Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman struck a chord with artists who performed it - from Frank Sinatra and James Taylor to REM and The Stone Temple Pilots.
But he didn't quite have enough songs. And I want you for all time I can hear you through the whine
Or so he thought.
"I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, 'Look there's this great soul, and there's this great aching, and this great loneliness inside this person and we're all like that,'" Webb said. [Outro] Sinatra called it “the greatest torch song ever written.” And Francis Albert knew from torch. And the Wichita lineman
[Guitar solo] And the Wichita lineman For another overload "He was gone very quickly, and I had another 25 miles of solitude to meditate on this apparition. Won't never stand the strain No one got back to Webb, so the next time he ran into Campbell, he said he assumed they didn't like the song. Is still on the line
And I want you for all time But it don't look like rain But the most powerful and iconic of his hits is "Wichita Lineman," a haunting, moody song told from the viewpoint of a utility worker who spends his time on the road alone, written by longtime Campbell collaborator Jimmy Webb. Webb didn't know it, but DeLory's uncle was a lineman and the song immediately made DeLory visualize him "up a pole in the middle of nowhere."
He said it was “the picture of loneliness.” When he watched the man put the phone to his ear, he imagined what the lineman was saying into the receiver and wrote the song Wichita Lineman. And I drive the main roads After the success of "Phoenix," they wanted another song about a town, but Webb resisted, feeling he'd done that already.
As for Campbell, "It made me cry because I was homesick," he told BBC Radio in 2011. So they asked if he could write something with a geographic bent. Webb grew up in the flat land of the Great Plains, and a memory bubbled up of driving on a long, flat country road, watching utility poles in a straight row rise up in the distance, shimmering in the heat. And I need you more than want you
Webb headed to his piano.
[Verse 1]
But it don't look like rain
Searchin' in the sun
(Campbell had been Webb’s idol since he was 14, when the first record he bought was Campbell’s “Turn Around, Look at Me.”) Rolling Stone called Wichita Lineman “the first existential country song.” Campbell told a Dallas Observer reporter that Webb wrote it about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else. It was inspired by Webb’s breakup from Susan Ronstadt, a cousin of Linda. Am7 G I hear you singing in the wires, I can hear you in the whine Gm D Am7 BbMAJ7 C2 BbMAJ7 And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line. Is still on the line, I know I need a small vacation Still, Campbell and DeLory were pressuring him, and Webb didn't want to waste more time on the song if they didn't like it.
And I want you for all time Campbell was fresh off a hit with a different Webb song, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and was in the studio, recording an album that would eventually become Wichita Lineman.
Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman struck a chord with artists who performed it - from Frank Sinatra and James Taylor to REM and The Stone Temple Pilots.
But he didn't quite have enough songs. And I want you for all time I can hear you through the whine
Or so he thought.
"I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, 'Look there's this great soul, and there's this great aching, and this great loneliness inside this person and we're all like that,'" Webb said. [Outro] Sinatra called it “the greatest torch song ever written.” And Francis Albert knew from torch. And the Wichita lineman
[Guitar solo] And the Wichita lineman For another overload "He was gone very quickly, and I had another 25 miles of solitude to meditate on this apparition. Won't never stand the strain No one got back to Webb, so the next time he ran into Campbell, he said he assumed they didn't like the song. Is still on the line
And I want you for all time But it don't look like rain But the most powerful and iconic of his hits is "Wichita Lineman," a haunting, moody song told from the viewpoint of a utility worker who spends his time on the road alone, written by longtime Campbell collaborator Jimmy Webb. Webb didn't know it, but DeLory's uncle was a lineman and the song immediately made DeLory visualize him "up a pole in the middle of nowhere."
He said it was “the picture of loneliness.” When he watched the man put the phone to his ear, he imagined what the lineman was saying into the receiver and wrote the song Wichita Lineman. And I drive the main roads After the success of "Phoenix," they wanted another song about a town, but Webb resisted, feeling he'd done that already.
As for Campbell, "It made me cry because I was homesick," he told BBC Radio in 2011. So they asked if he could write something with a geographic bent. Webb grew up in the flat land of the Great Plains, and a memory bubbled up of driving on a long, flat country road, watching utility poles in a straight row rise up in the distance, shimmering in the heat. And I need you more than want you
Webb headed to his piano.
