Wichita Lineman

Stuckfast · October 2022

I've always been fascinated by this song and its deceptively complex chords that no-one on the Internet seems to be able to get right. This is a version that sounds OK to my ears:

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/glen-campbell/wichita-lineman-chords-1193052

Can any of you theory experts explain how this chord sequence works? Does it modulate from F major in the verses to D major in the bridge and then back again? Or is it always in D, just with a lot of borrowed chords? Or is the D a red herring?

PAL · October 2022

Stuckfast said:

I've always been fascinated by this song and its deceptively complex chords that no-one on the Internet seems to be able to get right. This is a version that sounds OK to my ears:

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/glen-campbell/wichita-lineman-chords-1193052

Can any of you theory experts explain how this chord sequence works? Does it modulate from F major in the verses to D major in the bridge and then back again? Or is it always in D, just with a lot of borrowed chords? Or is the D a red herring?

Ultimate guitar is not great sorry . Watch Glen Campbell playing the song live this will give you a better idea of how it's played.
The problem is you could play the suggested chord and it might not sound right to your ears and the reason is it's important
to use the correct inversion and not the open chords as they are shown ! For example Ultimate guitar show the Am7 chord which
in it's self is correct but if you what Glen Campbell play it he plays it at the 5th fret this gives the chord a slightly different sound
but will sound more correct the same goes for the Bbmaj7 & Fmaj7 .The harmonic sound and the voicing of the chord is
important for the song to sound correct. Don't forget when you listen to the song you hear an orchestra so there is a lot going on.
You are right there are not a lot of people who do songs and get it right !
I teach guitar and this is something I constantly come up against. My advice is don't take any TAB or chords as gospel yes
you can use some of it for a guide but learn to use your ears ! I think your are doing this already because something doesn't
sound right about the song as you have it. I must admit I'm not great at the online thing and I'm sure you know how to navigate
this website so if you want me to work it out for you mail me you email and I should have it done in a day or so ! Good luck. John.

Stuckfast · October 2022

Yes UG is rubbish and a lot of the other versions on there are comically bad! That one seems fairly OK and at least chimes with what I hear. But the point of the question is less about what Glen plays -- I've come up with quite a nice alternate arrangement in a different tuning -- and more about how the chords fit together on a theoretical level.

Lewy · October 2022

Following with interest - Jimmy Webb certainly had something unique in the way he crafted chord progressions (Galveston and Highway Man being other firm favourites). I'd love to know if there's something other than his genius behind it!

lustycourtier · October 2022

That one is pretty close. I cover it every weekend and its not far off that.

barnstorm · October 2022

Good episode of Strong Songs about it, in case you haven't heard it:

https://strongsongspodcast.com/episode/wichita-lineman-by-jimmy-webb-glen-campbell

I enjoyed mucking about with Joe Gore's arrangement a few years ago but I don't really have it under the fingers anymore. One I should revisit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrTfUyWYIDQ

darthed1981 · October 2022

I want to learn this song.

Well I need to more than want to.

mart · October 2022

darthed1981 said:

I want to learn this song.

Well I need to more than want to.

Have you been wanting to for a long time?

roberty · October 2022

A masterclass in harmony. Up there with Bacharach imo

digitalkettle · October 2022

Magical tune...I'll take a shot at it with some layman's theory then someone can kick it into shape for us ( @Brad @viz ;).

Intro

[key of F]
Fmaj7 (I) C9sus4 (V)

Verse

[still in key of F]
Bbmaj7 (IV) Fmaj7/A (I - first inversion) C9sus4 (V)
Dm (vi) Am (iii)

[key of G]
G (I) D (V)
Cadd9 (IV) G/B (I - first inversion) Gm/Bb (i - first inversion...borrowed from parallel minor to support C-B-Bb-A movement?!!)

[key of D]
D/A (I - second inversion) A7sus4 (V)

[key of F]
Bbmaj7 (IV) Csus2 (V)

Blueingreen · October 2022

roberty said:

A masterclass in harmony. Up there with Bacharach imo

I don't think his body of work has the depth of Bacharach's but he has maybe half a dozen songs that hold their own in any company, and this is the pick of them.

ricky50 · October 2022

Try this version - best I've heard

roberty · October 2022

Blueingreen said:

roberty said:

A masterclass in harmony. Up there with Bacharach imo

I don't think his body of work has the depth of Bacharach's but he has maybe half a dozen songs that hold their own in any company, and this is the pick of them.

Yes agreed

Stuckfast · October 2022

That's cool. Prefer this one though:

west · October 2022

Stuckfast · October 2022

What is it with these smooth jazz versions at a glacial tempo? I mean they're pleasant enough but they feel a bit hotel lobby music to me.

hollywoodrox · October 2022

darthed1981 said:

I want to learn this song.

Well I need to more than want to.

