My father was a lineman. When he died, we played it at his funeral. You will never see so many big burly men anywhere else break down in tears. So moving.
That's the nucleus of musical meds, Pure love over any bandwidth, By the time you get this I'll be drinking, home made wine wine, and that's why all my loves are gone all over the globe! Short stoppers, and I know that's not what you meant -☺
I was fortunate enough to play a few gigs with Glen Campbell...the guy never missed a lick, not even in rehearsal. And just a sweetheart of a guy to all of us. RIP!!!
Comment from another video of this song: "My Dad was a lineman in the Midwest for 35 years. He walked in 5 minutes late to work one morning and his boss asked him why he was late. He explained that Wichita Lineman came on the radio as he was pulling in. The whole crew nodded approvingly and his boss said it was an acceptable excuse. Glen Campbell was such a legend."
Gotta call BS on that lineman’s excuse. 5 minutes? I don’t think so, the song’s only 3 minutes long 😉…that’s its one and only flaw. If only Wichita Lineman were 5 whole minutes long…the world would be such a better place. Just kidding of course…that’s an awesome story.
My Dad is a lineman. A very hard and dangerous job. I've heard him say many times, "If you don't respect the job, you will be fried like a piece of bacon. I've seen it happen several times." Without these men, our modern way of life just isn't possible.
Yeah, there was a friend of my mom who I'd met once or twice who fried both of his arms working for the electric company. But isn't Campbell talking about telephone lines?
My late mother, Keith Ann Armor, was Jimmy Webb’s high school English teacher in Laverne, Oklahoma. I credit her with giving him the education for his great lyrics.
John Mayer's all-time favorite song is Glen Campbell 's, "Gentle on My Mind" He said I don't know how it will ever get knocked off his #1 perch. It would have to take one hell of a miraculous song to do so.
@@riverwalker2173 It's John Hartford's song. RCA didn't consider it a Country song, and neither do I. It's been recorded by everyone from Elvis to Sinatra to Aretha to Andy Williams. I consider it one of the greatest songs I know, and Campbell's version is superior.
Carol Kaye absolutely kills it on this song... Just beautiful bass playing... When I first heard this song in 68 I was floored and knew this was , for me, the greatest single ever recorded... A young girl in eighth grade asked me dance to this new 45... 55 years later we recently reconnected and will be getting married in May... This song is our song.
It never was considered a country song.. Jimmy Webb wrote McArther Park and Up, Up And Away FFS. Rick is way out of his wheelhouse on his familiarity with this song and it life music history. There is no such thing as a "country song" of this era, or any, with this type of piano orchestral chords or freakin' number of chords in "country music". Even Jimmy Webb's The Highwayman isn't really a country song though Waylon, Willie, Johnny & Kristopherson had a huge country hit with it. The song is really an American Folk song and again has more chords and different chordal movement than anything country.
@@ErnieDouglas Well the genre at that time was called "Country and Western". So the "Highwayman" probably fit into the Western category. You know, kind of like "Ghost Riders in the Sky". "The Streets of Loredo" would be kind of folk/Western I guess.
I read an interview with Jimmy Webb where he was asked what this song was about. He said it's about how "just because a guy is out there in his truck, you can't assume he's not a poet." Just makes the lyric even more poignant.
Having the opportunity to work with singer songwriters, I have found they often work day jobs that allow them to not only pay the bills. But allow them to let their minds wonder to other things, or observe the human condition giving fuel to their song writing.
I’m a journeyman lineman and it makes me think about all of the guys that aren’t with us anymore or have cancer, Alzheimer’s or have had a stroke or other health problem. It makes me feel proud to have done line work. It’s a beautiful old song.
Whenever I fall in love, one of two melodies always haunt me in my dreams: Wichita Lineman or Days of Wine and Roses. There’s something in those melodies that just resonate so strongly with me and all other human blessed with hearing it
My oldest brother who is now 86 started his career with the telephone company back in the 50s. Once while climbing a pole it snapped sending him crashing to the ground requiring knee surgery. The surgeon did such an awesome job that he has never had trouble with it to this day!😊
"And I need you more than want you, And I want you for all time" One of the most achingly romantic lines I've ever heard. Especially the way Glenn delivers it.
I was working at a multimedia studio in downtown Los Angeles some years back. We were invited to the Malibu Music Awards. Glen Campbell was being given an award. He performed with his kids. His cognitive decline was advanced and his daughter stayed close on stage to prompt him if he lost his place...but the beauty of his musical genius still shined thru. He retired some months later...so I was in one of the last audiences to see him. I was in the front row and he was a couple of feet away. I'm so grateful I got to see one of the giants of the golden age of pop music.
When I was young I just thought he was a cheesy country singer. As an old, somewhat more mature and knowledgeable person, I now see him as an all time great who'll forever be above my pay grade. I did love this song at the time (although I wouldn't admit to it), now I know why. What a talent. Rip.
I remember when he was declining but still playing, and he even talked about it openly. I THINK he said that he needed help with the words, but he could remember the chords just fine. Correct me if I'm wrong.
🤔When I was kid... occasionally I would here someone say...." They don't make em like that anymore" ....who would of thought that statement would REALLY come to fruition 😳... 😏Sad but very greatful☺️ to have lived in a time when music of the heart has so many flavors and colors....of expression.. ( unlike the last 15 or 20 yrs) ✌️🙏💖
My dad was a lineman for 42 years. I have the utmost respect for his profession and those who do it. It’s a crucial job that takes special talent and dedication.
Absolutely not the greatest country song, not even close. And the performance of this song is a disgrace to country music with all the strings. Sounds like the Lawrence Welk show
To me the songs a total beauty, regardless of what genre you want to plop it in. And I can imagine there are a lot of country artists who would call you on the idea that this is a disgrace simply because strings were used. I think the strings are gorgeous myself. But to each his own…
I have a brother in law and a nephew who are electricians for a large power company in Iowa. It's not a job I ever wanted to do. Especially in the winter.
This song reminds me of being about 8 years old and driving with my mom in the car listening to AM radio. The song always has and always will give me "the feels"
absolutely. Not a country fan, but this song is so good. I was 8 when thia song came out and saw it on tv at my cousin's house. My uncle was a big country fan
The image you get of the loneliness of being a Lineman, giving you time to think about life and love. Timeless and haunting. Thank God for giving us Webb and Campbell. The violins sound like the sound of current running through the wires.
I agree completely it crosses all musical borders because it touches the sadness and loneliness we all feel working all those countless hours away from who we truly love and want to spend most of the time in our lives with. It really is lonely out there working by yourself away from the people you love the most in the world. I hated being separated from my wife and kids working 60-80+ hours a week. So many millions of people do it every week of every year of their lives and it’s sad. When we finally get to retire or go broke because we can’t afford to retire with our broken down bodies and there’s not much left, we ask ourselves was it worth it? My Dad told me that he’s never heard of anybody laying on their death bed who wished they had spent more time away from their family working overtime. Wichita Linemen pulls those heart strings for me. I’ve never talked to anyone about this song before. But you’re right it’s a great song that really touches hearts. Sorry to ramble on but I really liked your comment and it got me thinking. Cheers!
@@keithwiebe1787: I could definitely see that as a possibility for Wichita Linemen and for all people responsible for repairing power and telephone lines downed from storms at all the odd hours night and day. When I was in the Air Force I used to sing 🎶 “I am an Airman for my country🎵 Fixing broken aircraft everyday. And I need a small vacation, from working my fingers to the bone. I’ve been on this flight line for a long long time! 🎵
It hurt my heart then and hurts my heart now but for different reasons. Then as a love song. Now, bittersweet nostalgia. Reminds me of childhood, the 70s, my parents - each, now gone.
I read an interview with Jimmy Webb where he said that he gave this song to GC as unfinished. Then he heard from GC that it was coming out on an album. Jimmy says, "It wasn't finished. There's no third verse." And GC replied. "It's finished now." Jimmy couldn't say enough about how having that third verse as an instrumental was, in his mind, the best thing that ever happened to that song. He definitely knew talent when he saw it.
Campbell thought it was perfect. But he also loved the tone of her bass. It was a Danelectro, a six-string, solid-body electric bass guitar made out of Masonite. It was often used in studios on pop recordings to add a higher sound than that of a standard Fender electric bass or an acoustic stand-up bass. Campbell asked Kaye if he could borrow the guitar to play a solo to fill the space for the third verse that Webb had never finished. An unconventional but brilliant choice, the deep, resonant passage scored a direct hit, giving the song just the right quavering, tremolo-fueled melancholic interlude.
Al De Lory's name is rarely mentioned, if at all re this recording. He was responsible for much of the lush arrangement heard here. Perfect without being elevator background music. I remember from years ago seeing his name displayed prominently on the gold/red 45 rpm as it should have been. Oh how I love this arrangement! Sure, it was Campbell/Webb but I personally always add De Lory's name also. DeLory "finished it." He also did the instrumentation/arranging on Phoenix and Galveston. Webb didn't actually have Campbell in mind for Phoenix, Johnny Rivers recorded the original. Jose Feliciano has a great all instrumental easy listening cover of Wichita. (See on YT if interested). On my playlist I sometimes play GC's vocal version followed JF's instrumental.....daaamnnn! It's good to be alive... and able to hear.
This song makes what little hair is left on the back of my neck stand up. I am an unabashed metal head, but will never shy away from my love of other genres. People double take when I tell them this is my favourite song. An absolute masterpiece. Thank you Rick. I love your diversity.
you don't owe anyone any explanations for why you like a song. We used to call these songs guilty pleasures, stuff you hid from your friends for fear of not looking cool. but at some point, I stopped feeling guilty around my friends about what songs I liked. Eff them.
This song has it all....longing, lonliness, and sheer joy. I've always been amazed how a series of notes, chords, and rhythms can illicit such a universal and emotional response. Thank god for recording devices and sound engineers, who captured this masterpiece.
My dad worked for the same phone company in Boise Idaho for 46 years and was a lineman for many of those years, so this song always meant something to me.
