{"product_id":"wichita-lineman-searching-in-the-sun-for-the-worlds-greatest-unfinished-song-9780571353408","title":"Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World's Greatest Unfinished Song","description":"\u003cb\u003eDylan Jones' luminous excavation of Jimmy Webb's song 'Wichita Lineman' offers a portal into a defining moment of American cultural history.\u003c\/b\u003e The sound of Wichita Lineman was the sound of ecstatic solitude - but then its hero was the quintessential loner. What a great metaphor he was: a man who needed a woman more than he actually wanted her. Here, deep in American Arcadia, was a man in deep existential crisis.\u003cbr\u003e Written in 1968 by Jimmy Webb, \"Wichita Lineman\" is the first philosophical country song: a heartbreaking torch ballad still celebrated for its mercurial songwriting genius 50 years later. It was recorded by Glen Campbell in LA with a legendary group of musicians known as \"the Wrecking Crew,\" and something about the song's enigmatic mood seemed to capture the tensions of America at a moment of unprecedented crisis. Fusing a dribble of bass, searing strings, tremolo guitar and Glen Campbell's plaintive vocals, Webb's paean to the American West describes a telephone lineman's longing for an absent lover who he hears 'singing in the wire' - and like all good love songs, it's an SOS from the heart. \u003cbr\u003e Mixing close-listening, interviews and travelogue, Dylan Jones explores the legacy of a record that has entertained, perplexed and haunted millions for over half a century. What is it about this song that continues to fascinate and seduce listeners, and how did the parallel stories of Campbell and Webb - songwriters and recording artists from different ends of the spectrum - unfold in the decades following the song's success? Part biography, part work of musicological archaeology, The Wichita Lineman opens a window onto America in the late twentieth century through the prism of a song that has been covered by myriad artists in the intervening decades.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Faber \u0026amp; Faber Social\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/03\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780571353408\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.90h x 5.40w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/15\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/29\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2019 pg. 96\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dylan Jones","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36638833180828,"sku":"9780571353408","price":13.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c05c44bc-b28c-4b8b-a680-ff4d937c10e4.jpg?v=1603848302","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/wichita-lineman-searching-in-the-sun-for-the-worlds-greatest-unfinished-song-9780571353408","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}