I Hear You Singin' In The Wires

I couldn't have failed to notice that Flea's album Honora was out, but it was pretty much on the periphery until I came across this beautiful cover of Wichita Lineman, featuring Nick Cave,

It's a wonderfully restrained and understated version, delicately constructed around upright bass, tender guitar and gentle percussion, underpinning Nick's world weary voice. Flea's musical contribution is the flumpet, which I'd never heard of before now and had to look up, which eases in during the break and drifts back out again, to great effect.

The original narrative, of a lineman perched high up a telephone pole in the middle of nowhere, on a call to his girlfriend, takes on an extra dimension with the gravitas of Cave's vocals. I can now imagine the titular character as a career lifer, been doing this all his life, doesn't know anything else, aches to be at home with his wife but is afraid of the void that giving up his job would create.

Or maybe it resonates because it's striking a chord with my own life right now. Either way, a compelling cover and a reason to check out Honora in full.

It would be remiss of me not to include the very first version of Wichita Lineman that I heard (or at least remember hearing), on the 1982 compilation Music Of Quality And Distinction: Volume One by B.E.F. aka British Electric Foundation aka two thirds of Heaven 17, namely Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh.

For their version, they roped in their H17 colleague Glenn Gregory and, for me, it hit the spot, on-point vocals and a duet of saxophone (actually two, played by Glenn and Ian) and acoustic guitar, courtesy of David Lockwood.

That was enough to encourage me to seek out the original version of Wichita Lineman, written by Jimmy Webb and recorded by Glenn Campbell. Vastly different in arrangement from the covers in 1982 and 2026, but an astonishing performance from Glenn. 

Wichita Lineman was released as a single in 1968 and, as this performance from 1972 demonstrates, only grew in impact as the years passed. 

Possibly Webb and Campbell's finest moment, in already illustrious respective careers and one of my favourite songs of all time.

I am a lineman for the county

And I drive the main roads

Searchin' in the sun

For another overload

I hear you singin' 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

If it snows that stretch down south

Will never 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