My dad was a lineman for Southern Bell in the 60’s. This song always makes me think of him. The lyrics here are masterful in creating a mood and emotion. Jimmy Webb was a true genius with words. He and Gordon Lightfoot made songs into literature
This song hits right onto my soul. Can remember listening to it in summer of my youth in days of cars having AM radios. The warm summer breeze made you feel alive. Miss those days when people weren't in such a hurry.
You are not alone. I was in 9th grade Civics class. The teacher asked Arnold where the Commission form of government started. Arnold was busy killing flies. He had no clue. The teacher said, "Here's a hint. Glen Campbell song." Arnold had a big smile on his face and said, "Witchita Lineman." The teacher replied, "Nope - Galveston." The entire class laughed. Some things stay with you.
For 2 years I was a therapist at a facility for people with schizophrenia, and a man there would request that we play songs he remembered that would calm and ground him. I compiled a 2-page list of all the songs he requested, and I still think of him when I hear them. This was one of the best ones!
I wouldn't even qualify it as "Country" song. I'm not usually a country music fan, but I think its one of the greatest songs ever written from ANY genre. 3 minutes of perfection.
Totally agree. I was a high school freshman in 10-26-68 when it was released & was played on the top 40 rock stations. I think it’s considered a country song is because Glen Campbell went country a few years later. Still a beautiful song 55 years later! Rick Beato was probably first grader when it was released.
It's considered "Countrypolitan" which is basically country songs that are written to be accompanied with orchestral instrumentation instead of just the traditional guitar, bass, and drums.
This song saved my life. For me it is about moving forward no matter what and it came on the radio while I was driving to an appointment with my death. That was in 1977 - needless to say, it changed my state of mind and 47 years later I am still moving forward.
When I was a child, I used to pick up empty soda bottles and save them for the nickle deposit. I saved up about a dollar and bought the 45 of this song at a local 5 &10 store, having become mesmerized by hearing it on the radio. I played it over and over and it became one of my all time favorite songs. The very first record I ever bought. It remains a hauntingly beautiful and melancholy song that I still listen to on a regular basis. I've been a Glen Campbell fan ever since.
My buddy growing up had a paper route. His bike had a basket on it. He and I would ride the roads picking up soda bottles and take them to Tommy Boyd's service station to turn in for candy and nab money that we would use in the service station. What a great memory for this 68 year old "kid"!!
I'd attended a gathering at a relatives retirement home where a solo guitarist was performing in the communities courtyard, providing music as a backdrop for multiple family oriented attractions and activities. Something about the way he performed/played and sang made me think of this song so I requested he play it & he graciously said he would with a huge smile on his face. When he was done there was applause throughout the courtyard, the only applause I heard for him all that day from the busy distracted presence there at the event. I personally thought he'd nailed it and revisited his podium & thanked him. He thanked me right back for requesting one of his all time favorite songs.
My mom is dealing with some memory issues that many older people deal with,but if we play this song,she perks right up,smiles,and remembers the words! You picked the write song, although Glenn had so many great songs!!
"And I need you more than want you... And I'll want you for all time" was the first time I noticed a lyric... it's what got me into music... I think I was 9yrs old and it's still my favourite lyric.
I'll be 70 this year and I grew up with Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Tull, Bowie, CCR and all that, but I've also loved artists like The Carpenters, ABBA, Glen Campbell and a host of music from various genres. This song is one of my all time favorites. It' has a haunting effect to it.
Guns & Roses actually did a great cover of this song, at one of their concerts, shortly after Glenn passed. Axle was on point and band were also. Very respectable cover. On u tube.
I have one record hanging on my wall. Willie Nelson's Stardust (1978) is a cover of American standards that is a tapestry of the souls' joy and melancoloy. It resonated for me as a kid and is a good example of how Nelson like Dolly Parton who grew out of studios with narrow corridors so to speak were unafraid to embrace losts of divergent musical inspirations. Nelson's Borderline is another example.
Have you seen Jerry Reed with Chet Atkins here on YT Also Roy Clark playing Malagueña on the old Odd couple tv show also here on YT. Well worth the search
@@Lilah1754 - Wichita Lineman was a go-to for REM to do live during their heyday even a couple or three decades ago. They were known for throwing in songs that were great but not necessarily ‘cool’ by rock radio standards of the time. It’s a great song, and everyone that performed or performs it gives a nod to both the writer Jimmy Webb and the great Glen Campbell version of the song.
I'm born in 61 and I have always even as a child loved this song. It's haunting and despite the nostalgia even now I can't help being moved by this masterpiece. I'm guessing that most people that watch Rick Beato will have an eclectic taste in music with their blinds off. How amazing that one of your viewers has a connection with this song through his surrogate family connections. I went to a Glen Campbell gig in Dunedin New Zealand in the late nineties and I am soooo grateful I did. A remarkable talent.
One of my favorite songs ever. Still chokes me up because of the strength of the melody against the chords and that unbelievable string arrangement. Just kills me every time.
It's so typical of the time (late '60s/early '70s) these melodic arrangements, melodies within the basic song you just don't hear such brilliant composing anymore. For decades now, I'd say we're been without it in popular music.
This song always takes me back to my childhood. My next door neighbor used play this song all the time and even though I was too young to understand the words, the melody was so beautiful and always filled me with calm. All these years later, I find myself transported back in time whenever I hear it.
Truly one of the greatest songs ever. Having said that, I have trouble picking this over Galveston and By The Time I Get To Phoenix. Each tells an incredibly power story in just a few stanzas. Webb was truly a gem. Campbell’s voice is honey. The Wrecking Crew was so important as well!
I pick this over the other sings you mentioned because of the depth of emotion shown here, the kind of emotion that men don't usually show and that men in country songs don't usually show. He's all alone with no one to talk to, and he can hardly even express it to himself. He tries to think about the job and the task at hand but his heart is about to burst from aching loneliness. It's just a masterpiece. By the time I get to Phoenix is brilliant too, for other reasons: the way the story builds until we all realize what is happening. But it has more verses and a longer time to tell the story. Wichita Lineman has only two verses, where the guy is trying to avoid facing/expressing his deep longing, but it spills out anyway in the choruses because it is so overwhelming. So Phoenix is one of the greatest too, right up there (and oddly enough Phoenix was also played on the black stations), but Wichita Lineman wins for putting a timeless love song in the mouth of a supposedly unlikely character to be singing it, and doing it in so few words. The string arrangement and the simple, evocative baritone guitar solo also put it over the top.
One of the best songs of the 20th Century - on every level. Gorgeous changes, incredible lyrics, a melody to die for. This is inspired composition. The emotional content is irresistible, magnetic, so poignant. Cuts right to the heart. I teach songwriting and force all my students to learn it and sing it. I rhapsodize about its brilliance and it kills me every time. Every single time, it knocks me out. Jimmy Webb - thank you for writing this. I would not call this a country song. Bobby McGee is a country song. This is far beyond country music, vastly more sophisticated. Yes, the changes are stunning and the melody/harmony/lyric prosody is perfection.
It's soft pop similar to the brilliant duo Seals and Croft. I loved the mystique, the naivety or innocence of the seventies. The musicians however were no slouches of this calibre but could write songs accessible to the pop loving audience but with an underlying sophistication that made all the difference between ordinary to extraordinary.
Remember this song so clearly from my childhood. My parents loved Glen Campbell and we watched his variety show every week. Watching him and Jimmy Webb play together was just music perfection. As Rick said, even though we were kids-we just knew it was a great song though we didn’t know why.
Yes! A great variety show! Glen was such a great entertainer! He had it all epic studio musician and fantastic voice too!! Sings each song with such heart and feeling! I miss him!! 💝💝
Not only one of the greatest country songs, one of the greatest songs ever. Period. The combination of melody, chords and lyrics creates a haunting, longingness that is indescribable.
'And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time' - such a profound lyric that gets me every time.. Thankful for my dad to have introduced me to Glen Campbell
I'm 62 years old, but I can clearly remember this song from my childhood. My mom played the radio on the country station only, and those songs are planted firmly in my brain, to this day. I didn't appreciate this song at the time, but I recognize now how beautiful it is. Makes me miss my mom💓.
I’m 59. I also remember this song very well. Makes me miss my whole family. We would gather on weekends at my uncle’s house in Harvard, Massachusetts. My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends. As Rick says, I didn’t know why the song was great, and what the lyrics meant, but that haunting melody was unforgettable. Bittersweet.
I'm 63 and this is one of the biggest "memory" songs for me, and my sisters. It matched the sadness that went with RFK and MLK being shot. I was affected by that even at my young age.
I’m also 62, and I also didn’t appreciate this song until my late wife told me it’s one of her favorites of all time. When this woman, with whom I shared a few of my own favorites (like Heart’s “Barracuda” and Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”), revealed this it really forced me to listen to it with my critical ear. And like you, it makes me miss her.😢
Im 63, it was played across the board on AM a huge "Pop" hit. We were lucky enough to live through the last of the golden age of AM. By the mid 70's everyone was switching to specialized FM stations where Rock, Pop, Country etc was played exclusively.
I'm 65 and remember my uncle playing on this song on radio I was about 6 years old that was when I realized music made me feel good. It's funny how a song can bring you back to a place and time like it was yesterday ❤
"Witchita Lineman" and "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" IMO have cemented Jimmy's and Glenn's legacy. The melodies alone of these songs are carved in pure gold.
@@alhijuelos972 Probably my favorite, but the big 4 are "Witchita Lineman" "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" "Gentle On My Mind" and “Galveston." I was lucky that Glenn was my mom's favorite singer along with Johnny Cash when I was growing up, and it was always playing in my house.
@@zyrrhos It's WICHITA. . .WHY don't people know how to spell it? IT'S NOT HARD TO SPELL. . .No it isn't. . .It's WICHITA, named for a Native American Indian Tribe!!!
@@BluesImprov Relax man. I know how to spell it, I've been listening to it since the 1960s because my mom would always have Glen's albums playing in the house. I cut and pasted it from the OP's comment, and you'll notice he also misspelled Glen's name. Which I also cut and paste.
