Jimmy Webb's Immortal "Wichita Lineman"

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Yeah, I figured that was the line but I always liked "coroner" so much I wanted it to be so. Webb's poetics kinda failed him there I think but it's still a cool song.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:16 (nineteen years ago) link

anyway i honestly loved this song without thinking about the lyrics much at all--i just got enough of them to paint a general picture of a guy working, missing his girl. or even less than that: whatever i gleaned from the lyrics was enough to confirm and enhance the powerful mood set by the melody and peculiar arrangement.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:23 (nineteen years ago) link

the metaphor about connections doesn't really hit me emotionally, you know. it's not really part of my investment in the song, although i can recognize its poignancy intellectually.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link

I interpret this song very differently, o. nate. I think their relationship is NOT very happy, that maybe there isn't even a relationship at all, and I think his admission about needing her more than wanting her does not slot in very nicely with the rest of it. For me, the tension lies not just in the suspended chords but in how he's out working all the time, connecting other people when there's obviously some kind of bad connection in his own life. I think it's a very sad song.

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.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:56 (nineteen years ago) link

he went through that breakup for like six years!

― Haibun (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 20:59 (nineteen years ago) link

he talks about the song on the Fresh Air interview from last year:

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)

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:15 (nineteen years ago) link

I think their relationship is NOT very happy, that maybe there isn't even a relationship at all, and I think his admission about needing her more than wanting her does not slot in very nicely with the rest of it

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.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:26 (nineteen years ago) link

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.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:38 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost:
Or just plug his yellow phone-company-issue repairman's receiver right into the line and call her up on Ma Bell's dime. Even prior generations might ask that!

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:38 (nineteen years ago) link

but but but ... isn't it possible that the fact he can her singin' through the wire means she's actually ON THE PHONE ... with someone else ... and maybe he can't call her even if he wants to 'cause the line would be busy?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:41 (nineteen years ago) link

maybe he just misses her company!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:41 (nineteen years ago) link

(xpost to meself)
he can HEAR her, that is.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:41 (nineteen years ago) link

So he's tapping her line? I hadn't thought of that possibility. Maybe she's having an affair and he's eavesdropping on her calls, and that's why he won't go home?

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:49 (nineteen years ago) link

And when he says (charmingly referring to himself in the third person) that "the Wichita lineman is still on the line" - that means that she is talking to her secret lover and doesn't realize her cuckolded hubby is still listening in! It's all starting to make sense now.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:51 (nineteen years ago) link

But a lineman doesn't work on telephone lines, he drives a truck.

Is my irony detector broken?

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link

(x-post)
um, no, that's not what i was saying, but that's an interesting alternate take! i was thinking of it in a more romantic and sad way. maybe he can't physically HEAR her, but he can sense her voice, hear it through the whine of telephone, feel its presence, just kind of know it's there.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link

...the whine of the WIRES...

i'm having a bad typing day.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:58 (nineteen years ago) link

The "wichita lineman" is the guy who drives the truck on the wichita line, like, to wichita.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:59 (nineteen years ago) link

But a lineman doesn't work on telephone lines, he drives a truck.

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

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 21:59 (nineteen years ago) link

The wire you're talking about is a CB radio.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Main Entry: line·man
Pronunciation: 'lIn-m&n
Function: noun
1 : one who sets up or repairs electric wire communication or power lines -- called also linesman

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Hmm, I stand corrected.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Hanging on the line: that is, out to dry.

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.)

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Hmm, I completely misinterpreted that song.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:04 (nineteen years ago) link

polyphonic is right, of course. There's nothing in the lyrics to suggest he's a telephone worker!

