Wichita Lineman/Glen Campbell
I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main
road
Searchin' in the sun for another overload
I hear you singing in the
wires I can hear you through the
whine
And the Wichita lineman is still on the
line
I know I need a small vacation but it don't look like rain
And if
it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain
And I need
you more than want you and I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman is
still on the line
And I need you more than want you and I want you for
all time
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line
********
"Wichita Lineman" is a popular song written by Jimmy Webb in 1968, first recorded by Glen Campbell and widely covered since. Campbell's version, which appeared on his 1968 album Wichita Lineman, reached #3 on the US charts, remaining in the Top 100 for 15 weeks. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" ranked "Wichita Lineman" at #192. It has been referred to as 'the first existential country song'.
Webb was inspired to write the lyrics when he saw a solitary lineman near the kansas-Oklahoma border, possibly in Wichita County Kansas or south of Wichita,Kansas. (Despite the identical names, the city and county are over 250 road miles (400 km) apart, and the city is noticeably closer to the Oklahoma border than the county.) The lyric describes the longing that a telephone lineman feels for a woman whose voice he hears, perhaps through attaching an earpiece to a stretch of telephone line he is working on.