Carr from Boo radleys, Bill Drummond from KLF/K foundation and Bob Stanley from St ettienne (3 people with impeccible taste) all agree.

It's good to be back.hi everyone.

Destroy: Martin Carr

Yep, Jimmy is God, & this is one of his best.

-- kris england (jimmywebbisgo...) (webmail), January 17th, 2003 1:21 AM. (link)

5. the string surges and weird break-through notes on the organ that evoke a telegraph

5. the string surges and weird break-through notes on the organ that evoke a telegraph
Songs Featuring A Guitar Lick That Sounds Like A Signal Coming Down A Telegraph Wire

what's wichita line man about anyway?
I thought it was about the guy who climbs up the telephone poles and maintains or fixes those long distance lines- the irony being that he is facilitating everybody else's phone calls while he is stuck out there all by his lonesome unable to talk to the one he loves. Or maybe he fixed train lines, or maybe he fixed telephone lines that ran in parallel to train lines.

glen campbell's voice is
underrated for real though,
he nails that last note

53 by my count.

did you catch Belle and Sebastian's tip-of-the-hat in 'Photo Jenny'?

glen played his own bass on "wichita lineman."

also recommended: jimmy webb's own rendition on his solo Ten Easy Pieces album - the piano accentuates the song's hidden bill evans harmonies.

its genius. the 'I need you' is one of the single greatest lines in western art.

who produced it? its got this golden lustre to it

Campbells voice is under rated......he sings Galveston beautifully as well. Didnt he sing/play on some Beach Boys records?

campbell toured as a beach boy in '64/5 after brian dropped out of doing gigs. plays guitar on pet sounds, SMiLE passim, as well as being a spector/wall of sound regular.

brian wrote and produced glen's 1965 why-wasn't-it-a-hit "guess i'm dumb" single. glen is also the lead vocalist on "my world fell down" by sagittarius, which record had input from bruce johnstone and brian wilson (the sound FX in the middle section were originally intended for the "in the cantina" section of "heroes & villains").

Glan Campbell's Wichita Lineman - C/D?
"Wichita Lineman": C/D
Recommend more songs like "Wichita Lineman" please.

OTM. See also that record's version of "Galveston", which is even more of a revelation. Just try to ignore the cover snap with a barefoot Jimmy.

glen is also the lead vocalist on "my world fell down" by sagittarius, which record had input from bruce johnstone and brian wilson (the sound FX in the middle section were originally intended for the "in the cantina" section of "heroes & villains")

I believe that's a myth...

it is, isn't it? he didn't write it but i'm reasonably sure his was the first recording.

I just realized that Bobby Lyle's "Magic Carpet Ride", a rare-groove r&B song from the 70's, totally cops that part.

You must hear it if you are a fan of Johnny Cash or of the song. I'm just sayin.

Bullshit. Anyway, since you're so concerned with how many *different* words are in the song, how many *different* words do you think Dylan used? Probably not 3 and a half billion. "It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" (despite the long title) is approximately as laconic as this song and is at least as effective, as far as I'm concerned.

Campbell's version was pretty ubiquitous on even top 40 radio circa 1979.

To be honest, this line kind of bugs me. If he "needs" her more than "wants" her, then why in the very next line does he say "and I want you for all time" - there's the "want" again - didn't he just say he "needs" her more than "wants" her? - so why doesn't he say he "needs" her for all time? Because it would sound weird, I guess. How could you "need" someone for all time? But still, it's clumsy.

and you're seriously saying that a song needs to be specific to be good? because that would leave a lot of dylan, esp. 'visions of johanna,' right out on the doorstep.

i never said this was THE greatest song of all time. but it must be considered. 'visions' is good but not on the same level methinks.

xpost

I like "Galveston" almost as much. Campbell's vocal on "WL" is very subtle, actually, listen to the inflection on the word "still." That's great singing, it sounds so simple but it's not.

Many people complain about the Al De Lory strings on this song and others. I think "WL" just about defines good countrypolitan music, myself, it's incredibly listenable, smooth yet it's real. Glen's country--the way he says "want" as "wont." I have no trouble with anyone who says this is one the finest songs of all time, none at all.

I'm not, Amateur(ist) — it's crap. And believe me: I wanted to like that record more than you can possibly imagine. Or maybe you can.

are you supposed to revere something in an irreverent tone?

i do have a distaste for hyperbole. it's nice to read something like o. nate's post, then. since this board is so full of hyperbole.

hmmm...this is interesting, because webb has a problem with writing really abstract love lyrics with overly fussy metaphors. in fact i would even say that some of his lyrics verge on the sort of mushy pop-psychological stuff that really turns me off. (as in the "reunion" record which i can't dismiss so easily.)

i think it's this song's specificity, its occasional rendering of concrete detail, that lifts it above a lot of other webb compositions.

Yes.

OK, fine, but something typed in haste on a message board should necessarily be held to the same level of literary standards as a song, especially if it's claimed to be the greatest of all time.

Maybe the line means what people are saying it means: I x more than y, and I y a lot. But if so, this doesn't strike me as a particularly clever or poetic construction - it's almost childish, really. For a more grown-up, complex, and sexy take on the whole "need vs. want" thing, see Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold On Me".

