Glenn Campbell - Wichita Lineman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU&mode=related&search=
Hard to believe now, perhaps, but Campbell was considered one of THE top session men in LA and an up and coming pop/country superstar. This is my favorite song by him, written by the great Jimmy Webb, (who wrote many of Glenn's hits). This is another tune from '69, (if my remaining brain cells haven't failed me), and it really rings true to me - capturing the stark loneliness of Kansas, the plains, and the West in general. But its real greatness, to me, lies in its ability to subtly capture the quiet stoicism and needs of so many of the people who lived out West when I was a kid, regardless of their occupation or exact location. To me, the song speaks of people in places where you can see tens or even hundreds of square miles around you, where the work is never quite done, and where one's needs and perspective can be quite simple and direct. It always reminds me of my Uncle Harry, (who lived in Colorado), in some profound but underneath-the-radar way that I've not entirely figured out. But when I hear it, I am always treated to memories of him working around his place in the hot and lengthening shadows of a mid-summer late afternoon, tending to his horses and his garden. Harry and all of that are gone now, like so much else from those times, but Wichita Lineman keeps a little spark of that alive for me.
Hard to believe now, perhaps, but Campbell was considered one of THE top session men in LA and an up and coming pop/country superstar. This is my favorite song by him, written by the great Jimmy Webb, (who wrote many of Glenn's hits). This is another tune from '69, (if my remaining brain cells haven't failed me), and it really rings true to me - capturing the stark loneliness of Kansas, the plains, and the West in general. But its real greatness, to me, lies in its ability to subtly capture the quiet stoicism and needs of so many of the people who lived out West when I was a kid, regardless of their occupation or exact location. To me, the song speaks of people in places where you can see tens or even hundreds of square miles around you, where the work is never quite done, and where one's needs and perspective can be quite simple and direct. It always reminds me of my Uncle Harry, (who lived in Colorado), in some profound but underneath-the-radar way that I've not entirely figured out. But when I hear it, I am always treated to memories of him working around his place in the hot and lengthening shadows of a mid-summer late afternoon, tending to his horses and his garden. Harry and all of that are gone now, like so much else from those times, but Wichita Lineman keeps a little spark of that alive for me.
posted by mendip at
4:19 PM
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