I've never 'got'

People specifically like the lines: 'And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.' I think it's an overrated song, too, but anything that was once that successful will have an afterlife. There are reasons for the success of the Glen Campbell recording in particular, quite apart from its major label status and consequent marketing power, etc. Glen Campbell was a superb performer, one of the best in music at the time. The sound is certainly not 'country' but has huge crossover appeal, excellent production, and the 'Wrecking Crew'. Again, I think it's overrated (and I can't say I much like the sound, especially the string sauce), but I do sometimes wish today's MOR stuff still had the same production values.

Lyrically, it certainly isn't an 'ode to a shit job', but about the supposed connection the lineman feels with his beloved, who it is implied has rejected him, through the telephone wires. I've never understood how that image is supposed to work. For a while, before I looked it up, I thought the lineman had a device that enabled him to listen in on conversations by attaching it to the wire, but it seems that's not possible. (I don't understand any of the technology.) So, for some reason, the lineman hears her 'singing through the wire' and is therefore still somehow connected to her, 'still on the line'. I can only assume that people think this a highly convincing image, although I'm not sure it stands up to scrutiny.

(With my usual talent for putting my foot in it, I once used 'Wichita Lineman' as a fairly randomly-picked example of a song I considered overrated. It turned out that the person I was talking to considered it their favourite song. Oops. :) )