Wichita Lineman - (Faber Social) by Dylan Jones (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>Mixing close-listening, interviews and travelogue, Jones explores the legacy of a record that has entertained, perplexed, and haunted millions for over half a century.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>Dylan Jones' luminous excavation of Jimmy Webb's song 'Wichita Lineman' offers a portal into a defining moment of American cultural history.</b> 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.<br> 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. <br> 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.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>Praise for <i>David Bowie: A Life</i> <br> "Superb ... Suits the shape-shifting, beguiling, enigmatic complexities of its subject perfectly. It's hard to imagine anything that will do Bowie better justice."--William Boyd, <i>Guardian</i><br>"Revelatory and surprising -- perfect for the Ziggy completist."--<i>New York Magazine</i><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Dylan Jones</b> studied at Chelsea School of Art and St. Martin's School of Art. A former editor at <i>i-D</i>, <i>The Face</i>, <i>Arena</i>, the <i>Observer</i> and the <i>Sunday Times</i>, he is currently the Editor-In-Chief of <i>GQ</i>. He has won the British Society of Magazine Editors "Editor of the Year" award a record eleven times, and in 2013 was the recipient of the Mark Boxer Award. Under his editorship the magazine has won over 50 awards. He is the author of the <i>Sunday Times</i> best-seller <i>David <i>Bowie: A Life</i>, and the <i>New York Times</i> best seller <i>Jim Morrison: Dark Star</i>. A trustee of the Hay Festival, in 2013 he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing.
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