Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell 1968 (strings and horns)

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 19:00:42 +0000

The 1968 hit by Glen Campbell (written by Jimmy Webb) entitled "Wichita Lineman" there's no T in the wich portion
The story behind this beauty:
"Jimmy Webb wrote "Wichita Lineman" in response to Campbell's urgent phone request for a "place"-based or "geographical" song to follow up "By the Time I Get to Phoenix". His lyrical inspiration came while driving through the high plains of the Oklahoma panhandle past a long line of telephone poles, on one of which perched a lineman speaking into his handset. Webb "put himself atop that pole" with the phone in his hand as he imagined the lineman talking to his girlfriend. Despite its real-life roots lying elsewhere, Webb set his song in Wichita, Kansas.

Within hours of Campbell's plea from the recording studio, Webb delivered a demo that he regarded and labeled as an unfinished version of the song, warning producer/arranger Al De Lory that he had not completed a third verse or a bridge. "When I heard it I cried," Campbell said, "... because I was homesick." De Lory similarly found inspiration in the opening line. His uncle had been a lineman in Kern County, California: "I could visualize my uncle up a pole in the middle of nowhere. I loved the song right away."