Wichita Lineman

About

Glen Campbell said that the first time he heard Jimmy Webb’s demo for “Wichita Lineman,” he wept. He could see it so clearly: a solitary figure at the top of a telephone pole, working, dreaming—at once a picture of loneliness and stoic self-reliance, the man who belongs to no one. Campbell had originally asked for something like 1967’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” What Webb delivered, though, not only framed the convergence of pop, country, and jazz, but it also helped open a particularly American feeling that defined ballads in the ’70s: hazy, romantic, gentle but existentially troubled—a song cowboys could feel without knowing how to sing. Alongside Bobbie Gentry’s <i>Ode to Billie Joe</i> and Johnny Cash’s <i>At San Quentin (Live)</i>, <i>Wichita Lineman</i> is one of the first albums to find its way to the top of both the pop and country charts at the same time. But whereas a performer like Cash staked out space for country on its own, Campbell blends it with cabaret pop (Jacques Brel’s “If You Go Away,” “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife”), soul (“[Sittin’ On] The Dock of the Bay”), and singer-songwriter folk (“Reason to Believe”) as though home is wherever he goe. (Remember that he’d played bass for The Beach Boys on a 1964 tour and had even been asked to join as a permanent member.) .

via Apple Music

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