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#84314 by philbymon
Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:34 pm
The strangest #1 hit ever...possibly one of the worst singers ever in the top 10...one of the longest songs ever to hit AM radio...the story is too strange to ignore, & it's quite obvious that this sort of thing could never happen again in our lifetimes -


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amzJDSsC2IA

The original rendition we all heard on the radio until we thought we'd rip our ears off -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su3JdzUUuH4&feature=fvw

Yes, that's a rather youngish DUMBLEDORE singing that "epic hit," that's made innumerable ppl cringe at karaoke nights, piano bars, & other venues...

#84320 by gbheil
Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:50 pm
Well, I must be the luckiest man on the earth. Or at least I was untill today. Never heard it before, hope I never do again.

The post was interesting bout how it all worked out.
But man, that song SUCKS !!

#84323 by fisherman bob
Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:54 pm
Perhaps THE reason why the song was such a hit was that it was sung by a very famous actor. The lyrics sounded like it came from a movie script or something. As far as being a "work of genius" that's B.S.

#84327 by gbheil
Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:03 pm
AW heck, that English accent gets me every time Bob.
I though they were talking about Guinness. :?

#84343 by CraigMaxim
Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:39 pm
I love that song.

It's brilliant.

And I don't mind Richard Harris singing it either. :-)

You forgot to mention the Donna Summer remake of this song. Disco, of course. LOL. Also, a hit if I remember correctly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaZim6ybvdA


While I am not the biggest fan of Richard Harris "singing", I am however, a HUGE FAN of his spoken word. He was the narrator of Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" from an Iranian (Not sure if it was Iran?) poet. It has the backdrop soundtrack of pure 60's style anthems (Think Age of Aquarius, etc..) and Harris narrates it, expertly. It is a very moving album in many ways, and I fell in love with it, from childhood.


You can hear samples HERE:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000008GES/ref=pd_krex_dp_001_001?ie=UTF8&track=001&disc=001


Wow, thanks for bringing this up, indirectly for me. I was just lstening to the samples. I have to get this album again. :-)

.

#84353 by J-HALEY
Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:55 pm
I never saw anything wrong with that song I always kind of liked it even though the words are a little cooky. I always thought Richard Harris sang it well especially for an actor.

#84354 by Starfish Scott
Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:03 pm
Wow, that was supposed to be psychedelic?

Hated the tune, but Richard Harris? is pretty cool.

#84356 by ColorsFade
Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:10 pm
Boy... they sure make a big deal of it being 7 minutes long.

If you're a progressive rock fan, that's positively brief.

#84380 by CraigMaxim
Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:29 pm
CraigMaxim wrote:

He was the narrator of Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" from an Iranian (Not sure if it was Iran?) poet.



Ok, just checked... He was from Lebanon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahlil_Gibran

.

#84431 by philbymon
Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:44 am
I always thought it was one of the most self-indulgent pieces of crap I ever heard. The lyric makes zero sense. The music just wanders from section to section to crescendo with little or no connection to the lyric, which is meaningless, anyway, sung by a guy who seems all wrapped up in his ability to over-emote & over-enunciate while having no connection to the song whatsoever, which is perfectly understandable, since the song has no meaning. Harris would have done as well singing the alphabet song.

I think ol' Jimmy Webb was suffering from a bad case of acid-hangover when he composed this compost. (LSD reflux?)

"Someone left a cake out in the rain," & a hobo sat on it.

Nah, when it comes to this one, "I don't think that I can take it..."

#84444 by CraigMaxim
Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:48 pm
Phil,

You are a little bit of a music snob. :-) That doesn't make the songs, or artists (Led Zepplin) that you don't like, bad. It just means they are not to YOUR personal tastes, which are more narrow than some, that's all.

Songs can also get old from overplay. "Time in a Bottle" is a really good song, but it is the butt of endless jokes, and was sung all the time, everywhere, by everybody. That doesn't make the song bad.