A song that defies genre, beautiful on multiple levels. Al De Lory's arrangement is exquisite, in part because Jimmy Webb gave him such interesting chords to work with. It's cool that Carol Kaye's baseline is echoed in the strings too. And the Morse Code keyboard line that recurs gives a sense of electronic communication through the wires. Poetic touches by everyone, yet in service of the song.
Great insight! Talk about an economy of words to meaning ratio. The sunny 60s maj7 chords give a nice contrast to the loneliness of the lyric everything is a lesson in contrast.
Excellent Analysis. The String Arrangement is never given enough credit and the brilliance of "The Morse Code" Keyboard (to me) is The Lineman's cry for help.
I remember this song from before I had memories. The lyrics and longing are that powerful. My Dad was gone in Vietnam and in my 3 yr old mind, I heard my Dad singing to my Mom and I as we were waiting for him to come home.
My father also was a telephone lineman and spent a lot of time away working OT. This is one of his favorite songs. I feel like I just rediscovered this song about 2 years ago and totally analyzed it just like you do. The strings are awesome and i call it musical alliteration listening "through the lines". It makes me cry every time I hear it.
Every time I think I’m one of the few who really loves and appreciates a song, Rick Beato features it on his show. This is just another brilliant example of musical genius, with another genius (Beato) showing us the wonderful nuances. Thank you Rick for sharing your infectious love of music with us. You are very much appreciated.
Wichita Lineman takes a direct line to my soul, right from the very first measure. In all its purity, it sounds and feels like one of the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful songs ever composed.
I took this song for granted when I was young. Then I heard it a couple of years ago and I realized: Wow, this is such a beautiful song. And Glen Campbell has such an amazing voice. Just pure beauty. Like a sun rise in a desert. I imagine you don’t write songs like that. They are given to you by some higher power. You wake up and the song is waiting for you. Miracles.
One of the greatest songs ever written. I think this is a songwriter’s favorite song, because every songwriter wishes they had come up with this chord progression. It’s sublime. Jimmy Webb was also great at painting pictures with words, and this song transports me to another time and place. I saw REM do a cover of this on a tour for their second album. A highlight of my young life back then.
Thank you for breaking down this song. I've always felt this song was one of the greatest songs ever recorded. It's an emotional experience each time I hear it. Glen Campbell's vocals are exquisite.💌RIP
This piece of brilliance hit my 13 year old ears and I haven't yet heard it's equal. For me, it strikes all the right notes, musically and emotionally.
One of the reasons we love you so much Rick is because of your unrelenting enthusiasm, and the childlike joy that arises in you at the things that occur in music whether simple or complex. You are a delight.
Brilliant song. In its genre, it’s right up there with Dylan and Mac/Len’s best offerings. You can literally place yourself in the song, and live it. The Morse code bit in the post-chorus is brilliant too. Jimmy Webb called it “a simple man thinking extraordinary things.” Perfect.
understated. The angelic, soulfull, resonant, perfect pitch Glen Campbell vocal, timeless real world lyric, awesome recording/production. A tri-fecta in my view
@@mtnairpilot If you hear it as: dit-dah, dit-dah, dit-dah-dit-dit, dit-dit-dit-dit (or .- .- .-.. ....) it would be A A L H. Not real meaningful in the literal sense, but invokes a lifetime of emotion and stories untold in just a few measures. It's pure genius and mastery.
I don’t know why but at certain parts of this song it make me want to cry! There’s something deep inside that reminds me of my childhood in the 60’s-70’s. Wow thank you Rick for this video!🙏
Glen Campbell is my cousin. The Wrecking crew had more stuff on the radio than anybody in the 60s. When Glen got really famous, he stayed loyal to his crew. Such a great guy he was. I forget the lady on the bass that played with Glen, but she is beyond legendary 11 on a scale of 1-10. She would come up with bass lines on the fly that most musicians search a lifetime for. Larry Knectel who was the absolute genius musician who also played with that crew and everybody else was with the wrecking crew.
@@andrewbutton5580 Campbell thought it was perfect. But he also loved the tone of her bass. It was a Danelectro, a six-string, solid-body electric bass guitar made out of Masonite. It was often used in studios on pop recordings to add a higher sound than that of a standard Fender electric bass or an acoustic stand-up bass. Campbell asked Kaye if he could borrow the guitar to play a solo to fill the space for the third verse that Webb had never finished. An unconventional but brilliant choice, the deep, resonant passage scored a direct hit, giving the song just the right quavering, tremolo-fueled melancholic interlude.
Last minute of the video he mentioned Gordon Lightfoot. I see now looking back that Mr. Lightfoot hadn't passed away yet. You could hear the admiration Rick Beato had for Gordon Lightfoot, and to think that Gordon would pass away just less than 3 months after this video was posted in February of 2023. That is so sad, very sad. Rest in Peace Gordon Lightfoot, a hero among musicians and songwriters and song lovers alike. And continue to do what you do Rick, make these awesome videos for us all to enjoy. Thak you Rick Beato. 11/01/2023, 5:59am
Jimmy Webb is an institution of American Music. One of the greatest songwriters ever. I had the great honor of meeting him right after he wrote this song. He had just turned 23...
Your comment implies that he was a prodigy by writing this at age 23. Agree, totally. Now consider that Laura Nyro wrote And When I Die when she was about 16 or 17 years old.
@@frederickglasser5617, there's "young", there's ""gifted", there's "precocious"" and then there's Mozart, who composed the Minuet in G Major when he was five years old. Now, that's a prodigy.😁
This is one of those songs that sticks in your head forever. I was 8 years old when it came out, and it still has an emotional effect on me. Just beautiful.
Love love love this song. Yes Rick it's technically a country song, but back then the Top 40 chart was truly a Top 40 of all music and included all genres of music. Radio was great back then because a Top 40 station really covered all the best songs and this song was a hit on Top 40 radio as well as country radio.
I am not alone in saying that this isn’t just one of the great Country songs it is one of the greatest songs of all time. The way that loneliness and yearning are portrayed are poignant and mystically profound.
This song & "I've been searching so long" by Chicago really move the soul. Rip Glen & Terry Kath 😢 As a young Black man growing up in Canada circa 60s - early 70s ❤
Thank you...the song hits me in the same way, and it has a special place in my heart (I first heard it back around '68 or '69)...the orchestral arrangement adds a nice flavor... Also, per the Wikipedia article, others have sung the praises for the song...
It transcends the genre. The musicality in this song, like Rick relates, was used by various other genres. The string arrangement was on point too. Back when arrangers were used a lot for their genius.
Glenn Campbell was an awesome musician and singer. I was a rock n roll kid, born in the 50's, but I loved everything he ever did even though I wouldn't have told my friends at the time. Galveston is also an amazing song that is beautifully arranged and performed. Thank you for recognizing these amazing crossover songs that we all loved.
😂 Me too! 🙋♀️ If i ever told my friends that this was my favorite song, they would look at me like "Who are you really and what did you do to Shelly?"
“I know I need a small vacation” will make me cry, every, single, time. Being at work while my mom was dying. This is 40 years before I was born and, it’s still one of the best songs ever written.
"there's a lot of dissonances in this for a country song" Rick--guitar in hand--cutting to the heart of what takes this song to the next, haunting level. beautiful as always, thank you Rick!
Right? I've heard this song for years and it's just ... one of those special, perfect things that an artist or artists create now and then. It still gets me 40 years on.
I’ve read in Interviews with Kay that she brought her new Dano 6 string bass to the session. Glen ended up using it for the solo. When she finally heard the track, she was in a store where a radio was playing and she began to cry…
The arrangement of the strings add tension and texture to the song in a way that many people don't appreciate. The staccato violins, at the end of the chorus, actually mimic the morse code dits and dahs that made up telegraph tones. Without a doubt, Wichita Lineman is one of the best songs ever recorded.
I became somewhat of a "goth" in the 80s, and still listen to most of the obscure European new wave, goth, and "old world" music with which I fell in love back then. This song goes back to my infancy, and I still love it more than want it...(you know the rest). You can't escape the truth spoken by art (as opposed to shallow easy pop that flashes and dies away), as it speaks to us and never stops doing so. I think we're just wired for certain tones or something, and that's fine with me. : )
Takes one to know one. Some people just can't see the genius of this composition. You can. Maybe you have that gift inside you from birth that recognises the beauty of special sounds.
Glen Campbell was such an underrated vocalist. He always got recognized for his guitar playing (rightfully so) but his vocals were so sweet, smooth and a delight to listen too. Music took a huge blow with his passing.
I remember listening to this song on WFIL AM radio late at night when I was a kid. It was hauntingly beautiful then, and still is. That you picked this song today is kind of a flashback on two levels: 1. As a kid 2. And as an adult when I used to sing this song to my late wife when we were in the car. She loved this song. It's not all about the notes, With songs like this, for me it's more about memories and things passed. Thank you, Rick! You ARE the man!
This certainly is a beautiful song and so very sorry for your loss. I too grew up listening to 56 WFIL, a great station and wonderful childhood memories.
I'm not a fan of Country music, but this song has to be in my all time top 10. "And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time". Gives me goosebumps!
A good song is a good song forget the genre. After all Hank Williams was known as a folk singer in his time. Then it morphed him bring a “country singer. “
Rick thank you!! This song is so emotional. The lyrics - what an amazing concept. This man is out in the vastness of Kansas alone and “hears” his true love on the wire. Longing for her - the beauty of the chords and melody that you described so well paints this picture in my mind so deeply. I understand it so much more now - it’s all connected. Beautiful.
It’s a timeless song. There’s something beautifully ethereal about it and it defies genre. His vocals are sublime. He gave the world a beautiful gift when he recorded it.