That was a favorite theme of Motown and vintage R&B. See also Marvin Gaye's "Ain't that Peculiar" ("you do me wrong but still I'm crazy bout you"), Martha and the Vandellas' "Nowhere to Run" ("I know you're no good for me, but you've become a part of me").

As far as "need vs. want" - "You Really Got a Hold On Me" is a great song, especially in the Beatles version, but its razor's edge approach/avoid take on love is actually easier to pull off successfully than the infinite corridor of want that is evoked in "Wichita Lineman."

xpost

That is, I'm lonely and cold and I'm holding on alone here, doing all the work, but I'm still at it--because I need and want you so much, I have no choice but to keep working at the relationship.

i like this about the song.

That said, I agree with Kenny L that your arguments are good and your perspective is perfectly fine. I enjoy not-agreeing just as much as agreeing, provided that no one is an asshole about it.

I'm old enough to remember when the song was first out, I was a Glen Campbell fan as a tyke. I never understood what it was about at all for years, but I got it, he was lonely, driving the main road and searching in the sun for another overload, which is such a brilliant line.

Webb's songs are strange--I remember also being puzzled by this Fifth Dimension tune of his, "Carpet Man," I guess the guy was getting walked on or was walking on a woman, so to speak? It's really weird and if I hear it right there's a line "and then the coroner will have a dance on you."

It absolutely is. Webb was also going through a hideous and prolonged breakup around that time, which almost certainly contributed to the tone of the song, if not the metaphor itself.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1668844

turns out, he's quite dissatisfied with that "need you more than want you" chorus for a pretty funny reason (they start discussing it around the 7:00 minute mark if you want to skip ahead)

I guess this goes back to the essential ambiguity of the lyrics that I wrote about upthread. We don't really know what his relationship is to the person he's singing to. So you can read it this way if you want to - but for me to read it that way, I think I'd feel like I was basically rewriting the song in my own mind to conform to what I think the most engaging scenario would be. I like to be given a bit more to go on, I think.

Anyway, a related thought that occurred to me is that maybe this is one of those songs that is going to become a victim of the march of progress. I mean as we all live in an increasingly wireless and omni-connected cyber-verse - the thought of some guy being out there tending to these wires and not being able to connect himself may become an increasingly archaic metaphor. Future generations may not be able to understand why he doesn't just pick up his cell-phone and call her.

inasmuch as current generations can understand why paul revere had to ride a horse, i'm pretty sure future generations will be able to figure out what a telephone wire was.

Is my irony detector broken?

i'm having a bad typing day.

I'm pretty sure this guy is working on telephone lines if you read the lyrics.

She's left him, and he can't move on.

(Though I must confess that the first time I heard the song I probably thought it meant lineman as in football player, which would be quite different.)

And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line

Technically this is not correct - snow is not a problem for telephone (or power) lines - it's freezing rain that causes them to break.

- Dave Nicosia, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service Binghamton

xpost

Yes, I did. Hi, Polyphonic!

I don't tend to follow GW Bush's rhetorical methods if I can help it.

the other important thing to remember about "wichita lineman" was that it was intended to be a sequel to "by the time i get to phoenix."

I'm not, Amateur(ist) — it's crap. And believe me: I wanted to like that record more than you can possibly imagine. Or maybe you can.

Reunion is good, if you can get past the lyrics - they are a bit clumsy, but i think the melodies are glorious.

I like Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb, too.

yes. it is the essence of music itself.

I think that F6-9 is right for "Wichita," by the way--I've always played it in F major.

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9x_1Ri3XxE&feature=related

Worthy of note: It still pains Jimmy Webb to this day that he "falsely" rhymed time with line.

Heard him confess this on Fresh Air.

Jimmy Webb is a grumpy old man.

I just want to say the comment section in that Glen Campbell youtube link above is the greatest thing I have ever read in my entire life.

One of my favourite songs ever

'And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time'

The Urge Overkill version is worth a listen. MASSIVE open, alt- tuned chords.I just love the last eight bars. It finishes on one of those lovely suspended chords. If anybody knows the chord, please let me know!

The original is the best though. What a voice!

the reunion album is v. good

Somebody on my Facebook just shared a video of this song, seeing fit to add the caption "Bitches love a lineman!" to the post.

Really dumb but very touching misinterpretation of the song by its best interpreter at the end of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6J99mWFqMU&feature=related

Would love to see that version of "Daddy Sang Bass" in its entirety

no one mention freedy johnston's version yet?
pretty solid.

No, it was mentioned a few times.

One of the greatest songs ever.

Hell, even Kool & the Gang covered it on Live at the Sex Machine

This was so mindblowing to me when I found out about it. I mean what now?

Went on Spotify and didn't see Kool and the Gang version but did find one by Dennis Brown.

OK, got it thx.

We discussed the GC farewell tour a little on this thread Glen Campbell: Outlaw!

Obviously the best song ever written. Maria McKee does a particularly haunting version of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9x_1Ri3XxE

well shit

damn, Glen's people are fast!