Jimmy Webb is a wonderful song writer. Witchita Lineman is one of my favorite songs. His lyrics are often metaphorical and usually very good, but my Lord, it is the melodies and grand arrangements that are to die for. Witchita Lineman just carries you over huge sweeping landscapes. Brings you on a journey. While I haven't posted any of them, I LOVE writing what I call "flying music" or melodies that make you feel like you are soaring and flying. And Webb is brilliant at this.

Some of his hits:

Mac Arthur Park
Up, Up and Away
By the Time I Get to Phoenix
Wichita Lineman
Galveston

In any event, Mac Arthur Park was written around the 60's culture, of hippies and drug trips, etc... Webb was going for surrealism matching that, which is why ideas kind of flow one into the other. Mac Arthur Park in fact, too, was part of the imagery of the song, because in that time, it was a hippie hang out, where people practiced a free lifestyle, and that park was a kind of escape from the city buildings which surround it everywhere else.

Clearly it is a very good song, or it would not have been covered more than 50 times to date, including having it top the charts several times, in different genres and by different artists.

Like much of Webb's writing, it is the musical progressions and arrangements and melodies, that for me, are the more brilliant and moving parts of the songs. The lyrics could be changed on some of these songs, and they would have still been hits.

The music and melodies, are just breathtaking, on many of his songs.

.

#84460 by philbymon
Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:32 pm
I'll be the very first to admit that I'm a HUGE music snob, Craig.

This is obviously a period piece, of a period in our history that I never related to. Never got on with the whole hippie peace/love movement.

I actually did like a cpl of his hits, but this one left me cold then as it does now. It still hits me like the ramblings of someone on some weird acid trip. The music was a good exercize for a budding composer in school, but I don't think it fit for general consumption.

The arrangement, the choice of instruments, the lyric, everything about this thing just doesn't grab me, & I will always think of it as an over-produced bit of self-indulgent fluff, & I relish the thought that it marked the end of the big production piece in everyday music, only rivaled by Queen's Bullshittian Rhapsody, which was almost as bad, except that it did have some sort of recognizeable meaning in the lyric, but came off as being even sillier all around.

Of course, that is only my opinion, which means less than nothing to most ppl...

#84462 by CraigMaxim
Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:01 pm
philbymon wrote:
I actually did like a cpl of his hits...



Which ones do you like?

I think Wichita Lineman is a masterpiece. I would love to write a song like that. It is simple, yet the melody is exquisite.

Apparently it was inspired, by just that, a telephone Lineman he saw working up high on a telephone pole, and working on the line. He contemplated that the lineman was working on the phone line, and the lineman was imagining that his lover's voice was being carried through those very wires, as he worked on them.

But the metaphoric nature of a somehwhat lonely or needy man (I need you, more than want you, and I want you for all time) who is ALONE way up high on that telephone pole, is really cool. Who writes a song about the "Lineman from the county"?

I am a lineman for the county, and I drive the main road
Searchin' in the sun for another overload
I hear you singin' in the wire, 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
And if it snows, that stretch down south, won't ever 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



Glen Campbell performing it with an orchestra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9x_1Ri3XxE


In the original version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqrMd5y7QXQ&feature=fvw) the bell sounds at the beginning of the song, and in places during the song, are immitating the little noises that Linemen hear when they plug into the lines from on the poles.

"I hear you singin' in the wire, I can hear you through the whine"

He imagines her voice coming through the wires as he works on them, and he can hear her "through the whine" because the lines vibrate and make a "whining" sound, which is heard as they work on the lines. Linemen would be familiar with this.

It is a really beautiful song.

Not many lyrics. Once again, the music, the orchestration is the driving force.

I'm glad you brought Jimmy Webb up, albeit indirectly. It's inspired me, that I need to get serious and start writing the songs I know I am capable of writing.

.
Last edited by CraigMaxim on Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

#84464 by philbymon
Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:24 pm
That's a good one, for sure. Funny how well he could write a lyric when he had the right muse.

By The Time I Get To Phoenix was another good one.

Those two don't get old for me.

#84467 by CraigMaxim
Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:33 pm
philbymon wrote:That's a good one, for sure. Funny how well he could write a lyric when he had the right muse.

By The Time I Get To Phoenix was another good one.

Those two don't get old for me.



Yep, I agree.

.

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