Jimmy Webb's Immortal "Wichita Lineman"

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.

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".