LOVELY THINGS: 2

How many times in my life have I heard Wichita Linesman? How many times have I sang along with it when it came on the radio, or when that old clip of Glen Campbell was shown on the television?

Why is it, then, that it was only today, as it was played on 6Music, that I understood what the song is about? Until now, it was a strange thing, half-diary, half-love song.

Today, it’s become the most eloquent, poetic expression of love; about how this man, this ordinary man with his mind on the quotidian demands of his job, a job that can be described in seven ordinary words -

I am a linesman for the county

- suddenly, helplessly, thinks of the woman he loves and describes in equally simple words how much he loves her -

And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time

- then turns back to his job, back to the things he has to do in the coming days. Until she comes back into his mind, bringing with her that haunting phrase again.

That’s what happens. You get on with your day, and when you least expect it you find somebody there with you. Sometimes they’re someone you want, sometimes they’re someone you miss, sometimes they’re someone who’s gone.

Don’t ask me how before now I’d seen it as nothing other than a collection of rhyming words set to a memorable tune, nor how today’s hearing took on such a different meaning. All I know is this:

It was always a good song. Now it’s a perfect song.