Quite possibly one of the three greatest songs ever recorded.
The fact that it's pure craft vs. autobiographical (Jimmy Webb wrote it as kind of an answer song to "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," its mythical lineman is just a fictional creation) makes not a jot of difference.
Magical, and evocative of a particular time in the U.S. when seeing a guy on a powerline pole could evoke this kind of backstory.
Feb 25, 2024
Related Recs
Feb 9, 2024
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case in point: "Wichita Lineman" stretched to its absolute limit via the Dick Slessig Combo (Mark Lightcap [Acetone], Steve Goodfriend [Radar Brothers], Carl Bronson)
the original is a beautiful 3 minute song that is one of the few tracks with a righteous claim to the "best American song" title - this cover takes you out of the Yearning Zone and places you on a truck bucket somewhere in the desert, searching in the sun for another overload
Jan 25, 2024
🎶
The production on this track, with the orchestra swells and the little plucky guitar solo, gets me every time
Feb 22, 2024
Top Recs from @coreydubrowa
Hey tyler hopefully this doesn’t violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I can’t wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! ❤️
Mar 27, 2024
“Songs Of a Lost World” coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 🖤
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
“Unwound is the best band of the ’90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesn’t say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasn’t stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the ’90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.”
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really can’t say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. 🖤
Mar 23, 2024