Wichita Lineman has always been a favourite of mine. As a teenager in the UK in the very early 1990s I found an amplifier and speakers going cheap and I set them up on the floor of our living room to test it out and chose this song. My mother who really didn’t care much for any music that wasn’t classical, came out from the kitchen asking me what I was playing. She instantly loved it and thought it was beautifully haunting. That was the first time that she appreciated that I had some sort of taste in music. She never came around to Nirvana for some reason… Edit: years later as an adult, I was working on the computer in her study and I had Telegraph Road by Dire Straits playing. She thought that was fantastic too, remarking on the quality of the musicianship. I found that totally out of character for her. Perhaps she just had a thing for wires on poles running alongside a road!
I'm from Israel - country music is not a thing here, obviously. It's one of those things I'm not sure have crossed the ocean much at all. I heard this song on an Ozark episode a few years ago and thought it had an interesting harmonic structure and progression, the same way Rick explains here. But here's the thing - is it actually "country"? Perhaps the delivery of the singing, somewhat, and the theme of the lyrics, but composition-wise it seems nothing like a bunch of country songs I've heard in the past which seemed to follow some pretty specific harmonic formula that had much less variance from the same-ol' I-IV-V than is present in this song.
@@TLguitar The storytelling element of the song is very country-esque and the strings are very reminiscent of other country-pop (‘countrypolitan’) of the era. You’re right though, the melody and structure is more sophisticated than a lot of country songs, which can be quite generic. (I still love a lot of those songs tho).
@@Steaminlidz Yeah, so more on the "presentational" level, and perhaps especially because the singer is associated with country. I have listened to a couple of songs by Glen Campbell just now and strings were used in all of them to some degree, but on the compositional level there were striking differences compared to Wichita Lineman. I'm not sure what genre it fits (maybe on the aesthetical level it's reminiscent of classic French Pop? Not that I know too many of those), but _country_ seems secondary at most.
@@TLguitar Glenn Campbell kind of blended the genres of pop and country. He's been inducted into the country music hall of fame, but I'd personally consider this song more folk or easy listening than country. Try not to get too caught up in what genre a song is - the lines between genres can be very hard to identify, and it's at least somewhat up to individual beliefs, if you ask me. I'd imagine there's also the issue of translation not capturing some of the nuance of what a genres is. So while I don't agree that this is a country song per se, I respect that Glenn Campbell was a country artist, and Rick's opinion is valid even if I don't agree with it. "Old Town Road" is a country song, whether people accept it as one or not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Read Jim’s Book Tunesmith.Great Book on his structured songwriting. He believed in 2 areas. Substitution and the subconscious mind in songwriting.A must read for anyone who is serious about songwriting.and music..
I'm very lucky to have seen Jimmy Webb perform his songs and tell stories twice (including his wonderful tribute to Glen Campbell). You are right, he deserves legendary status.
I've asked many, many times for a breakdown of this song and I'm so glad you've done this, thank you. As a music lover I always knew this song was amazing but as a songwriter I struggled to put my finger on why, its THE perfect combination of inventive chord changes, absolutely beautiful melody from Glenn plus heart wrenching lyrics. I literally well up with tears every time I listen to it and truly regret being too young and/or not interested in Mr Campbell until relatively recently, an absolute genius of a musician and by all accounts a wonderful man.
One of my favorite songs of all time. Penned by Jimmy Webb and sung by the immortal Glenn Campbell. First saw it performed as a young kid on the Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour.
I’ve been a longtime fan of Glen Campbell and had a huge crush on him back in the day..he was a true original and an amazing talent. RIP, I miss him so much💕
I got to see him live in Las Vegas in 1975 and I was 17 years old. One of my favorite memories. I was staying with cousins and they treated me by taking me to the show. The Lennon Sisters were the opening act. That was more my parents speed.
One of the greatest lines ever penned, "And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time."
I say this to my wife all the time it is the best line ever written in my opinion
Amen
Agreed!!!
@@brianbright7501 I do as well
It always choked me up while singing it…🙌
My father was a lineman.
When he died, we played it at his funeral. You will never see so many big burly men anywhere else break down in tears. So moving.
😭
My dad's name was Glen. And I just broke down reading that.
Real men cry.
My dad was a lineman also
Don't misunderstand me but that must have been cool to see. I know I would have cried.
The ONE PROBLEM with this song is it's too short.
It definitely leaves one wanting more. I just play it on repeat. 😂
That's the nucleus of musical meds, Pure love over any bandwidth, By the time you get this I'll be drinking, home made wine wine, and that's why all my loves are gone all over the globe! Short stoppers, and I know that's not what you meant -☺
I know. But songs back then had to play in the 3 to 4 minute format (it is 3:05)
Exactly ! 🎯 🎯
Juss listened to that bad boy about six times
I was fortunate enough to play a few gigs with Glen Campbell...the guy never missed a lick, not even in rehearsal. And just a sweetheart of a guy to all of us. RIP!!!
That must be a memory to cherish. He had it all and I think he made the most of it.
Amazing to think that he didn't consider himself much of a singer -- just guitar sideman who kept getting asked to sing.
That is so amazing for you. I remember him on all sorts of tv shows when I was a boy. Always smiled it seemed.
He always just seem like the guy next-door. He grew up really poor as a kid.
One of the greatest guitarists to ever live. Just being able to play with him says a lot about your musicianship. Awesome!
Comment from another video of this song: "My Dad was a lineman in the Midwest for 35 years.
He walked in 5 minutes late to work one morning and his boss asked him why he was late.
He explained that Wichita Lineman came on the radio as he was pulling in.
The whole crew nodded approvingly and his boss said it was an acceptable excuse.
Glen Campbell was such a legend."
That beats, “the highway was jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive”.
Loved the song since I was a child. Am SO glad to hear that both musicians AND real linemen love the song too!
This in itself is a song, wonderful and I bet your Dad was a great man.
My husband and son are both linemen. ❤
Gotta call BS on that lineman’s excuse. 5 minutes? I don’t think so, the song’s only 3 minutes long 😉…that’s its one and only flaw.
If only Wichita Lineman were 5 whole minutes long…the world would be such a better place.
Just kidding of course…that’s an awesome story.
Wichita Lineman is one of the best American songs ever made, and the production on it is a monster. Those strings are out of this world.
Al De Lory - producer, arranger
You nailed it!
It indeed is such an “American sounding” track.
WERE THE STRINGS done by Webb and Marty Paich?!!?
Best Engineered Recording (non Classical) Grammy for the year.
My Dad is a lineman. A very hard and dangerous job. I've heard him say many times, "If you don't respect the job, you will be fried like a piece of bacon. I've seen it happen several times." Without these men, our modern way of life just isn't possible.
My hat’s off to your dad and his fellows.
Your Dad is a hero.
I have a nephew that early last year got a job as a lineman in Arizona. I am sure he will do well in his new career.
Yeah, there was a friend of my mom who I'd met once or twice who fried both of his arms working for the electric company. But isn't Campbell talking about telephone lines?
I'm a Floridian and I have wicked respect for linemen. ❤️
My late mother, Keith Ann Armor, was Jimmy Webb’s high school English teacher in Laverne, Oklahoma. I credit her with giving him the education for his great lyrics.
That's extremely cool.
Awesome and bkessed!
This is my fave country song of all time. Others come close, one in particular Good Time Charlie's got the blues by Danny O'Keefe
John Mayer's all-time favorite song is Glen Campbell 's, "Gentle on My Mind" He said I don't know how it will ever get knocked off his #1 perch. It would have to take one hell of a miraculous song to do so.
@@riverwalker2173 It's John Hartford's song. RCA didn't consider it a Country song, and neither do I. It's been recorded by everyone from Elvis to Sinatra to Aretha to Andy Williams.
I consider it one of the greatest songs I know, and Campbell's version is superior.
Carol Kaye absolutely kills it on this song... Just beautiful bass playing... When I first heard this song in 68 I was floored and knew this was , for me, the greatest single ever recorded... A young girl in eighth grade asked me dance to this new 45... 55 years later we recently reconnected and will be getting married in May... This song is our song.
Congratulations 🎉
Wow! How cool
I didn't know Carol Kaye played the base in this song. Wow, now I know why I loved it so much.
Beautiful to hear you found your love.
that story is as good as the song!
Bravo!
Love prevails!
I never considered this a “country” tune…this was a straight-up, Top 40 pop music hit at the time. Just a great song that rises above categorization.
It never was considered a country song.. Jimmy Webb wrote McArther Park and Up, Up And Away FFS. Rick is way out of his wheelhouse on his familiarity with this song and it life music history. There is no such thing as a "country song" of this era, or any, with this type of piano orchestral chords or freakin' number of chords in "country music".
Even Jimmy Webb's The Highwayman isn't really a country song though Waylon, Willie, Johnny & Kristopherson had a huge country hit with it. The song is really an American Folk song and again has more chords and different chordal movement than anything country.
@@ErnieDouglas Well the genre at that time was called "Country and Western". So the "Highwayman" probably fit into the Western category. You know, kind of like "Ghost Riders in the Sky".
"The Streets of Loredo" would be kind of folk/Western I guess.
@@ErnieDouglas The changes are way too hip for a country tune.
You took the words out of my mouth. I’m not a Country fan, but I love some of Glenn Campbells songs.
@@ErnieDouglas Country went the way of POP via Nashville years back-
Best music is coming out of Texas and West of it IMO-
I read an interview with Jimmy Webb where he was asked what this song was about. He said it's about how "just because a guy is out there in his truck, you can't assume he's not a poet." Just makes the lyric even more poignant.
And let's not forget he was super young when this came out, in his early 20s.
I love that! So true!
Wichita Lineman is a such a touching song; every time I hear it, it makes me stop in my tracks, and think about a special girl I knew and oved.
What if the line doesn't follow the main road? What about that, huh?
Having the opportunity to work with singer songwriters, I have found they often work day jobs that allow them to not only pay the bills. But allow them to let their minds wonder to other things, or observe the human condition giving fuel to their song writing.
I’m a journeyman lineman and it makes me think about all of the guys that aren’t with us anymore or have cancer, Alzheimer’s or have had a stroke or other health problem. It makes me feel proud to have done line work. It’s a beautiful old song.
I’m a retired JL, I always thought this song was corny when I was younger, now I appreciate how beautiful it is.