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road
Searchin' in the sun for another overload
I hear you singing in the wires I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line

I know I need a small vacation but it don't look like rain
And if it snows that that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain
And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line

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

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:09 (nineteen years ago) link

And if it snows that that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain

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

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:12 (nineteen years ago) link

still, you would never say "won't stand the strain" about snow on a road.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:14 (nineteen years ago) link

When one thinks of winter, snow is often the first thing that comes to mind. But, precipitation in winter can often take on different forms to include sleet, freezing rain and even just plain rain. When the temperature is below freezing and rain falls, the raindrops freeze on contact with every object forming a glaze of ice. This is known as freezing rain. After the ice builds up enough, it can weight down objects like trees and power lines. In extreme instances, the ice can build up enough to cause trees and power lines to fall.

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

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:15 (nineteen years ago) link

choose a side and stick to it you guys.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:16 (nineteen years ago) link

hey nate o, you used to post on pfm smackdown back in 2001, correct?

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:17 (nineteen years ago) link

No, I agree it's supposed to be about telephone lines. I'm just being a smart ass.

xpost

Yes, I did. Hi, Polyphonic!

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

choose a side and stick to it you guys.

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

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

now watch this drive...

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:19 (nineteen years ago) link

*ignores stream of tedious, pedantic, killjoy trolling posts*

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."

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 20 January 2005 08:20 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm trying to decide what i think of the webb/campbell album "reunion" (1974) right now

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.

― debden, Thursday, 20 January 2005 10:26 (nineteen years ago) link

two months pass...

Yes great, never realised there were 37 different words to the song - amazing

― mentalist (mentalist), Friday, 8 April 2005 09:38 (nineteen years ago) link

53 of course

― mentalist (mentalist), Friday, 8 April 2005 09:39 (nineteen years ago) link

By the way if, by any chance, you wanna learn how to play this song on guitar and then try to find out the chords on the interweb, there's always one chord they get wrong - but which I sat down and worked out one day, I don't know what you call it but it's perfect

― Dadrock, Meshach and Abednego (Dada), Friday, 8 April 2005 09:44 (nineteen years ago) link

am i the only one who thinks the Justus Kohncke cover is pretty wank?

― $V£N! (blueski), Friday, 8 April 2005 09:45 (nineteen years ago) link

My ex brother-in-law used to call this song, "Widget Alignment", which I used to tickle my funny bone a tad

― Dadrock, Meshach and Abednego (Dada), Friday, 8 April 2005 09:47 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

That "telegraph" riff at the end of the chorus sounds so familiar...what other well-known song is it used in? "Nights in White Satin"? "You Keep Me Hanging On"? (the Vanilla Fudge version??) Help a brother out.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Friday, 5 August 2005 02:22 (eighteen years ago) link

If you mean the rhythmic octavey bit on the guitar, a more or less identical riff is used in YKMHO (Supremes version - can't remember hearing the Vanilla Fudge version) and Starman by Bowie. Not sure which came first, always imagined it was The Supremes but could be wrong.

― frankiemachine, Friday, 5 August 2005 09:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Supremes '66, V Fudge '67, Wichita '69, Starman '72.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 5 August 2005 09:56 (eighteen years ago) link

I used to play in a band that covered this, and we'd have dueling guitars on the outro a la Lloyd/Verlaine.
We only played it like that once or twice, but there was always someone in the audience who would freak over it.
One of the best songs ever written, no doubt.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Am I crazy that I don't see what's so great about this song? I always find the chorus really clunky "The Witchita lineman is still on the line." It sounds like a rejected ad campaign slogan or something.

I like Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb, too.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 5 August 2005 14:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Am I crazy that I don't see what's so great about this song

yes. it is the essence of music itself.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 5 August 2005 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link

three months pass...

― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 16:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Possibly F6(9) right before "But it don't look like rain"?

― everything, Wednesday, 30 November 2005 17:01 (eighteen years ago) link

I think that's it except we played it in G - all it is holding all the strings down at the G fret with one finger, an open chord I believe it's called

― Oh No, It's Dadaismus (and His Endless Stupid Jokes) (Dada), Thursday, 1 December 2005 13:26 (eighteen years ago) link

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