![]() ![]() Webb was surprised to learn that Campbell had recorded the song: "A couple of weeks later I ran into somewhere and I said, 'I guess you guys didn't like the song.' 'Oh, we cut that,' he said. Similarly, he employs a repeating, monotonic ' Morse code' keyboard/flute motif to mimic the electronic sounds a lineman might hear through a telephone earpiece attached to a long stretch of 'raw' telephone or telegraph line that is, without typical line equalization and filtering: "I can hear you through the whine." Īll the orchestral arrangements are by De Lory, who evokes the phrase "singing in the wire" using high-pitched, ethereal violins to emulate the sonic vibrations commonly induced by wind blowing across small wires and conductors, making them whistle or resonate like an aeolian harp. A second six-note bass lick improvised by Kaye was copied for strings by De Lory and used as a fill between the two rhyming couplets of each verse. One of them, bassist Carol Kaye, contributed the descending six-note intro. Webb's concerns over his song's shortcomings were addressed in the recording studio by adding a tremolo-infused Dano bass melodic interlude performed by Campbell, who had first made his reputation in the music industry as a session guitarist with the prolific but uncredited group of Los Angeles backing musicians known today as the Wrecking Crew, many of whom played on the recording. His uncle had been a lineman in Kern County, California: "I could visualize my uncle up a pole in the middle of nowhere. ![]() because I was homesick." De Lory similarly found inspiration in the opening line. "When I heard it I cried," Campbell said, ". Within hours of Campbell's request, Webb delivered a demo that he regarded and labelled as an unfinished version of the song, warning producer/arranger Al De Lory that he had not completed a third verse or a bridge. Despite its real-life roots lying elsewhere, Webb set his song in Wichita, Kansas. Webb "put himself atop that pole" with the phone in his hand as he imagined the lineman talking to his girlfriend. 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 a handset. Webb wrote "Wichita Lineman" in response to an urgent phone call from Campbell for a "place" or "geographical" song to follow up " By the Time I Get to Phoenix". Widely covered by other artists, it has been described as "the first existential country song." Background and content " Wichita Lineman" is a 1968 song written by Jimmy Webb for American country music artist Glen Campbell, who recorded it backed by members of the Wrecking Crew. ![]()
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