Getting his start as a session guitarist, Glen Campbell had a hand in classic tracks such as Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” and “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra. However, the Arkansas-born artist certainly became a decorated singer-songwriter in his own right, selling more than 45 million records worldwide. On this day in 1968, Glen Campbell reigned supreme atop both the country and pop charts with his 11th studio album, Wichita Lineman.
Videos by American Songwriter
The Story Behind Glen Campbell’s Enduring Hit “Wichita Lineman”
Just one year earlier, Glen Campbell scored a massive hit with “By the Time I Went to Phoenix,” written by Jimmy Webb, already a Grammy-winning songwriter by age 21. Campbell wanted another “place”-based” song from Webb.
“He said, ‘I think I need another town.’ And I said, ‘Glen, I’m trying to get out of that town thing and move on to some other things,’” Webb recalled to The Tennessean. “There was a silence. And he said, ‘Well, that’s a little disappointing.’”
Campbell slightly modified his request, asking if the song could instead be “geographical.” That ignited a spark in Webb, who remembered passing “miles and miles of nothing but telephone poles and power lines” during a trip through the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma. Every once in awhile, however, a man would break that monotony.
“We don’t know who this man is, but he’s got his truck parked there and he’s got his jug of water in the shade and he’s up on that pole,” Webb said.
“Expressing the Inexpressible”
I need you more than want you / And I want you for all time, Glen Campbell sang mournfully. And the Wichita lineman / Is still on the line.
“I was trying to express the inexpressible, the yearning that goes beyond yearning, that goes into another dimension, when I wrote that line,” Webb explained. “It was a moment where the language failed me really; there was no way for me to pour this out, except to go into an abstract realm, and that was the line that popped out.”
Nearly 200 artists have covered “Wichita Lineman,” including Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Ray Charles, R.E.M. and Dwight Yoakam.
Featured image via Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.