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Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

James Taylor

1 votes

REM

4 votes

Johnny Cash

0 votes

Keith Urban

0 votes

Glen Campbell with Stone Temple Pilots

1 votes

Sammy Davis, Jr.

0 votes

TheOldMole Sep 05 2011 02:24 PM

See if I can do this right...I suck at creating polls.

TheOldMole Sep 05 2011 02:27 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

[youtube:w1v34aij]8JoXKpHKgUg[/youtube:w1v34aij] [youtube:w1v34aij]hwG9mypJhoU&feature=related[/youtube:w1v34aij] [youtube:w1v34aij]QutLsCCY2yw&feature=related[/youtube:w1v34aij] [youtube:w1v34aij]skuEiYfnSFg&feature=related[/youtube:w1v34aij] [youtube:w1v34aij]_MayqtmZXDo&feature=related[/youtube:w1v34aij] [youtube:w1v34aij]Kmex-3CGTv0[/youtube:w1v34aij]

G-Fafif Sep 05 2011 06:11 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Dwight Yoakam.

G-Fafif Sep 05 2011 06:13 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66: [youtube:vxl2urd2]7FC2xOGJaBE[/youtube:vxl2urd2]

G-Fafif Sep 05 2011 06:16 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Jimmy Webb's 2010 version, featuring Billy Joel. [youtube:1fdwosfb]GcC_kojgUvM[/youtube:1fdwosfb]

G-Fafif Sep 05 2011 06:18 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Wade Hayes, hit on the country charts, 1997. [youtube:100kctuy]DRDScEJaw10[/youtube:100kctuy]

G-Fafif Sep 05 2011 06:21 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Track 29 here, from one of Rainmakers lead vocalist's Bob Walkenhorst's regular shows at the Record Bar in KC, Mizzou.

Chad Ochoseis Sep 05 2011 06:32 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

It's a tossup between the Johnny Cash version and a write-in for Freedy. [youtube:2xmkuapw]Dlc56z8WRpM[/youtube:2xmkuapw]

Edgy DC Sep 05 2011 07:02 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

I like the toney guitars and cello interplaying on the James Taylor version, and it seems to be in the spirit of the thing. His voice has this great sustain, but then he does these gratuitious vocal inversions on verse two. (Trust the material, James!) He then gives the solo to the piano, which makes it sound more seventies than it should, and gives it a sort of loneliness that's different from the theme of the song, I think. Why not that awesome toney guitar with the solo? I don't know. Cash's baritone and no longer functioning sustain is jarring after the James Taylor version, but he hits the last note more or less successfully. I think there's something true in the rhythm guitar and the lead taking the solo. But it just seems it should be a younger man's song --- someone who still has time but is uttterly utterly lost. Nice piano on the outro. REM can be dicky and kitschy with covers. "Look at us covering this! Are we the living end or what?!" But a good slice of Americana can still even the most flippant of countercultural types, and these guys aren't immune from showing respect. The thing about REM is that even as my interest in them has faded, Stipe's voice has only gotten better. He's got wonderful range and purity, but so does James Taylor. But he infuses it with a vunerability that Taylor doesn't. Why does he muscle up so much before the chorus and during the outro though? They almost make an REM song out of it, but chicken out just short of being sincere. Just. Stone Temple Pilots are about 30% better than they should be. They came along just when all grunge acts were starting to sound indistinguishable, but they managed to stand out anyway. And then they hook Ol' Glen up with a Rickenbacher? They really don't have to add much and mostly don't, apart from some understated but effective drumming. They have the sense to know when they're classed out of the room and get out of his way. He's got a delivery that's confident in the voice even as he's broken in his person. Simply definitve. And really gurrgeous. Is that last line he adds a typical part of his performance? Keith Urban brings a Buddy Holly shuffle to the guitar. And while he's brassy with the vocal like Cambell, combined with the dance beat he's getting out of his guitar, it flies in the face of the composition's... incredible plaintiveness. He's playing (apparently) to a small crowd for a lunchtime show, but it feels like he can't get away from his instinct to rock a house. He's sort of a country Bon Jovi, isn't he? He seems like a good singer, alright, but maybe working too hard to be likeable. Sammy Davis seems to get hooked up with producers that either don't get what he's trying to do or don't get the material. At all. He's game, and I'll give him that, but I think he must've worked with some of the worst A&R men ever. I'm going with STP plus Campbell. They cheat, of course, by having the real article on board, but if the pollmaster rules to allow it, that's my selection.

G-Fafif Sep 05 2011 07:05 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Free download of "Ghost on the Canvas" available on iTunes, with a faint echo of "Wichita Lineman" bracketing.

Edgy DC Sep 05 2011 07:07 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

This should be a perfect song for Freedy, but it's in the wrong key or something. He sounds more off-pitch than usual (which is usually OK with Freedy), but it gets kind of weird when he drops into his baritone ("searching in the sun"). It's like he's hamming it up and decides to sing an occasional line like Barney Gumble or something.

batmagadanleadoff Sep 05 2011 10:37 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Being that Jimmy Webb wrote Wichita, I'm surprised that The Fifth Dimension never recorded a version. This song was made for them.

G-Fafif Sep 06 2011 03:26 AM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Being that Jimmy Webb wrote Wichita, I'm surprised that The Fifth Dimension never recorded a version. This song was made for them. That does seem like a sublime opportunity missed. Then again, the question might not be "Who covered 'Wichita Lineman'?" but rather who didn't? Check out the roster here.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 06 2011 08:13 AM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

With help from Wifey Bucket, whose dad was a lineman (Philly, not Wichita) and loved this song, went with James Taylor of these choices. I've heard Freedy do a better version of the one posted here, however. I agree with a lot of Edgy's remarks on REM. I saw them cover Lou Gramm's resplendent-but-mainstream "Midnight Blue" but Stipe couldn't help ruin it by reminding us in the crowd that he was reading the lyrics off a piece of paper.

G-Fafif Sep 06 2011 08:48 AM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

R.E.M. among the listed, but I'm quite partial to the Dwight Yoakam version linked above.

Rockin' Doc Sep 06 2011 09:13 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

I really liked the understated sound from Stone Temple Pilots backing Glen Campbell. Plus that guitar Glen has looks and sounds awesome. When I first saw it in the video, I thought Glen was holding a bass. To be fair, it's hard to call that collaboration a cover with Glen doing the vocals and providing the guitar solo.

Frayed Knot Sep 06 2011 09:18 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

Edgy DC wrote: Come on, McKeon. Life is short. Cut it with the intentional walks. When did Jack do a 'Wichita Lineman' cover?

Frayed Knot Sep 06 2011 09:21 PM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

HA!! I preserved your quote before you had the chance to sneak it out of here. I'm just waiting for the best 'McArthur Park' cover thread.

dgwphotography Sep 07 2011 08:32 AM Re: Best Wichita Lineman cover ever?

I get that this is about covers, I really do. It's just that none of them compare, so I have to include this here: [youtube:23jkre5h]QTfwcLdP5Xk[/youtube:23jkre5h]