Whenever I fall in love, one of two melodies always haunt me in my dreams: Wichita Lineman or Days of Wine and Roses. There’s something in those melodies that just resonate so strongly with me and all other human blessed with hearing it
My oldest brother who is now 86 started his career with the telephone company back in the 50s.
Once while climbing a pole it snapped sending him crashing to the ground requiring knee surgery.
The surgeon did such an awesome job that he has never had trouble with it to this day!😊
Thank you brother, for what you do. Bringing power to homes makes life so much better
"And I need you more than want you,
And I want you for all time"
One of the most achingly romantic lines I've ever heard. Especially the way Glenn delivers it.
I just think this is the best version I’ve heard, and Glenn’s singing is just beyond
Totally agree.
💕
💯
Indeed it is! Thank you John Hartford & Glen Campbell! 2 of the greatest ever!
Gorgeous.
Heartbraking.
Absolutely the best.
I covered this song a lot, and never grew weary of it. Just fantastic.
I was working at a multimedia studio in downtown Los Angeles some years back. We were invited to the Malibu Music Awards. Glen Campbell was being given an award. He performed with his kids. His cognitive decline was advanced and his daughter stayed close on stage to prompt him if he lost his place...but the beauty of his musical genius still shined thru. He retired some months later...so I was in one of the last audiences to see him. I was in the front row and he was a couple of feet away. I'm so grateful I got to see one of the giants of the golden age of pop music.
When I was young I just thought he was a cheesy country singer. As an old, somewhat more mature and knowledgeable person, I now see him as an all time great who'll forever be above my pay grade. I did love this song at the time (although I wouldn't admit to it), now I know why. What a talent. Rip.
I saw a video of his last concert. His daughter was so sweet. “You just did that song, daddy” as he starts playing again. It was sad and sweet.
@@DexterHaven In an interview, Glen said that sheet music "looked like a chicken walked across the page with ink on its feet" lol
I remember when he was declining but still playing, and he even talked about it openly. I THINK he said that he needed help with the words, but he could remember the chords just fine. Correct me if I'm wrong.
🤔When I was kid... occasionally I would here someone say...." They don't make em like that anymore" ....who would of thought that statement would REALLY come to fruition 😳... 😏Sad but very greatful☺️ to have lived in a time when music of the heart has so many flavors and colors....of expression.. ( unlike the last 15 or 20 yrs) ✌️🙏💖
My dad was a lineman for 42 years. I have the utmost respect for his profession and those who do it. It’s a crucial job that takes special talent and dedication.
Absolutely not the greatest country song, not even close. And the performance of this song is a disgrace to country music with all the strings. Sounds like the Lawrence Welk show
To me the songs a total beauty, regardless of what genre you want to plop it in. And I can imagine there are a lot of country artists who would call you on the idea that this is a disgrace simply because strings were used. I think the strings are gorgeous myself. But to each his own…
I recall listening to this on AM country radio in the seventies. Perhaps you're use to hick hop.
I have a brother in law and a nephew who are electricians for a large power company in Iowa. It's not a job I ever wanted to do. Especially in the winter.
Yeah, whoever heard of strings in country music?
You do know fiddles and violins are the same thing, don’t you?
This song reminds me of being about 8 years old and driving with my mom in the car listening to AM radio. The song always has and always will give me "the feels"
Yup,definitely an AM radio classic.
I'm a lifelong rock and roll fan but Wichita Lineman is easily one of my favorite songs. Webb and Campbell were magical.
absolutely. Not a country fan, but this song is so good. I was 8 when thia song came out and saw it on tv at my cousin's house. My uncle was a big country fan
@@smtpgirl Might not be what's recognized as "country" but a great song-
Only 2 kinds of music anyway, songs you like and songs you don't...
Web was/is magical. Do a little research into either.
Just strikes me as a pop song, accepted in different circles.
REM - like them or loathe them, loved to perform this song.
This song and Galveston are my favorites from Glen. He performed as long as he was able. True artist. RIP Glen
If you haven't heard his good bye song. It will make you cry . I think it's called I won't remember you when I'm gone.
One of the best ever!
Southern nights for me!!!
Left memories that transcend time itself.
@@loveistruth5713Ghost on the Canvas?
The image you get of the loneliness of being a Lineman, giving you time to think about life and love. Timeless and haunting. Thank God for giving us Webb and Campbell. The violins sound like the sound of current running through the wires.
Masterful arrangement❤
This song exists in a world of its own and never fails to bring tears to my eyes. My favorite song of all time. A masterpiece!!
I agree completely it crosses all musical borders because it touches the sadness and loneliness we all feel working all those countless hours away from who we truly love and want to spend most of the time in our lives with. It really is lonely out there working by yourself away from the people you love the most in the world. I hated being separated from my wife and kids working 60-80+ hours a week. So many millions of people do it every week of every year of their lives and it’s sad. When we finally get to retire or go broke because we can’t afford to retire with our broken down bodies and there’s not much left, we ask ourselves was it worth it? My Dad told me that he’s never heard of anybody laying on their death bed who wished they had spent more time away from their family working overtime. Wichita Linemen pulls those heart strings for me. I’ve never talked to anyone about this song before. But you’re right it’s a great song that really touches hearts. Sorry to ramble on but I really liked your comment and it got me thinking. Cheers!
@@jeffscott7266 ❤️❤️❤️
@@jeffscott7266 I've heard that actual Wichita Lineman (probably electrical linemen too) have a deep respect for the song when it's playing.
@@keithwiebe1787: I could definitely see that as a possibility for Wichita Linemen and for all people responsible for repairing power and telephone lines downed from storms at all the odd hours night and day.
When I was in the Air Force I used to sing 🎶
“I am an Airman for my country🎵 Fixing broken aircraft everyday.
And I need a small vacation,
from working my fingers to the bone.
I’ve been on this flight line for a long long time! 🎵
It hurt my heart then and hurts my heart now but for different reasons. Then as a love song. Now, bittersweet nostalgia. Reminds me of childhood, the 70s, my parents - each, now gone.
I read an interview with Jimmy Webb where he said that he gave this song to GC as unfinished. Then he heard from GC that it was coming out on an album. Jimmy says, "It wasn't finished. There's no third verse." And GC replied. "It's finished now." Jimmy couldn't say enough about how having that third verse as an instrumental was, in his mind, the best thing that ever happened to that song. He definitely knew talent when he saw it.
Campbell thought it was perfect. But he also loved the tone of her bass. It was a Danelectro, a six-string, solid-body electric bass guitar made out of Masonite. It was often used in studios on pop recordings to add a higher sound than that of a standard Fender electric bass or an acoustic stand-up bass.
Campbell asked Kaye if he could borrow the guitar to play a solo to fill the space for the third verse that Webb had never finished. An unconventional but brilliant choice, the deep, resonant passage scored a direct hit, giving the song just the right quavering, tremolo-fueled melancholic interlude.
Al De Lory's name is rarely mentioned, if at all re this recording. He was responsible for much of the lush arrangement heard here. Perfect without being elevator background music. I remember from years ago seeing his name displayed prominently on the gold/red 45 rpm as it should have been. Oh how I love this arrangement! Sure, it was Campbell/Webb but I personally always add De Lory's name also. DeLory "finished it." He also did the instrumentation/arranging on Phoenix and Galveston. Webb didn't actually have Campbell in mind for Phoenix, Johnny Rivers recorded the original.
Jose Feliciano has a great all instrumental easy listening cover of Wichita. (See on YT if interested). On my playlist I sometimes play GC's vocal version followed JF's instrumental.....daaamnnn! It's good to be alive... and able to hear.
Heard Entwhistle kept breaking that bass - useless to him, LOL...
This song makes what little hair is left on the back of my neck stand up. I am an unabashed metal head, but will never shy away from my love of other genres. People double take when I tell them this is my favourite song. An absolute masterpiece. Thank you Rick. I love your diversity.
Axl Rose covered ,"Wichita Lineman" live. You can see clips on RUclips.
@@seeburg10 thank you 😊
👍🏻
you don't owe anyone any explanations for why you like a song. We used to call these songs guilty pleasures, stuff you hid from your friends for fear of not looking cool. but at some point, I stopped feeling guilty around my friends about what songs I liked. Eff them.
@@mojorider8455 Exactly right. If a song's good and your friends don't get it, their loss. I think everyone loves Wichita Lineman though.
Glenn’s voice..another beautiful instrument.
This song has it all....longing, lonliness, and sheer joy. I've always been amazed how a series of notes, chords, and rhythms can illicit such a universal and emotional response. Thank god for recording devices and sound engineers, who captured this masterpiece.
The master arranger Al Delory also played a big part in this recording .
because the song does not resolve to the tonic...so it has you hanging for home in the distant future....purposely written not to resolve.
Well put..
Exactly. The pathos driving this song does it for me. It's heartfelt.
Beautiful words Sir
Never thought of this as a country song. Beyond categorization.
Yes, it also has a psychedelic dreamy quality. I wouldn't find anything wrong with this being played on classic rock radio.
Crosses all lines of music.
My dad worked for the same phone company in Boise Idaho for 46 years and was a lineman for many of those years, so this song always meant something to me.
Searchin in the sun for another overload?
❤
Different kind of lineman
Linemen are heroes
💚
Here’s what I know, for 50 some years I’ve been hearing this song. Every time it gives me chills and goosebumps. It never gets old.
This song is timeless.
Glenn Campbell memory will always stay with me.
What a complete talent he was.
From singing,guitar,acting.
My dad was a lineman for Southern Bell in the 60’s. This song always makes me think of him. The lyrics here are masterful in creating a mood and emotion. Jimmy Webb was a true genius with words. He and Gordon Lightfoot made songs into literature
Wow, yes.
I'm 62. This song and other haunting songs as a kid use to make me cry and I didn't understand why. Now I still cry but understand why.
This song hits right onto my soul.
Can remember listening to it in summer of my youth in days of cars having AM radios.
The warm summer breeze made you feel alive.
