Wichita Lineman

When I heard this in October of '68, the whole thing fit me like a well-worn glove. Our friends Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell talk about a magical fit between songs and singers, but don't mention that there are flesh and blood people whose lives genuinely fit a given song. By 1968 I had already been living the Wichita Lineman's life for a few years, and I know my own story when I hear it. People, this song is about unrequited love. The Lineman is a songwriter's combination of telephone lineman, powerline lineman and even telegraph lineman, and that's OK. The real and important thing here is the agony this hardworking man carries with such dignity and civility. I know this all too well. I began to research this song online a while back and came to someone's report that Jimmy Webb, the man who wrote it, had the experience of his first love marrying someone else. He's very quiet about that himself, so don't ask him, but my own dad never got over it, and I may as well confess I've never gotten over it either. So when I read that about Jimmy, I sat back, really struck, and realized I have been right all these years. You can't fake this stuff. Jimmy and Glen really really got it right. This is coming from a man who knows. I'm inside that fabulous, beautiful, haunting song, and I'll never get out of it. Never.