[Verse 1]
But it don't look like rain
Searchin' in the sun
(Campbell had been Webb’s idol since he was 14, when the first record he bought was Campbell’s “Turn Around, Look at Me.”) Rolling Stone called Wichita Lineman “the first existential country song.” Campbell told a Dallas Observer reporter that Webb wrote it about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else. It was inspired by Webb’s breakup from Susan Ronstadt, a cousin of Linda. Am7 G I hear you singing in the wires, I can hear you in the whine Gm D Am7 BbMAJ7 C2 BbMAJ7 And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line. Is still on the line, I know I need a small vacation Still, Campbell and DeLory were pressuring him, and Webb didn't want to waste more time on the song if they didn't like it.
And I want you for all time Campbell was fresh off a hit with a different Webb song, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and was in the studio, recording an album that would eventually become Wichita Lineman.
Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman struck a chord with artists who performed it - from Frank Sinatra and James Taylor to REM and The Stone Temple Pilots.
But he didn't quite have enough songs. And I want you for all time I can hear you through the whine
Or so he thought.
"I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, 'Look there's this great soul, and there's this great aching, and this great loneliness inside this person and we're all like that,'" Webb said. [Outro] Sinatra called it “the greatest torch song ever written.” And Francis Albert knew from torch. And the Wichita lineman
[Guitar solo] And the Wichita lineman For another overload "He was gone very quickly, and I had another 25 miles of solitude to meditate on this apparition. Won't never stand the strain No one got back to Webb, so the next time he ran into Campbell, he said he assumed they didn't like the song. Is still on the line
And I want you for all time But it don't look like rain But the most powerful and iconic of his hits is "Wichita Lineman," a haunting, moody song told from the viewpoint of a utility worker who spends his time on the road alone, written by longtime Campbell collaborator Jimmy Webb. Webb didn't know it, but DeLory's uncle was a lineman and the song immediately made DeLory visualize him "up a pole in the middle of nowhere."
He said it was “the picture of loneliness.” When he watched the man put the phone to his ear, he imagined what the lineman was saying into the receiver and wrote the song Wichita Lineman. And I drive the main roads After the success of "Phoenix," they wanted another song about a town, but Webb resisted, feeling he'd done that already.
As for Campbell, "It made me cry because I was homesick," he told BBC Radio in 2011. So they asked if he could write something with a geographic bent. Webb grew up in the flat land of the Great Plains, and a memory bubbled up of driving on a long, flat country road, watching utility poles in a straight row rise up in the distance, shimmering in the heat. And I need you more than want you
Webb headed to his piano.
[Verse 1]
But it don't look like rain
Searchin' in the sun
(Campbell had been Webb’s idol since he was 14, when the first record he bought was Campbell’s “Turn Around, Look at Me.”) Rolling Stone called Wichita Lineman “the first existential country song.” Campbell told a Dallas Observer reporter that Webb wrote it about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else. It was inspired by Webb’s breakup from Susan Ronstadt, a cousin of Linda. Am7 G I hear you singing in the wires, I can hear you in the whine Gm D Am7 BbMAJ7 C2 BbMAJ7 And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line. Is still on the line, I know I need a small vacation Still, Campbell and DeLory were pressuring him, and Webb didn't want to waste more time on the song if they didn't like it.
And I want you for all time Campbell was fresh off a hit with a different Webb song, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and was in the studio, recording an album that would eventually become Wichita Lineman.
Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman struck a chord with artists who performed it - from Frank Sinatra and James Taylor to REM and The Stone Temple Pilots.
But he didn't quite have enough songs. And I want you for all time I can hear you through the whine
Or so he thought.
"I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, 'Look there's this great soul, and there's this great aching, and this great loneliness inside this person and we're all like that,'" Webb said. [Outro] Sinatra called it “the greatest torch song ever written.” And Francis Albert knew from torch. And the Wichita lineman
[Guitar solo] And the Wichita lineman For another overload "He was gone very quickly, and I had another 25 miles of solitude to meditate on this apparition. Won't never stand the strain No one got back to Webb, so the next time he ran into Campbell, he said he assumed they didn't like the song. Is still on the line
And I want you for all time But it don't look like rain But the most powerful and iconic of his hits is "Wichita Lineman," a haunting, moody song told from the viewpoint of a utility worker who spends his time on the road alone, written by longtime Campbell collaborator Jimmy Webb. Webb didn't know it, but DeLory's uncle was a lineman and the song immediately made DeLory visualize him "up a pole in the middle of nowhere."