Miss those days when people weren't in such a hurry.
❤❤❤
I’m a few weeks from 60, and I completely relate. This song stirred my soul as a child, and still moves me today.
I absolutely love this song🤎I cry every time I hear it.
Most Profound! They don't write 'em like this anymore. That fact makes me cry too. Glad I'm 62 too, ✌️
Even as a young boy found this song achingly beautiful. One of my 60’s favorites!!!!
You are not alone. I was in 9th grade Civics class. The teacher asked Arnold where the Commission form of government started. Arnold was busy killing flies. He had no clue. The teacher said, "Here's a hint. Glen Campbell song." Arnold had a big smile on his face and said, "Witchita Lineman." The teacher replied, "Nope - Galveston." The entire class laughed. Some things stay with you.
Check out the Nashville Gold Switched On Moog version of it.
This song is an American legend, written by a legend and performed by a legend. Ya can't get any better.
NOPE...
To each his own, Gregg, but I’m a big Yep…
Written for Glen,made famous by Glen,many tried, though no singer ever came close to his masterpiece.
For 2 years I was a therapist at a facility for people with schizophrenia, and a man there would request that we play songs he remembered that would calm and ground him. I compiled a 2-page list of all the songs he requested, and I still think of him when I hear them. This was one of the best ones!
I wasn't expecting to cry 😢 but Glen and the violins...and Webb's gift of finding words and musical notes just pull you in.
So, so true. When Rick brought it up in the video it immediately brought tears. THIS was music - it IS timeless.
Mom loved Glen Campbell and especially this song. We played this song during her funeral. I feel close to Mom when I hear this song. Thank you, Rick.
I wouldn't even qualify it as "Country" song. I'm not usually a country music fan, but I think its one of the greatest songs ever written from ANY genre. 3 minutes of perfection.
Agreed. For some reason, "pop" music artists, and their songs, are thrown into the "country" category.
I agree 100%
Totally agree. I was a high school freshman in 10-26-68 when it was released & was played on the top 40 rock stations. I think it’s considered a country song is because Glen Campbell went country a few years later. Still a beautiful song 55 years later! Rick Beato was probably first grader when it was released.
It's considered "Countrypolitan" which is basically country songs that are written to be accompanied with orchestral instrumentation instead of just the traditional guitar, bass, and drums.
I agree Phil...not bad for silly love song! Oregon
This song saved my life.
For me it is about moving forward no matter what and it came on the radio while I was driving to an appointment with my death.
That was in 1977 - needless to say, it changed my state of mind and 47 years later I am still moving forward.
When I was a child, I used to pick up empty soda bottles and save them for the nickle deposit. I saved up about a dollar and bought the 45 of this song at a local 5 &10 store, having become mesmerized by hearing it on the radio. I played it over and over and it became one of my all time favorite songs. The very first record I ever bought. It remains a hauntingly beautiful and melancholy song that I still listen to on a regular basis. I've been a Glen Campbell fan ever since.
My buddy growing up had a paper route. His bike had a basket on it.
He and I would ride the roads picking up soda bottles and take them to Tommy Boyd's service station to turn in for candy and nab money that we would use in the service station.
What a great memory for this 68 year old "kid"!!
I'd attended a gathering at a relatives retirement home where a solo guitarist was performing in the communities courtyard, providing music as a backdrop for multiple family oriented attractions and activities. Something about the way he performed/played and sang made me think of this song so I requested he play it & he graciously said he would with a huge smile on his face. When he was done there was applause throughout the courtyard, the only applause I heard for him all that day from the busy distracted presence there at the event. I personally thought he'd nailed it and revisited his podium & thanked him. He thanked me right back for requesting one of his all time favorite songs.
My mom is dealing with some memory issues that many older people deal with,but if we play this song,she perks right up,smiles,and remembers the words! You picked the write song, although Glenn had so many great songs!!
And Glen, when he was deeply into his Alz disease, could still play and remember his songs.
I’ve done a lot of performing in nursing homes - music somehow cuts through the brain fog & goes right to the soul. All the best to your mom!
@@petesawchuk thank you
I am a pastor and do a lot of visiting of elderly people with memory issues and I’ve seen that with hymns and the Lord’s Prayer also.
"And I need you more than want you... And I'll want you for all time" was the first time I noticed a lyric... it's what got me into music... I think I was 9yrs old and it's still my favourite lyric.
I'll be 70 this year and I grew up with Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Tull, Bowie, CCR and all that, but I've also loved artists like The Carpenters, ABBA, Glen Campbell and a host of music from various genres. This song is one of my all time favorites. It' has a haunting effect to it.
Guns & Roses actually did a great cover of this song, at one of their concerts, shortly after Glenn passed. Axle was on point and band were also. Very respectable cover. On u tube.
I have one record hanging on my wall. Willie Nelson's Stardust (1978) is a cover of American standards that is a tapestry of the souls' joy and melancoloy. It resonated for me as a kid and is a good example of how Nelson like Dolly Parton who grew out of studios with narrow corridors so to speak were unafraid to embrace losts of divergent musical inspirations. Nelson's Borderline is another example.
Have you seen Jerry Reed with Chet Atkins here on YT
Also Roy Clark playing Malagueña on the old Odd couple tv show also here on YT.
Well worth the search
@@Lilah1754 - Wichita Lineman was a go-to for REM to do live during their heyday even a couple or three decades ago. They were known for throwing in songs that were great but not necessarily ‘cool’ by rock radio standards of the time. It’s a great song, and everyone that performed or performs it gives a nod to both the writer Jimmy Webb and the great Glen Campbell version of the song.
I’m 33 I grew up with zeppelin 😊
I'm born in 61 and I have always even as a child loved this song. It's haunting and despite the nostalgia even now I can't help being moved by this masterpiece. I'm guessing that most people that watch Rick Beato will have an eclectic taste in music with their blinds off. How amazing that one of your viewers has a connection with this song through his surrogate family connections. I went to a Glen Campbell gig in Dunedin New Zealand in the late nineties and I am soooo grateful I did. A remarkable talent.
One of the greatest guitar players of all time. Criminally underrated.
The telegraph lick slayed me as a kid, about 9 years old
im a 1961 birther too and grew up with his music ..i have 2 dvds of his best performances and saw him about 20 years ago in southern Indiana
Hello fellow Kiwi. Yep grew up in the BOP & Mum used to stick on Glen Campbell cassettes in the car ...& we'd sing along.
One of my favorite songs ever. Still chokes me up because of the strength of the melody against the chords and that unbelievable string arrangement. Just kills me every time.
Copy and paste.. 😢
It's so typical of the time (late '60s/early '70s) these melodic arrangements, melodies within the basic song you just don't hear such brilliant composing anymore. For decades now, I'd say we're been without it in popular music.
I'm the same whenever I hear this song. Chokes me up every time.
This song always takes me back to my childhood. My next door neighbor used play this song all the time and even though I was too young to understand the words, the melody was so beautiful and always filled me with calm. All these years later, I find myself transported back in time whenever I hear it.
Truly one of the greatest songs ever. Having said that, I have trouble picking this over Galveston and By The Time I Get To Phoenix. Each tells an incredibly power story in just a few stanzas. Webb was truly a gem. Campbell’s voice is honey. The Wrecking Crew was so important as well!
I would also include Gentle on My Mind by by John Hartford.
I pick this over the other sings you mentioned because of the depth of emotion shown here, the kind of emotion that men don't usually show and that men in country songs don't usually show. He's all alone with no one to talk to, and he can hardly even express it to himself. He tries to think about the job and the task at hand but his heart is about to burst from aching loneliness. It's just a masterpiece.
By the time I get to Phoenix is brilliant too, for other reasons: the way the story builds until we all realize what is happening. But it has more verses and a longer time to tell the story. Wichita Lineman has only two verses, where the guy is trying to avoid facing/expressing his deep longing, but it spills out anyway in the choruses because it is so overwhelming.
So Phoenix is one of the greatest too, right up there (and oddly enough Phoenix was also played on the black stations), but Wichita Lineman wins for putting a timeless love song in the mouth of a supposedly unlikely character to be singing it, and doing it in so few words.
The string arrangement and the simple, evocative baritone guitar solo also put it over the top.
Isaac Hayes has a gorgeous version of By the Time I Get to Phoenix.❤️🎶
It's all Jimmy Webb
Thanx for 'the Crew'
One of the best songs of the 20th Century - on every level. Gorgeous changes, incredible lyrics, a melody to die for. This is inspired composition. The emotional content is irresistible, magnetic, so poignant. Cuts right to the heart. I teach songwriting and force all my students to learn it and sing it. I rhapsodize about its brilliance and it kills me every time. Every single time, it knocks me out. Jimmy Webb - thank you for writing this. I would not call this a country song. Bobby McGee is a country song. This is far beyond country music, vastly more sophisticated. Yes, the changes are stunning and the melody/harmony/lyric prosody is perfection.
Fantastic reply on your part, truly inspiring!
Yes, it kinda sounds like jazz!
It's soft pop similar to the brilliant duo Seals and Croft. I loved the mystique, the naivety or innocence of the seventies. The musicians however were no slouches of this calibre but could write songs accessible to the pop loving audience but with an underlying sophistication that made all the difference between ordinary to extraordinary.
Yes, great song, period. Country? Not so much.
Love this explanation - exactly how i feel
Remember this song so clearly from my childhood. My parents loved Glen Campbell and we watched his variety show every week. Watching him and Jimmy Webb play together was just music perfection. As Rick said, even though we were kids-we just knew it was a great song though we didn’t know why.
Yes! A great variety show! Glen was such a great entertainer! He had it all epic studio musician and fantastic voice too!! Sings each song with such heart and feeling! I miss him!! 💝💝
He didn't criticize it in general.
Not only one of the greatest country songs, one of the greatest songs ever. Period. The combination of melody, chords and lyrics creates a haunting, longingness that is indescribable.
'And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time' - such a profound lyric that gets me every time.. Thankful for my dad to have introduced me to Glen Campbell
This is the best line in any country or pop song.
