My Favorite Version: Wichita Lineman - The Clouds (Official) - YouTube
The thread title caught my eye.
I am re-reading and highly recommend the book “The Wichita Lineman” by Dylan Jones, a decorated British writer, editor and publisher.
Subtitled “Searching in the sun for the world’s greatest unfinished song”, the book was published in 2019.
It’s about the song itself, the songwriter Jimmy Webb, singer Glen Campbell and myriad other things regarding the times, and the lives and places of the principals involved.
As well as Campbell, I’ve long been a fan of Jimmy Webb. I’ve learned over the years that several of his best works were spawned by the same love affair.
Where’s the Playground Susie?, MacArthur Park, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Didn’t We?, The Worst that Could Happen, By the Time I Get to Phoenix (and maybe a couple I’m forgetting) were inspired by the breakup of his relationship with a woman named Susan Horton, who worked across the street from MacArthur Park in LA. I believe Webb has used the word “horrific” to describe the affair.
Getting back to Lineman, Webb feels the song is flawed in part by his confusion (or ignorance) regarding a telephone lineman versus an electrical lineman. Also, for some reason, it now bothers him that he rhymed ‘line’ and ‘time’. And (as mentioned by someone above) he never finished the song. Glen Campbell’s solo with a borrowed bass guitar fills in where the third verse should be.
And finally, a teaser from the book: Charles Manson (and family) make an appearance.
I’ve always found the song to be more wistful than sad and have always wished the Glen Campbell version wasn’t so overloaded with those overblown strings. The juxtaposition of simple guitar and vocals with those Mantovani level strings is not aging well.
Don’t they always???
Reminds me of the Christmas Eve at my grandma’s house one year, when the power went out. A utility worker came out and fixed it, despite the day. We, of course, invited him in to the party, but he declined. Probably he did have his own loved ones he was eager to get home to.
The best Jimmy Webb song you never heard:
Webb says he gets some strange questions. Regarding ‘he’s still on the line’, a woman asked him “but why did he have to die up there?”
I was watching a Glenn Campbell live version…at the end, he sings “And I’m doing fine.” NO. Just…NO!
Jimmy Webb tunes others may not know:
Jimmy Webb: Marionette (Art Garfunkel)
I’m a big fan of Jimmy Webb songs, but Wichita Lineman seems unlikely to be a documentary.
Beside the oddity of a telephone lineman searching for an overload, it’s pretty uncommon for them to be employed by the county. There are and were some municipal electric utilities, and of course there are many rural electric and telephone cooperatives—but I’ve never known a county to play a role in any of those.
Colin Hay, once of Men At Work, put out an album of excellent covers a few weeks ago.
At home during quarantine in early 2021, he read that Gerry Marsden had died and found himself strumming the Gerry and the Pacemakers ’ Merseybeat hit, “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying.” He decided to turn on the tape machines and share with his frequent collaborator/ producer, Chad Fischer , who asked for more of the same.
It includes a pretty tasty version of Wichita Lineman.
Maybe he’d just traveled through the panhandle? According to the Wikipedia article, he was in Washita County, which is in western OK, though not in the panhandle. Washita does sound a lot like Wichita, and I can see why he’d choose a place name more people would recognize.
That line seems crucial to your interpretation (dedicated worker performing vital task at major personal cost, and feeling quietly proud). I can’t say you’re wrong, although I disagree.
The line “The Wichita lineman is still on the line” seems to intentionally have multiple meanings. The ones I see are:
1: I’m being truthful, “laying it on the line” about needing you.
2: I’m still on the line with you. (This one ties into Webb’s story of a seeing a lineman talking on a spliced-in phone, although I’ve always taken the lyrics about hearing her thru the wires as non-literal.)
3: He’s still out on the job, sort of “fighting on the frontline.”
I lean toward Meaning #1 — he means what he’s saying — but if you favor Meaning #3, that’s cool. I don’t attach special significance to the lines you quoted being repeated. The song is short, and those lyrics are striking, so they serve as as part of the main hook.
The song could have ended by repeating the “I hear you singing in the wires” lines, but the declaration of eternal love is stronger.
Great song. My siblings and I will always mention that our maternal grandfather was a Wichita lineman.
Is that like Johnny Cash trying – and, as we now know, failing – to “walk the line”?