Pop music can defy such predicting. The Hayes version only got to No. 55 on the U.S. country music charts. The plan was to have it on Hayes' album "Tore Up From the Floor Up." The disappointment of the single release brought a delay. The album came out in 1998 re-titled "When the Wrong One Loves You Right," and "Wichita" wasn't even on it.
I remember Hayes' video for "Wichita Lineman." CMT on TV was quite the "thing" at the time. The novelty of nonstop country music videos waned. They still exist as does CMT (to my knowledge) but it's all in a sea of what one critic has called "the cable TV sludge."
Highly talented songwriters turn out sharply-conceived material all the time, so it's amazing that "Wichita" was not even considered a finished product.
Jimmy Webb was a gold mine with his songwriting in the 1960s. He spun material that will thrive indefinitely. And to think this is done with just a few seemingly simple lines for a particular tune. "Seemingly simple," yes, but it must be an exacting craft. How else to achieve the stratosphere of success? Or is it so exacting? I think the answer would be yes and no.
Somehow the writer needs to find a "sweet spot" where the most basic of feelings, the most basic picture to form in one's mind, comes forward. So we imagine a lone telephone company lineman.
Performer Glen Campbell wanted the song to be identified strongly with a specific place. Quite logical, considering Campbell's boffo success with "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Webb delivered his new inspiration with "Wichita," interestingly not about Wichita, Kansas. How many people might have always assumed it was about the Kansas city?
Webb said he became inspired while driving through "Washita County" in Oklahoma. So "Washita" morphed into "Wichita?" Well that's strange. Top song hits can present many strange things. I am one of those who thinks the music rather than the lyrics holds the real key. Songwriting analysts can delve way too much into the lyrics IMHO.
Webb decided that the sight of a lone lineman atop a light pole really suggested loneliness. He wondered what this "lineman" might be saying into the receiver. At this time, many telephone companies were county-owned utilities. Linemen worked for the county. Of course, "lineman" has a firm meaning in football too! So Webb's song is neither about Wichita KS or a football lineman.
But isn't the music the real thing? Campbell spun this song into gold. The supremely talented singer used songs with place names in his "run" of the time. I mean, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston," maybe others.
But what was the point? Were these places so special or did these names just have a nice "ring" to them. Rhetorical question. Sometimes I imagine for my own amusement "Galveston" but with "Wolverton" being sung instead. The latter is a tiny Minnesota town.
There's a more interesting common thread to Campbell's hits to consider. Have you ever noticed, several songs are about a man thinking obsessively about a woman who is not in close proximity? In "Phoenix" and "Gentle On My Mind," the man appears not even interested in close or intimate contact. He's literally a drifter. He's "looking for something," I guess, in line with the standard 1960s zeitgeist of being confused, of not having all the answers about life.
The young people felt they had wisdom about the Vietnam war but the war inexplicably dragged on. The zeitgeist was impacted hugely. We got songs about people being disrupted or disoriented and just seeking something. But, to leave a woman who is embedded in your thoughts: why would that song theme even be so appealing? Seems rather discouraging or negative.
But the woman is the object of his thoughts, right? That's the counter. But shouldn't the whole idea be to make an investment in that person? Maybe commitment was just more difficult in the 1960s?
I will suggest here there was actually a chauvinistic element. Please hear me out. Part of the old sexism, ironically, was how men talked like they wanted to put women on a pedestal. Oh, women were just other-worldly with their special-ness. That's why they got on the lifeboats first on the Titanic, right? But don't women simply want equality? Today yes, most definitely.
I would suggest one word for the old fawning nature of men's attitudes toward women: patronizing. Women had to fight for true equal rights like in the workplace and in sports. Why such a daunting battle, if men really considered them so "special?" Women must not have been deemed truly special, rather they were some sort of quarry that suited men's interests.
I once read of the U.S. Civil War: Men left their southern plantations and such to go fight. This forced women to really start running those operations, and you know what? They found they could handle it just fine. Well, no revelation really. And yet for generations, men fawned over women in a way that really seemed misogynistic - flattering women while not acceding true rights or power.
And so Glen Campbell even gave us a hit song with "Housewife" in the title: "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife." Sheesh! Could you imagine how non-palatable that song would be today? Mad Magazine had a parody on TV commercials where the spokesman started out by saying "With the help of these average housewives. . ." (They were going to test a household product). "Average housewives" was in bold face to accentuate the absurdity of the term or concept.
Popular entertainment went along with the Neanderthal template for a long time. The likes of Gloria Steinem came along to tear it down.
Might Campbell's "run" of hit songs have a dated quality, putting them in the rear view mirror for today? Who gives a rip that this "Wichita lineman" with his ordinary job is distracted by thoughts of his significant other, as he's out there in the godforsaken wasteland of Oklahoma? Why do we like the song? I will paraphrase James Carville, sort of: "It's the music, stupid."
My bias is to always weigh the music rather than lyrics as essential. I prioritize lyrics only when considering "storytelling" songs, a type I like to try to write myself. A short little love song is not my cup of tea.
Amazing that Webb could build his iconic image with just a few brief sentences. His submission to Campbell was not even a completed version, so Campbell just opted for an instrumental section! And the rest is songwriting history.
My critique of such material can seem harsh. If you want to get brutal and unvarnished opinions of your work, just go into the songwriting field.
It is amazing how Webb "did his thing." And all these years later, we'll continue to reflect on the lyrics, offer constructive criticism, and just appreciate. Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell RIP. You were music masters. "Wichita Lineman" has been called "the unfinished song." Oh hell yes it was finished.
A closer look at "Phoenix"
I share thoughts about the Webb/Campbell collaboration "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" in a post on my companion blog, "Morris of Course." I consider this to be an overrated song. Why should the man in the song assume that the woman he left behind should care about him so much? I invite you to read my post:
I share also on "Gentle On My Mind." How can a song be so boffo with such a monotonous melody? "Ours is not to reason why," I guess. But I do seek to reason. You may click:
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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