Call it Four Golden Greats — three great Jimmy Webb songs, plus Rhinestone Cowboy — and no one would argue.
Word has it that, for all the romance associated with the songs, Wichita and Galveston are not places you'd really want to visit. Not sure about Phoenix — haven't got there yet.
Wichita Lineman feels like such a moving song, but when I listen to the words, I realise I have no idea what's going on there and what's moving me. I was a little thrown by a discussion on the Word podcast that suggested the lines in question where lines on the side of the road. But Wikipedia backs up my unconsidered intuition that they're telephone lines.
Jimmy Webb's inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through rural northern Oklahoma when he noticed a solitary lineman atop his pole. 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.
Then it goes on to explain that Wichita could be any one of: Wichita, Kansas; Wichita County, Kansas (which is over 250 road miles away); Wichita Falls, Texas; or Wichita County, Texas. Wikipedia's famous neutral point of view precludes them saying whether any of these candidates are actually romantic places.
I remember the time this compilation came out in 1976 — it's cover stuck in my mind. There were window displays and plenty of copies in W.H. Smiths, and it's also the kind of thing they might have advertised on TV. But I had no interest back then, and even in later years I thought Rhinestone Cowboy was a celebration of the lifestyle of the titular bejewelled cattle herder, because I never bothered to listen to the wonderfully jaundiced words of the verses.
No, it was over 25 years later that I picked up this CD, almost certainly guided by having read Jimmy Webb's Tunesmith. Actually, I never finished the book, I gave up when the musical theory kicked in about half way through, but what I read was a great introduction to songwriting, and to creative work in general. The odd thing about Webb is that, while he wrote a handful or more of stone-dead classics — the three above, plus MacArthur Park and Highwayman — spring to mind, he also wrote a slew of very pedestrian songs (including two others included on this collection).
Actually, it's not that odd, it's a pretty common even for the greats to be great for only a small part of the time, isn't it. Ditto in some ways with Campbell. He recognised the potential of the Wichita, Galveston and Phoenix and helped make them what they are (if you ever get the chance to hear Webb's own versions of these songs, don't take it, because you'll wonder how they ever got past the demo stage, and even Campbell's versions will always sound a bit weaker to you after that). His versions of songs that are better known through Joni Mitchell or Roy Orbison seem perfunctory by comparison.
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