Search Results for “wichita lineman”

In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman And Make It The Official Cover Song Of The Twenty-Teens: The Derangers

July 20, 2014 No Comments

There’s a growing movement. But never mind about my bathroom habits. I wanna talk about my mission –obsession, really — to make Wichita Lineman the National Anthem of the Intertunnel. See, I just named it that. I don’t know why I did that. It’s Kismet, or Astral projection, or yoga or hara kiri or some other exotic word drunk people use in conversation between belches. It’s fit, and just, and it just fits: THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OF THE INTERTUNNELS I was thinking of changing the lyric, but I hear you singing in the series of tubes ruins the Ionic Pentacost,

In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman And Make It The Official Cover Song Of The Twenty-Teens: You Mix A Hell Of A Caucasian, Jackie, Version

October 6, 2013 7 Comments

One is torn between grudging admiration for the fake harmonica sounds, and plain awe at the addition of a glockenspiel, evidently played with the feet, to the whole spiel. Roy from The IT Crowd sings pretty good, too. Like so many things in life, it’s either genius — or it isn’t. Dad’s appearance at 3:11 showcases the essential utility of the song. Wichita Lineman is not too old, or too square, to have lost pop music’s only essential value: to drive your parents up the wall. You must remember this: In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman

In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman And Make It The Official Cover Song Of The Twenty-Teens: Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66

October 1, 2013 6 Comments

Wichita Lineman is playing in the elevator to cool. Of course, the cable has broken, and the car is rocketing down the shaft on the way to Beelzebub’s Lounge, but my points stands. Don’t forget to jump just before the car reaches the bottom. Is Sergio Mendes the least cool hip person ever, or is he the least hip cool person extant, or what? Of course persons of a certain vintage never complain about Sergio’s records, because without them their parents would never have gotten jiggy in the first place and brought them into this benighted world. Oh the chin

In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman And Make It The Official Cover Song Of The Twenty-Teens: The Swinging Doors

September 29, 2013 7 Comments

We’re bad. But we’re not just nationwide. We’re global now. We are legion. And we are determined to make Wichita Lineman the song that’s played by the band in the corner at the dive bar, on the juke box at the pizzeria, and played during time outs at football games and water polo matches alike. I want it tastefully arranged with strings and French horn, murmuring from crummy overhead speakers in elevators in Kuala Lumpur, even though I hate French horn and I’m glad they make them shove their hand in there to try to smother the sound. I want

In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman And Make It The Official Cover Song Of The Twenty-Teens: Optiganally Yours

September 26, 2013 6 Comments

Fonkee. Better bass playing than most versions. I get the impression from all the audio spackle that the vocalist couldn’t sing at gunpoint, or perhaps is singing at gunpoint, but a song with legs carries one along with it, doesn’t it? Previously: In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman And Make It The Official Cover Song Of The Twenty-Teens: Glenn Tilbrook Also Sprach Sippican: Another In The Long List Of Songs I Don’t Like That I Like

In Furtherance Of My Evil Plan To Resurrect Wichita Lineman And Make It The Official Cover Song Of The Twenty-Teens: Glenn Tilbrook

August 24, 2013 8 Comments

(Earlier on Sippican Cottage: Another In The Long List Of Songs I Don’t Like That I Like ) There appears to be a magical barroom somewhere in Great Britain where you can stumble in on an odd night and find Glenn Tilbrook, along with a motley assortment of other musicians — and some people just dragged out of the audience at random — in the corner, banging away at whatever song comes to mind. Glenn Tilbrook was the driving force behind Squeeze, if the name doesn’t sound familiar. When I started playing music for money, I more or less stopped

Existential Music

February 12, 2024 11 Comments

That’s Rose Garden, sung by Lynn Anderson. It was a big, big hit back in 1970. It didn’t matter much what chart you were looking at, or what country the chart was in. Everybody everywhere dug this song. Everyone liked Lynn Anderson, too. What’s not to like? Remember, the higher the hair, the closer to God. Lynn first got her head (and her hair) above water by singing on the Lawrence Welk show. I think Lawrence was less stiff when he’d been dead for five years than when he was on the tube. On reflection, perhaps I should reserve judgment.

The Days of Ruddy Noses

June 23, 2015 7 Comments

That’s Rocky Gresset and some guy that owns a dog house playing a Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer song. Funny to think of what becomes a jazz standard. The Days of Wine and Roses was pretty predictable, but lots of other less predictable things make it into Real Books, or Fake Books, or whatever they call the bootleg books of songs that might be needed on a General Business bandstand. I’m not in the business anymore, but I notice things. The Beatles have a bunch of things that trad jazz bands don’t turn their nose up at anymore. Stevie Wonder songs, quite

The New, Improved Official Cover Song of the Twenty-Teens

March 29, 2015 5 Comments

If you haven’t been following along, about a year ago I made Wichita Lineman the Official Cover Song of the Twenty-Teens. I wield that kind of power. With great power comes great responsibility, of course. I take my role as the ultimate tastemaker on the Intertunnel seriously. I could have foisted any number of lousy pop songs on an unsuspecting public as the OFFICIAL SONG OF THE INTERTUNNELS!!!11!!!!!!11, and everyone would have nodded and said, “Sippican wouldn’t lie, so Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse must be the greatest song ever written!” Hell, I know my power.

Shame About The Creedence

May 26, 2013 8 Comments

Our friend Deborah asked a question in the comments after yesterday’s essay about Wichita Lineman: This is a bunny trail, but please go with me. Since you have an “ear” for the electric bass, can you tell me if the first 30 seconds of the Hollies’ “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” is played on the electric bass? I maintain that the first 30 second of “Long Cool Woman … ” is the finest 30 seconds in all of Rockdom. I’m wondering if I like the sound so much because it is played on the electric bass. Well, now.