Wichita Lineman, Glen Campbell (1968)
The first was Herb Albert’s Spanish Flea, the most recent Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell.
For a long time I have had a habit of hearing a song, latching on to it, then playing it on an endless loop. Or having it played for me on an endless loop. As a toddler, my Mum used to keep me quiet by putting Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass playing the Spanish Flea on our old radiogram (yes, a radiogram) which had a primitive repeat function. It wasn’t even an album, it was literally a one track 7” single and the cartoonish Latin melody clocks in at just over two minutes. When people talk of simpler times they don’t know the half of it.
My introduction to Jimmy Webb’s Wichita Lineman was in 1982 via the British Electric Foundation’s Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One. B.E.F. was the name of the production company formed by ex members of the Human League, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh who went on to achieve commercial success with singer Glenn Gregory and their band Heaven 17.
Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One was exactly what it said on the tin: 10 classic songs re-worked by Ware and Marsh (synthesisers, LinnDrums ie proper musical instruments) with a guest vocalist on each one. From Paula Yates kookie These Boots Are Made For Walking to a haunting rendition of Bowie’s Secret Life of Arabia by Billy Mackenzie, each track is a well-judged pairing. To top it, there’s Tina Turner’s cover of Ball of Confusion, a song which resurrected her career, Martyn Ware producing her next single Let’s Stay Together.
Whether I had heard Wichita Lineman before buying MQD Vol One, I can’t be truly sure, but B.E.F.’s stripped back version with vocals by Glenn Gregory blew me away. I recently heard Glen Campbell’s original played over the closing credits of an episode of Fresh Meat, the student comedy-drama created by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, not as good as the genius of their Peep Show (now watched straight through at least ten times), better than Armstrong’s insane Succession.
It's such a beautiful song, the sweeping string section, the sense of remoteness and heartache in Campbell’s voice, the film-like fade at the end. Jimmy Webb said it was “a song about an ordinary person who has extraordinary thoughts.” All just perfect.
And like Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass all those years ago, I’ve been playing it non-stop.
And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
❤️