This comment is sheer genius

west · October 2022

Stuckfast said:

What is it with these smooth jazz versions at a glacial tempo? I mean they're pleasant enough but they feel a bit hotel lobby music to me.

Big - horse , This tune haunts me like a nomadic entity eternally searching for its sense of place and never reaching it . rather than a yee haw twangy hoe down .... x are you not interested in its harmonic sensibilities ... x

Rocker · October 2022

Guys, Wichita Lineman is a song. A song that tells a good story. Glenn Campbell was a fine guitar player who played lovely chords to support his singing. IMHO that song does not 'work' when played instrumentally.

west · October 2022

Sorry you are unable to hear , the melody and harmonic content in the composition that expresses far more than the lyrical content ....

Stuckfast · October 2022

Surely the beauty of the composition is that the melody and harmony work hand in hand with the lyrical content to create a perfect whole?

I do like some of the instrumental versions, I just don't get why a lot of them are so downtempo.

francer · October 2022

Rocker said:

Guys, Wichita Lineman is a song. A song that tells a good story. Glenn Campbell was a fine guitar player who played lovely chords to support his singing. IMHO that song does not 'work' when played instrumentally.

It’s almost as if everyone on this forum is obsessed with guitars …

ToneControl · October 2022

ricky50 said:

Try this version - best I've heard

very nice

I'd like to hear a Pat Metheny solo baritone arrangement too

Hattigol · October 2022

Aren't they called Wichita Referee's Assistants these days?

EricTheWeary · October 2022

If I sing it in my head it turns into the Pearl and Dean jingle.

Cig35 · October 2022

ToneControl said:

ricky50 said:

Try this version - best I've heard

very nice

I'd like to hear a Pat Metheny solo baritone arrangement too

Not Metheny, but at least a solo baritone arrangement...

ArchtopDave · October 2022

ricky50 said:

Try this version - best I've heard

I love this version as well. Somewhere I have books of the transcriptions of the first two Johnny A albums - there's a lot to like on both these albums if you like this style of instrumental guitar playing.

Stuckfast · October 2022

26 replies so far and only one attempt to answer the actual question! So thanks @digitalkettle -- anyone else care to chime in?

Blueingreen · October 2022

I don't have anything like the theory credentials of some posters, but here's my take.

Around the time this tune was written a lot of pop songwriters were writing melodies using major chords that weren't necessarily in the same key. It's all over Otis Redding/Aretha Franklin and Stax stuff generally, just for an example. So you start with G major and when you play an E or an A or a B (where you might expect minor) you use major chords.

I think it's debatable whether there's much value in analysing that stuff in terms of a starting key and modulations. You're using complex theory to explain something much simpler and instinctive: I can use a major chords that are not in the key and still find melodies that make them sound strong and right.

This tune is clearly more harmonically sophisticated than most of the Stax stuff, but I wonder if the same idea isn't being applied. The overall key is in F but he uses G major and D major chords to give a sound that I think would have seemed quite hip in 1968: it gives a sense of soul or rock harmony as opposed to more traditional American songbook/functional harmony. Take out those two major chords and the rest of the harmony looks much more conventional.

EricTheWeary · October 2022

There’s a BBC article about the song with the background. In it says ‘…the song plays a clever trick by starting in the key of F major before switching to the relative minor, Dmajor and never fully resolving - echoing the lineman’s disjointed state of mind…’

Interestingly Webb didn’t think much of his own lyric, in isolation I think it’s a bit naff but saved by the vocal performance.

Blueingreen said:

I don't have anything like the theory credentials of some posters, but here's my take.

Around the time this tune was written a lot of pop songwriters were writing melodies using major chords that weren't necessarily in the same key. It's all over Otis Redding/Aretha Franklin and Stax stuff generally, just for an example. So you start with G major and when you play an E or an A or a B (where you might expect minor) you use major chords.

I think it's debatable whether there's much value in analysing that stuff in terms of a starting key and modulations. You're using complex theory to explain something much simpler and instinctive: I can use a major chords that are not in the key and still find melodies that make them sound strong and right.

This tune is clearly more harmonically sophisticated than most of the Stax stuff, but I wonder if the same idea isn't being applied. The overall key is in F but he uses G major and D major chords to give a sound that I think would have seemed quite hip in 1968: it gives a sense of soul or rock harmony as opposed to more traditional American songbook/functional harmony. Take out those two major chords and the rest of the harmony looks much more conventional.

IIRC Redding played guitar in open G so a lot of his songwriting was major chords only. I think some of the open tuning stuff by the Stones was also well outside the diatonic for a similar reason. But a lot of blues/ blues based music is not strictly diatonic and as you say that was the hip sound of the day. So wether Webb was trying to be a bit bluesy or add a sense of longing or just hit upon a happy accident we may never know.

HPhillipsmusic · October 2022

i actually read an entire book on this song earlier this year, one whole book on one (partly finished) song!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wichita-Lineman-Searching-Greatest-Unfinished/dp/0571353401

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