Talk:Wichita Lineman

Wade Hayes and not GLEN CAMPBELL???
Why is the Wade Hayes song image and template here instead of Glen Campbell's? Did Glen Campbell shoot Jimbo's Dad? WTF? Basilwhite (talk) 15:57, 29 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I've never even heard of Wade Hayes. I doubt if he warrants being singled out on this entry.  Glen Campbell is the big news and Wade Hayes is just another in a long line of artists who have covered the tune. Rasdock (talk) 05:53, 10 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I removed it. I can just imagine what this page would look like if every single cover of "Wichita Lineman" had an infobox. Shudder. Marshall Stax (talk) 03:27, 15 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Could the Wade Hayes fanboy stop already? Only one infobox is necessary, and that is for Glen Campbell. We do not need an infobox for every single person who has covered the song. Marshall Stax (talk) 04:34, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Cover version
Optiganally Yours covered "Witchita Lineman" on their album Spotlight On. It's totally totally great.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000000SXZ/qid=1126698320/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-0725548-1639144?v=glance&s=music —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.101.69.90 (talk • contribs) 11:46, 14 September 2005

The Telegraph music critics voted the Dennis Brown cover 38th out of the best cover versions ever recorded in 2004.

 ```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marie dressler (talk • contribs) 18:56, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Session musicians
This article would benefit from a list of the musicians who played on the original recording, plus other production details.--Design 02:37, 19 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Why did the reference to the following get removed? Unless I'm wrong, a few months ago, Glen using her bass guitar was alluded to. "Glen Campbell used a Fender Bass VI (borrowed from fellow Wrecking Crew musician Carol Kaye to play the solo heard on his songs "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston". Welby99


 * If anyone has seen the film 'Wrecking Crew' they will know Carol Keyes says I gave Glen my guitar (now she does not say bass) to record the guitar solo on Wichita Lineman. Should be part of this. (Victor Middlesex (talk) 21:11, 24 May 2017 (UTC)).


 * The article says Kaye played bass, despite the linked AFM contract clearly stating she played guitar. So I fixed it. Andrew G. Doe (talk) 17:52, 9 August 2017 (UTC)


 * I've removed the name of the song's writer Jimmy Webb from the list of musicians as I can't see it on that contract which is given as a source. The second and third pages seem to list all of the orchestra members. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:00, 9 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Now done. (I didn't take the recording contract, viz the instruments they played, too literally. I'll try to improve the list, with references, if I can.) Birdman euston (talk) 09:46, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Wichita reference
Support is needed for the claim that "Wichita" refers to either Wichita, Kansas or Wichita County, Kansas. Some online sources claim that it refers to Wichita Falls, Texas. John M Baker 00:51, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

One possibility. Since the inspiration for the song was a lineman in Northern Oklahoma, it could refer to the Wichita Mountains in Western Oklahoma (near Ft. Sill, Botendaddy is a Field Artillery Officer). The Wichita Mountains, particularly Mt. Scott are kind of a mystical place and were of spiritual importance to the local Indian tribes. By the way what a great tune. Even though I was big on hard rock as a kid, this one jumped right out of the radio. Botendaddy (talk) 08:11, 11 August 2008 (UTC)


 * My parents attended a Glen Campbell concert in Wichita KS in the early 1970's, where he performed the song. Glen, on stage, admitted that the song referred not to Wichita KS, but to Wichita County in western KS. 96.25.31.89 (talk) 20:53, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Um, the opening line of the song is "I am a lineman for the county... "? Martinevans123 (talk) 10:17, 11 August 2017 (UTC)

Album or Song?
Most of this article, including the categories, seem to be about the song, but the succession box and chart table reference the album. Is there enough info about the album to warrant it's own page? Zephyrnthesky (talk) 20:59, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Power Lines or Telephone Lines?
