The sound of -Wichita Lineman- was the sound of ecstatic solitude, but then its hero was the quintessential loner. What a great metaphor he was: a man who needed a woman more than he actually wanted her.
Written in 1968 by Jimmy Webb, -Wichita Lineman- is the first philosophical country song: a heartbreaking torch ballad still celebrated for its mercurial songwriting genius fifty years later. It was recorded by Glen Campbell in LA with a legendary group of musicians known as -the Wrecking Crew-, and something about the song-s enigmatic mood seemed to capture the tensions in America at a moment of crisis. Fusing a dribble of bass, searing strings, tremolo guitar and Campbell-s plaintive vocals, Webb-s paean to the American West describes a telephone lineman-s longing for an absent lover, who he hears -singing in the wire- - and like all good love songs, it-s an SOS from the heart.
Mixing close-listening, interviews and travelogue, Dylan Jones explores the legacy of a
