Wichita Lineman: the extraordinary unfinished song that wowed the critics

Glen Campbell was a session musician who played for other big name artists, before breaking through to become a highly acclaimed singer himself. He had a string of hit songs, some written by award-winning songwriter Jimmy Webb.

Few songs capture loneliness quite as vividly as one of them, Wichita Lineman. Released in 1968, Webb’s haunting composition seemed to turn an ordinary working man into a symbol of isolation, longing and quiet determination. Critics quickly recognised something unusual in the record.

Webb had been asked by Campbell for a geographical song that could follow his earlier hit, By the Time I Get to Phoenix. The songwriter found inspiration while driving on a country road, where he spotted a solitary lineman working high on a telephone pole. Webb imagined what might be going through the man’s mind, particularly his loneliness and thoughts of someone waiting for him at home.

Under pressure from Campbell and producer Al De Lory, Webb wrote the song remarkably quickly. But he only completed two verses. He sent his demo to the studio with the intention of writing another verse or a bridge. Campbell, however, loved the song immediately and went ahead with the recording. When Webb later suggested that the song was unfinished, Campbell’s response was essentially: “it is now”.

The missing section became one of the recording’s most distinctive moments. Rather than inventing another verse, Campbell played the melody on a six-string bass, creating the deep, trembling passage where the missing verse might have been. What could have sounded incomplete instead became one of the song’s most evocative features.

Then there are those strange electronic sounds that hover around the recording. Webb used the unusual sound of his Gulbransen electric organ to suggest the clicks, pulses and electronic noise that a telephone lineman might hear travelling along the wires. The sounds are often described as “Morse code”, although they aren’t a literal coded message. Jimmy Webb has often joked in interviews that it spells out the phrase “bring me a beer”.

The critical response was striking. Wichita Lineman was praised for its sophisticated production and emotional restraint, with critics noting how Webb’s unusually poetic writing was matched by Campbell’s understated vocal. The record’s unusual arrangement also demonstrated how a commercially successful single could be musically adventurous without losing its emotional directness.

The public agreed. The song became one of Campbell’s signature recordings, reaching #3 on America’s Billboard Hot 100. It also became an international hit, peaking at #18 in Australia.

More than half a century later, Wichita Lineman remains a remarkable example of songwriting, performance and studio invention coming together. Its central character may be fictional, but the loneliness feels completely real. And fittingly, the unfinished song never quite resolves either. The lineman is, forever, still on the line.