The Arrangement section says "In the first recording, by Glen Campbell, a notable feature of Al de Lory's orchestral arrangement is that the violins and a Gulbransen Synthesizer mimic the sounds that a lineman might hear when attaching a telephone earpiece to a long stretch of raw telephone or telegraph line". This suggests that the song is about a telegraph lineman. However the line in the song "searchin' in the sun for another overload" suggests the song is about a power line lineman. The song's references to "whine" in the "wires" still makes sense for power lines as anyone who has ever stood under high tension lines out in quiet countryside will have heard the noises they make. Somehow the idea of someone driving along the high tension liners seems more romantic to me than if the "lines" are merely telegraph lines. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.109.135 (talk) 12:33, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
 * The phrase And if it snows, that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain implies power lines too, though it could be argued that the reference is to phone lines being brought down by the weight of snow. Was the songwriter ever asked to clarify this? --80.176.142.11 (talk) 12:18, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
 * This might be of interest : http://www.dallasobserver.com/content/printVersion/296877/ This lousy t-shirt (talk) 05:13, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Looks like he didn't think very carefully about the difference, if he even recognised it. Still a great song though.Costesseyboy (talk) 23:38, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Theft of Bass Guitar
I removed the following. "An interesting fact related to the session players is that the famous low-register guitar lead was played by Campbell on a Danelectro Longhorn Baritone guitar belonging to bassist Carol Kaye. Some years later, the instrument was stolen from Kaye's automobile. An identical one can be seen in Campbell's hands in the video of the Stone Temple Pilots version of the song in which Campbell appears." See BURDEN, if anyone can cite verifiable sources for both the theft and for an identical guitar played by Campbell afterward, you might restore it, although in the absense of an accusation by Kaye and given that there is more than one of these guitars in the world, it seems like innuendo, not information. After all, if he played Kaye's on one of the most iconic of his songs, he could easily have taken a liking to it, and -- even if rare (I have no idea whether it is) -- Campbell would have the resources to find and buy one. -- TJC 11:21 August 25 2012 (UTC)

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Campbell's homesickness
Although Campbell did say (in 2011, in the BBC Radio 4 series Soul Music) that "Wichita Lineman" was the Jimmy Webb song that prompted him to cry and then drive home to Arkansas to see his parents, he also stated in another interview I read that "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" affected him in exactly the same way. I think Alzheimer's Disease, from which he was already suffering at the time of the BBC interview, caused him to confuse the two songs and so his anecdote applies to 'Phoenix', not 'Wichita'. (It certainly seems more likely, if you compare Jimmy Webb's two sets of lyrics: 'Phoenix' describes an impending road trip home.) Birdman euston (talk) 05:22, 16 July 2022 (UTC)

Was the lineman conversing with or was he eavesdropping on his love interest?
Songwriter Jimmy Webb in his 2011 interview with Songfacts implies it was the former so I put that version ("talking to his girlfriend") in the article. Fourteen years earlier, however, in his revealing 1997 interview with the Dallas Observer [weblink https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/power-lines-6402472], he admits that his early songwriting hits were "personal messages" via the radio to his former lover who eventually married someone else - even saying there's a fine line between obsessive love and stalking. The eavesdropping interpretation has gained considerable currency, and is even treated as fact in the Financial Times' 2017 obituary of Glen Campbell: https://www.ft.com/content/fe268128-7df7-11e7-ab01-a13271d1ee9c So, I say the jury is out on this topic. If you have any other convincing evidence either way, please do have your say. Birdman euston (talk) 20:51, 24 February 2024 (UTC)


 * The old pink 'un is subs-only, alas. Could you possibly please spill the Home Counties beans for us here? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:56, 24 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Yes, it seems the FT is quick to erect a paywall to their archives within a click or two ... It talks of the Wichita Lineman "eavesdropping" on phone conversations, an imaginary lover, and "creepy" lyrics. Birdman euston (talk) 22:41, 24 February 2024 (UTC)