Wichita Lineman - Background and Content

Background and Content

Jimmy Webb's inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through Washita County in rural southwestern Oklahoma. At that time, many telephone companies were county-owned utilities and their linemen were, in fact, county employees. Heading westward on a straight road into the setting sun, Webb drove past an endless litany of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the last. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole. He described it as "the picture of loneliness." Webb then "put himself atop that pole and put that phone in his hand" as he considered what the lineman was saying into the receiver. Glen Campbell added in a statement to the Dallas Observer that Webb wrote the song about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else.

The actual song lyrics mention the name "Wichita" rather than Washita. Campbell said it was because "Wichita sings better." It doesn't specify its exact location; Wichita, Kansas, in south central Kansas; Wichita County, Kansas, in western Kansas (which is over 250 road miles away); Wichita Falls, Texas; and Wichita County, Texas, have all been suggested as possibilities. The musicians used on the recording were Campbell, Al Casey and James Burton (guitar), Carol Kaye (bass), Jim Gordon (drums), and Al DeLory (piano). The orchestral arrangements were by DeLory.

The lyrics describe the loneliness that a telephone or electric power lineman feels while he works and his longing for an absent lover.

The phrase "singing in the wire" can refer to the sonic vibration commonly induced by wind blowing across small wires and conductors, making these lines whistle or whine like an aeolian harp. It could also, or even simultaneously, refer to the sounds that a lineman might hear when attaching a telephone earpiece to a long stretch of raw telephone or telegraph line, i.e. without typical line equalisation and filtering. In the recording, a notable feature of the orchestral arrangement is the effort of the violins and keyboards to mimic these ethereal sounds and morse code, and the lyric, "I can hear you through the whine" further alludes to them.