He said it was “the picture of loneliness.” When he watched the man put the phone to his ear, he imagined what the lineman was saying into the receiver and wrote the song Wichita Lineman. And I drive the main roads After the success of "Phoenix," they wanted another song about a town, but Webb resisted, feeling he'd done that already.
As for Campbell, "It made me cry because I was homesick," he told BBC Radio in 2011. So they asked if he could write something with a geographic bent. Webb grew up in the flat land of the Great Plains, and a memory bubbled up of driving on a long, flat country road, watching utility poles in a straight row rise up in the distance, shimmering in the heat. And I need you more than want you
Webb headed to his piano.
[Verse 1]
But it don't look like rain
Searchin' in the sun
(Campbell had been Webb’s idol since he was 14, when the first record he bought was Campbell’s “Turn Around, Look at Me.”) Rolling Stone called Wichita Lineman “the first existential country song.” Campbell told a Dallas Observer reporter that Webb wrote it about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else. It was inspired by Webb’s breakup from Susan Ronstadt, a cousin of Linda. Am7 G I hear you singing in the wires, I can hear you in the whine Gm D Am7 BbMAJ7 C2 BbMAJ7 And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line. Is still on the line, I know I need a small vacation Still, Campbell and DeLory were pressuring him, and Webb didn't want to waste more time on the song if they didn't like it.
And I want you for all time Campbell was fresh off a hit with a different Webb song, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and was in the studio, recording an album that would eventually become Wichita Lineman.
"Wichita Lineman" was Campbell's first top-10 hit, so in commemoration, the BBC decided to tell the story of how it came about. Wichita Lineman - Jimmy Webb Intro (A7sus) BbMAJ7 C2 BbMAJ7 Bb / C Bbmaj7 F/A Bb / C I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road Dm7 Am7 G D searchin' in the sun for another overload.
Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman struck a chord with artists who performed it - from Frank Sinatra and James Taylor to REM and The Stone Temple Pilots.
But he didn't quite have enough songs. And I want you for all time I can hear you through the whine
Or so he thought.
"I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, 'Look there's this great soul, and there's this great aching, and this great loneliness inside this person and we're all like that,'" Webb said. [Outro] Sinatra called it “the greatest torch song ever written.” And Francis Albert knew from torch. And the Wichita lineman
[Guitar solo] And the Wichita lineman For another overload "He was gone very quickly, and I had another 25 miles of solitude to meditate on this apparition. Won't never stand the strain No one got back to Webb, so the next time he ran into Campbell, he said he assumed they didn't like the song. Is still on the line
And I want you for all time But it don't look like rain But the most powerful and iconic of his hits is "Wichita Lineman," a haunting, moody song told from the viewpoint of a utility worker who spends his time on the road alone, written by longtime Campbell collaborator Jimmy Webb. Webb didn't know it, but DeLory's uncle was a lineman and the song immediately made DeLory visualize him "up a pole in the middle of nowhere."
He said it was “the picture of loneliness.” When he watched the man put the phone to his ear, he imagined what the lineman was saying into the receiver and wrote the song Wichita Lineman. And I drive the main roads After the success of "Phoenix," they wanted another song about a town, but Webb resisted, feeling he'd done that already.
As for Campbell, "It made me cry because I was homesick," he told BBC Radio in 2011. So they asked if he could write something with a geographic bent. Webb grew up in the flat land of the Great Plains, and a memory bubbled up of driving on a long, flat country road, watching utility poles in a straight row rise up in the distance, shimmering in the heat. And I need you more than want you
Webb headed to his piano.
[Verse 1]
But it don't look like rain
Searchin' in the sun
(Campbell had been Webb’s idol since he was 14, when the first record he bought was Campbell’s “Turn Around, Look at Me.”) Rolling Stone called Wichita Lineman “the first existential country song.” Campbell told a Dallas Observer reporter that Webb wrote it about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else. It was inspired by Webb’s breakup from Susan Ronstadt, a cousin of Linda. Am7 G I hear you singing in the wires, I can hear you in the whine Gm D Am7 BbMAJ7 C2 BbMAJ7 And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line. Is still on the line, I know I need a small vacation Still, Campbell and DeLory were pressuring him, and Webb didn't want to waste more time on the song if they didn't like it.
And I want you for all time Campbell was fresh off a hit with a different Webb song, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and was in the studio, recording an album that would eventually become Wichita Lineman.