Wichita Lineman was written to order, and quickly. They were already in the studio. Webb was reluctant, but according to the BBC Soul Music programme about the song, summoned up an childhood image from a drive across the middle of the USA of a guy up a pole, on one of those long never-ending roads, mending the telegraph wire. He sent it to the studio not quite finished , so they could tell him if they liked it and suggest changes.
You can hear the way it tails off at the end. But what I like most about it is the fact that it matters that the narrator is a lineman. And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line. I hear you singing in the wire, I can hear you through the whine And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line.
The song also speaks of male desire, of emotional need, in a way that is unusual in popular songβa desire for a real woman, with whom he is having a long-term relationship, rather than the curvaceous fantasies of the pick-up line or one-night stand.
By The Time I Get To Phoenix has some of the same virtues: a man who has been away looks forwardβlooks forward desperatelyβto seeing his partner. I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road Searching in the sun for another overload. Give it time. Andrew Curry is a consultant who specialises in futures work and analysis, based in London.
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