Love this one. Looks like Glen is on some other planet with a 6-string bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU

(and one of my favorite covers of it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPGPDFHbVjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nFYK5IGDUY

i'm currently working out a cover of this for my cabaret project.

Love this one. Looks like Glen is on some other planet with a 6-string bass.

That's the Jaguar Baritone guitar.

Baritone guitar suggestions?

That's the Jaguar Baritone guitar.

Nope. It's a Bass VI - three pickups instead of the two on the Jag baritone. More to the point, Jag baritones weren't made until 2004.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Bass_VI ) - "Glen Campbell used a Fender Bass VI (borrowed from fellow Wrecking Crew musician Carol Kaye to play the solo heard on his songs "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston"."

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/01/behind-the-song-wichita-lineman/

“He and (producer) Al DeLory were obviously looking for a follow-up to ‘Phoenix.’ And I remember writing ‘Wichita Lineman’ that afternoon. That was a song I absolutely wrote for Glen.”

It was the first time he had written a song expressly for another artist. But had he conceived any part of “Wichita” before that call?

“Not really,” Jimmy says. “I mean I had a lot of ‘prairie gothic’ images in my head. And I was writing about the common man, the blue-collar hero who gets caught up in the tides of war, as in ‘Galveston,’ or the guy who’s driving back to Oklahoma because he can’t afford a plane ticket (‘Phoenix’). So it was a character that I worked with in my head. And I had seen a lot of panoramas of highways and guys up on telephone wires … I didn’t want to write another song about a town, but something that would be in the ballpark for him.”

So even though it was written specifically for Glen, he still wanted it to be a ‘character’ song?

“Well, I didn’t want it to be about a rich guy!” he laughs. “I wanted it to be about an ordinary fellow. Billy Joel came pretty close one time when he said ‘Wichita Lineman’ is ‘a simple song about an ordinary man thinking extraordinary thoughts.’ That got to me; it actually brought tears to my eyes. I had never really told anybody how close to the truth that was.

“What I was really trying to say was, you can see someone working in construction or working in a field, a migrant worker or a truck driver, and you may think you know what’s going on inside him, but you don’t. You can’t assume that just because someone’s in a menial job that they don’t have dreams … or extraordinary concepts going around in their head, like ‘I need you more than want you; and I want you for all time.’ You can’t assume that a man isn’t a poet. And that’s really what the song is about.”

He wasn’t certain they would go for it. “In fact, I thought they hadn’t gone for it,” he says. “They kept calling me back every couple of hours and asking if it was finished. I really didn’t have the last verse written. And finally I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna send it over, and if you want me to finish it, I’ll finish it.’

“A few weeks later I was talking to Glen, and I said, ‘Well I guess Wichita Lineman didn’t make the cut.’ And Glen said, ‘Oh yeah! We recorded that!’ And I said, ‘Listen, I didn’t really think that song was finished …’ And he said, ‘Well it is now!’”

Stop killing my dreams man.

That is most likely the Bass VI heard all over Pet Sounds and Smile if that's Carole's.

Nope. She played a regular P-bass throughout the Wrecking Crew years - only real non-standardness being flat-wound strings and playing with a pick.

Does anyone have a Spotify J Webb performed by others playlist for the novice?

http://sadyoutube.com/post/49853194223/when-this-song-came-out-i-was-under-16
http://sadyoutube.com/post/54486028048/everytime-i-hear-this-song-i-remember-going-out
http://sadyoutube.com/post/52276658436/this-song-makes-me-cry-my-dad-was-a-truck

Nope. She played a regular P-bass throughout the Wrecking Crew years - only real non-standardness being flat-wound strings and playing with a pick.

The lyrical interpretation earlier in this thread was pretty eye-opening; I always figured "And if it snows that that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain" meant "If she freezes me out, these blue balls are gonna kill me."

some weapons-grade challopery up in this thread

The version he did on Jools in 2008 was pretty amazing. Stay for the "fine" at the very end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMFOnpT9RkQ

Glen Campbell still a pretty damn good guitar player at age 72 in that clip. Lot of guys in a group setting like that would have just sang the tune and left someone in the ensemble to do all of those fills from the original arrangement.

OTM. Was just telling James Redd, Sr. something to that effect.

that's great, as is the weird Forbidden Planet alien world studio one.

That Simpsons bit where Homer's going through his records with the implication that they're terrible and Glen Campbell is one of them bothers me beyond reason.

http://sadyoutube.com/post/52276658436/this-song-makes-me-cry-my-dad-was-a-truck

I am never clicking through to read this, because "My dad was a truck" is perfect enough without seeing the rest of the sentence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM6tER2llgU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZascMOE42Tw

http://sadyoutube.com/post/52276658436/this-song-makes-me-cry-my-dad-was-a-truck

people on this thread dissing Reunion.... my god. you sick people. was super happy to tell Webb how much i loved it when i caught him live.

Crazy. That album's great but I wish they hadn't done that Lowell George song. He's got a habit of doing pointless covers though, like the crap Beatles cover on "The Magic Garden".