@@gintsrobertberzins1690 Agree.
Nowhere in this podcast or anywhere else did I say anything like that.
The Greatest Lyric ever written:
And I need you more than want you…
And I want you for all time…🙌
My immediate thought, friend. Golden!
I'm 62 years old, but I can clearly remember this song from my childhood. My mom played the radio on the country station only, and those songs are planted firmly in my brain, to this day.
I didn't appreciate this song at the time, but I recognize now how beautiful it is. Makes me miss my mom💓.
I’m 59. I also remember this song very well. Makes me miss my whole family. We would gather on weekends at my uncle’s house in Harvard, Massachusetts. My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends. As Rick says, I didn’t know why the song was great, and what the lyrics meant, but that haunting melody was unforgettable. Bittersweet.
I'm 63 and this is one of the biggest "memory" songs for me, and my sisters. It matched the sadness that went with RFK and MLK being shot. I was affected by that even at my young age.
I’m also 62, and I also didn’t appreciate this song until my late wife told me it’s one of her favorites of all time. When this woman, with whom I shared a few of my own favorites (like Heart’s “Barracuda” and Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”), revealed this it really forced me to listen to it with my critical ear. And like you, it makes me miss her.😢
Im 63, it was played across the board on AM a huge "Pop" hit. We were lucky enough to live through the last of the golden age of AM. By the mid 70's everyone was switching to specialized FM stations where Rock, Pop, Country etc was played exclusively.
I am 62 as well and have the same experience with this song and others. Also planted firmly in my brain.
I'm 65 and remember my uncle playing on this song on radio I was about 6 years old that was when I realized music made me feel good. It's funny how a song can bring you back to a place and time like it was yesterday ❤
"Witchita Lineman" and "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" IMO have cemented Jimmy's and Glenn's legacy. The melodies alone of these songs are carved in pure gold.
And don’t leave out “Galveston,” another incredibly beautiful song.
@@alhijuelos972 Probably my favorite, but the big 4 are "Witchita Lineman" "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" "Gentle On My Mind" and “Galveston." I was lucky that Glenn was my mom's favorite singer along with Johnny Cash when I was growing up, and it was always playing in my house.
For God's sake, IT'S "WICHITA". . .NOT hard to spell. . .NO IT'S NOT!!! The city is named after a Native American Indian Tribe!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@zyrrhos It's WICHITA. . .WHY don't people know how to spell it? IT'S NOT HARD TO SPELL. . .No it isn't. . .It's WICHITA, named for a Native American Indian Tribe!!!
@@BluesImprov Relax man. I know how to spell it, I've been listening to it since the 1960s because my mom would always have Glen's albums playing in the house. I cut and pasted it from the OP's comment, and you'll notice he also misspelled Glen's name. Which I also cut and paste.
This song never fails to put a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. Absolutely gorgeous!
A song that defies genre, beautiful on multiple levels. Al De Lory's arrangement is exquisite, in part because Jimmy Webb gave him such interesting chords to work with. It's cool that Carol Kaye's baseline is echoed in the strings too. And the Morse Code keyboard line that recurs gives a sense of electronic communication through the wires. Poetic touches by everyone, yet in service of the song.
Great insight! Talk about an economy of words to meaning ratio. The sunny 60s maj7 chords give a nice contrast to the loneliness of the lyric everything is a lesson in contrast.
Excellent Analysis. The String Arrangement is never given enough credit and the brilliance of "The Morse Code" Keyboard (to me) is The Lineman's cry for help.
⭐❤
Well stated everything you say is what makes the such a great song. So true little things like the Morse code.
Great thoughts…agreed!!
I remember this song from before I had memories. The lyrics and longing are that powerful. My Dad was gone in Vietnam and in my 3 yr old mind, I heard my Dad singing to my Mom and I as we were waiting for him to come home.
My father also was a telephone lineman and spent a lot of time away working OT. This is one of his favorite songs. I feel like I just rediscovered this song about 2 years ago and totally analyzed it just like you do. The strings are awesome and i call it musical alliteration listening "through the lines". It makes me cry every time I hear it.
Every time I think I’m one of the few who really loves and appreciates a song, Rick Beato features it on his show. This is just another brilliant example of musical genius, with another genius (Beato) showing us the wonderful nuances. Thank you Rick for sharing your infectious love of music with us. You are very much appreciated.
Wichita Lineman takes a direct line to my soul, right from the very first measure. In all its purity, it sounds and feels like one of the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful songs ever composed.
Well said!
I took this song for granted when I was young. Then I heard it a couple of years ago and I realized: Wow, this is such a beautiful song. And Glen Campbell has such an amazing voice. Just pure beauty. Like a sun rise in a desert. I imagine you don’t write songs like that. They are given to you by some higher power. You wake up and the song is waiting for you. Miracles.
Glenn Campbell is a national treasure
@@Ronald-hx6zn ❤️
One of the greatest songs ever written. I think this is a songwriter’s favorite song, because every songwriter wishes they had come up with this chord progression. It’s sublime. Jimmy Webb was also great at painting pictures with words, and this song transports me to another time and place. I saw REM do a cover of this on a tour for their second album. A highlight of my young life back then.
R.E.M. didn’t play the right chords, they simplified it. Check out the Stone Temple Pilots version with Glen Campbell, it’s a great cover.
Thank you for breaking down this song. I've always felt this song was one of the greatest songs ever recorded.
It's an emotional experience each time I hear it. Glen Campbell's vocals are exquisite.💌RIP
This piece of brilliance hit my 13 year old ears and I haven't yet heard it's equal. For me, it strikes all the right notes, musically and emotionally.
Great comment musically and emotionally
One of the reasons we love you so much Rick is because of your unrelenting enthusiasm, and the childlike joy that arises in you at the things that occur in music whether simple or complex.
You are a delight.
Brilliant song. In its genre, it’s right up there with Dylan and Mac/Len’s best offerings. You can literally place yourself in the song, and live it. The Morse code bit in the post-chorus is brilliant too.
Jimmy Webb called it “a simple man thinking extraordinary things.” Perfect.
As a radio ham, I appreciate the Morse bit .... ..
According to Glen Campbell, it was Webb himself who came up with the Morse code bit during recording.
@@XE1GXG does it translate to anything?
understated. The angelic, soulfull, resonant,
perfect pitch Glen Campbell vocal, timeless real world lyric, awesome recording/production. A tri-fecta in my view
@@mtnairpilot If you hear it as: dit-dah, dit-dah, dit-dah-dit-dit, dit-dit-dit-dit (or .- .- .-.. ....) it would be A A L H. Not real meaningful in the literal sense, but invokes a lifetime of emotion and stories untold in just a few measures. It's pure genius and mastery.
I don’t know why but at certain parts of this song it make me want to cry! There’s something deep inside that reminds me of my childhood in the 60’s-70’s. Wow thank you Rick for this video!🙏
It is such a lonely and longing song..,
It's the chording
I feel the exact way!!!😂
@@mindykloster3540 So do I, Mindy and Tony!!!
I have to line up here too. Same for me.
Glen Campbell is my cousin. The Wrecking crew had more stuff on the radio than anybody in the 60s. When Glen got really famous, he stayed loyal to his crew. Such a great guy he was. I forget the lady on the bass that played with Glen, but she is beyond legendary 11 on a scale of 1-10. She would come up with bass lines on the fly that most musicians search a lifetime for. Larry Knectel who was the absolute genius musician who also played with that crew and everybody else was with the wrecking crew.
Carol Kaye was the bass player.
Wow Andrew. you are related to a legend. Do you know his daughter?
@@creativesource3514 I do not. Those relatives are in Missouri I believe and I am in Colorado, so not close at all.
@@andrewbutton5580
Campbell thought it was perfect. But he also loved the tone of her bass. It was a Danelectro, a six-string, solid-body electric bass guitar made out of Masonite. It was often used in studios on pop recordings to add a higher sound than that of a standard Fender electric bass or an acoustic stand-up bass.
Campbell asked Kaye if he could borrow the guitar to play a solo to fill the space for the third verse that Webb had never finished. An unconventional but brilliant choice, the deep, resonant passage scored a direct hit, giving the song just the right quavering, tremolo-fueled melancholic interlude.
What happened to Larry Knectel? I believe he was with Bread.
Last minute of the video he mentioned Gordon Lightfoot. I see now looking back that Mr. Lightfoot hadn't passed away yet. You could hear the admiration Rick Beato had for Gordon Lightfoot, and to think that Gordon would pass away just less than 3 months after this video was posted in February of 2023. That is so sad, very sad. Rest in Peace Gordon Lightfoot, a hero among musicians and songwriters and song lovers alike. And continue to do what you do Rick, make these awesome videos for us all to enjoy. Thak you Rick Beato.
11/01/2023, 5:59am
Jimmy Webb is an institution of American Music. One of the greatest songwriters ever. I had the great honor of meeting him right after he wrote this song. He had just turned 23...
23! Wow!
Your comment implies that he was a prodigy by writing this at age 23. Agree, totally. Now consider that Laura Nyro wrote And When I Die when she was about 16 or 17 years old.
@@frederickglasser5617, there's "young", there's ""gifted", there's "precocious"" and then there's Mozart, who composed the Minuet in G Major when he was five years old. Now, that's a prodigy.😁
This is one of those songs that sticks in your head forever. I was 8 years old when it came out, and it still has an emotional effect on me. Just beautiful.
He had one of the purest voices ever.
Love love love this song. Yes Rick it's technically a country song, but back then the Top 40 chart was truly a Top 40 of all music and included all genres of music. Radio was great back then because a Top 40 station really covered all the best songs and this song was a hit on Top 40 radio as well as country radio.
I am not alone in saying that this isn’t just one of the great Country songs it is one of the greatest songs of all time. The way that loneliness and yearning are portrayed are poignant and mystically profound.
This song & "I've been searching so long" by Chicago really move the soul. Rip Glen & Terry Kath 😢 As a young Black man growing up in Canada circa 60s - early 70s ❤
“Mystically profound!” Wow! Amazingly put.❤
Thank you...the song hits me in the same way, and it has a special place in my heart (I first heard it back around '68 or '69)...the orchestral arrangement adds a nice flavor...
Also, per the Wikipedia article, others have sung the praises for the song...
You're right. This is one of those songs that takes you right to the place where this song is happening.
It transcends the genre. The musicality in this song, like Rick relates, was used by various other genres. The string arrangement was on point too. Back when arrangers were used a lot for their genius.
Glenn Campbell was an awesome musician and singer. I was a rock n roll kid, born in the 50's, but I loved everything he ever did even though I wouldn't have told my friends at the time. Galveston is also an amazing song that is beautifully arranged and performed. Thank you for recognizing these amazing crossover songs that we all loved.
😂 Me too! 🙋♀️ If i ever told my friends that this was my favorite song, they would look at me like "Who are you really and what did you do to Shelly?"
“I know I need a small vacation” will make me cry, every, single, time. Being at work while my mom was dying. This is 40 years before I was born and, it’s still one of the best songs ever written.
Jimmy penned 3 of my all time favorites:
-Wichita Lineman - Glenn Campbell
-Galveston - Glenn Campbell
-All I Know - Art Garfunkel
"there's a lot of dissonances in this for a country song"
Rick--guitar in hand--cutting to the heart of what takes this song to the next, haunting level.
beautiful as always, thank you Rick!
This could possibly be What Makes this RUclipsr (Rick) so Great!😁👍
I only discovered this song 7 years ago. I was completely blown away. I’m 55 years old and a lover of rock and roll. Doesn’t get better than this.
Right? I've heard this song for years and it's just ... one of those special, perfect things that an artist or artists create now and then. It still gets me 40 years on.
Amazing song..I’ve known it forever..so sad radio doesn’t play songs like this anymore..I’m sure they would get a new audience…
You might like the great Glen's Goodtime Hour and Music shows that aired on tv, he performed with much passion.
@@RexStrother couldn’t agree more. It’s almost hauntingly beautiful. Never get sick of it.
@@gamecity94 great point!
I can’t listen to this song without getting chills all over. Truly one of the greatest in any genre .
I’ve read in Interviews with Kay that she brought her new Dano 6 string bass to the session. Glen ended up using it for the solo. When she finally heard the track, she was in a store where a radio was playing and she began to cry…
The arrangement of the strings add tension and texture to the song in a way that many people don't appreciate. The staccato violins, at the end of the chorus, actually mimic the morse code dits and dahs that made up telegraph tones. Without a doubt, Wichita Lineman is one of the best songs ever recorded.
I never realized that. Very good perception.
This is one of my all time favorite songs..and I am not much of a country music fan. This song brings tears to my eyes...it's such a masterpiece!
I became somewhat of a "goth" in the 80s, and still listen to most of the obscure European new wave, goth, and "old world" music with which I fell in love back then. This song goes back to my infancy, and I still love it more than want it...(you know the rest). You can't escape the truth spoken by art (as opposed to shallow easy pop that flashes and dies away), as it speaks to us and never stops doing so. I think we're just wired for certain tones or something, and that's fine with me. : )
Takes one to know one. Some people just can't see the genius of this composition. You can. Maybe you have that gift inside you from birth that recognises the beauty of special sounds.
Glen Campbell was such an underrated vocalist. He always got recognized for his guitar playing (rightfully so) but his vocals were so sweet, smooth and a delight to listen too. Music took a huge blow with his passing.
There's no more timeless song ever written in this genre. Beautiful song. It just exploded out of the FM radio in 1968.
I remember listening to this song on WFIL AM radio late at night when I was a kid. It was hauntingly beautiful then, and still is. That you picked this song today is kind of a flashback on two levels: 1. As a kid 2. And as an adult when I used to sing this song to my late wife when we were in the car. She loved this song. It's not all about the notes, With songs like this, for me it's more about memories and things passed.
Thank you, Rick! You ARE the man!
This certainly is a beautiful song and so very sorry for your loss. I too grew up listening to 56 WFIL, a great station and wonderful childhood memories.
Hat tip from one ol’ Philly dude to another. 😉
Famous 56!!
Another tip of the hat from another Philly dude.
I'm not a fan of Country music, but this song has to be in my all time top 10. "And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time". Gives me goosebumps!
Has a better line ever been written?
I don't exactly what it means but it touches me like no other lyric...strange
Please also look up the Restless Heart version of Wichita Lineman. It's also very nice...
Check out the song “Long black veil” great song/story that just flows and very visual
A good song is a good song forget the genre. After all Hank Williams was known as a folk singer in his time. Then it morphed him bring a “country singer. “
Rick thank you!! This song is so emotional. The lyrics - what an amazing concept. This man is out in the vastness of Kansas alone and “hears” his true love on the wire. Longing for her - the beauty of the chords and melody that you described so well paints this picture in my mind so deeply. I understand it so much more now - it’s all connected. Beautiful.
It’s a timeless song. There’s something beautifully ethereal about it and it defies genre. His vocals are sublime. He gave the world a beautiful gift when he recorded it.
Definitely is a country song and doesn’t “defy genre” great song but not genreless
Campbell was hugely successful in crossing over to popular music, making his work even stronger.
I agree. This isn’t an obvious country song m.
@@Greggers1516 What makes it a country song?
I love this song. Beautiful. I get choked up every time I hear it, and then I listen to it over and over. Glen Campbell & Jimmy Webb magic.
Wichita Lineman has always been a favourite of mine. As a teenager in the UK in the very early 1990s I found an amplifier and speakers going cheap and I set them up on the floor of our living room to test it out and chose this song. My mother who really didn’t care much for any music that wasn’t classical, came out from the kitchen asking me what I was playing. She instantly loved it and thought it was beautifully haunting. That was the first time that she appreciated that I had some sort of taste in music. She never came around to Nirvana for some reason…
Edit: years later as an adult, I was working on the computer in her study and I had Telegraph Road by Dire Straits playing. She thought that was fantastic too, remarking on the quality of the musicianship. I found that totally out of character for her. Perhaps she just had a thing for wires on poles running alongside a road!
I'm from Israel - country music is not a thing here, obviously. It's one of those things I'm not sure have crossed the ocean much at all.
I heard this song on an Ozark episode a few years ago and thought it had an interesting harmonic structure and progression, the same way Rick explains here.
But here's the thing - is it actually "country"? Perhaps the delivery of the singing, somewhat, and the theme of the lyrics, but composition-wise it seems nothing like a bunch of country songs I've heard in the past which seemed to follow some pretty specific harmonic formula that had much less variance from the same-ol' I-IV-V than is present in this song.
@@TLguitar The storytelling element of the song is very country-esque and the strings are very reminiscent of other country-pop (‘countrypolitan’) of the era. You’re right though, the melody and structure is more sophisticated than a lot of country songs, which can be quite generic. (I still love a lot of those songs tho).
@@Steaminlidz Yeah, so more on the "presentational" level, and perhaps especially because the singer is associated with country.
I have listened to a couple of songs by Glen Campbell just now and strings were used in all of them to some degree, but on the compositional level there were striking differences compared to Wichita Lineman. I'm not sure what genre it fits (maybe on the aesthetical level it's reminiscent of classic French Pop? Not that I know too many of those), but _country_ seems secondary at most.
@@TLguitar Glenn Campbell kind of blended the genres of pop and country. He's been inducted into the country music hall of fame, but I'd personally consider this song more folk or easy listening than country.
Try not to get too caught up in what genre a song is - the lines between genres can be very hard to identify, and it's at least somewhat up to individual beliefs, if you ask me. I'd imagine there's also the issue of translation not capturing some of the nuance of what a genres is. So while I don't agree that this is a country song per se, I respect that Glenn Campbell was a country artist, and Rick's opinion is valid even if I don't agree with it.
"Old Town Road" is a country song, whether people accept it as one or not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Read Jim’s Book Tunesmith.Great Book on his structured songwriting. He believed in 2 areas. Substitution and the subconscious mind in songwriting.A must read for anyone who is serious about songwriting.and music..
I agree this song IS the Greatest.. it shakes me to the core every time i hear this.. it pulls me back to my grandmother.. I pray she hears my prayers
When the strings come in @ "I can hear you through the whine" It sends shivers up my spine. - beautiful.
I'm very lucky to have seen Jimmy Webb perform his songs and tell stories twice (including his wonderful tribute to Glen Campbell). You are right, he deserves legendary status.
I've asked many, many times for a breakdown of this song and I'm so glad you've done this, thank you. As a music lover I always knew this song was amazing but as a songwriter I struggled to put my finger on why, its THE perfect combination of inventive chord changes, absolutely beautiful melody from Glenn plus heart wrenching lyrics. I literally well up with tears every time I listen to it and truly regret being too young and/or not interested in Mr Campbell until relatively recently, an absolute genius of a musician and by all accounts a wonderful man.
Never met anyone who dislikes it. You start singing along as soon as the vocal starts. Glen Campbell's collaborations with Jimmy Webb were stunning.
One of my favorite songs of all time. Penned by Jimmy Webb and sung by the immortal Glenn Campbell. First saw it performed as a young kid on the Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour.
I’ve been a longtime fan of Glen Campbell and had a huge crush on him back in the day..he was a true original and an amazing talent. RIP, I miss him so much💕
I got to see him live in Las Vegas in 1975 and I was 17 years old. One of my favorite memories. I was staying with cousins and they treated me by taking me to the show.
The Lennon Sisters were the opening act. That was more my parents speed.
I wanted my hair to look like his in late 60s and early 70s. LOL. He was perfect supporting role in True Grit along side John Wayne.
Six bars into the verse and the tears come from the beauty. Thank you for breaking down this epic song!
Carol Kaye bass set tone for this "hit".And doesn't hurt to have Jimmy Webb lyrics and Glenn Campbell voice over the radio "wires".....😊
I physically get chills listening to this song
“Creates tension that needs to be resolved” this is what makes Beato great. Another wonderful breakdown of a great song sir.