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Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy \/ Columbia Records<\/p>\n
There is a rich vein of American songwriting that centres on extracting the profound from the utterly ordinary. Bob Dylan<\/a> and Billy Joel are among the masters of this craft.<\/p>\n On Dylan\u2019s side, there are lines like \u201c20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift\u201d and \u201cMarry me a wife, catch rainbow trout \/ Have a bunch of kids who call me Pa, that must be what it\u2019s all about\u201d that mercilessly debunk the American Dream with sordid subtlety. <\/p>\n And Joel has tracks like \u2018Scenes From An Italian Restaurant\u2019 about the prom King and Queen living the teenage dream, never knowing that they could ever \u201cwant more than that out of life\u201d. But storied ambitions made it clear that attritions would plague their matrimony days with strife. <\/p>\n So, they \u201cgot divorced as a matter of course\u201d, and Joel\u2019s song shone light on how \u2018making it\u2019 is never quite enough because there\u2019s always more \u2018making it\u2019 to be done. Life isn\u2019t as linear as the American Dream suggests, and Dylan and Joel have been the foremost purveyors of that truth. So, it is little wonder that they are both deeply attracted to the coracle of calm amid the carnage that Glen Campbell\u2019s engineer manages to muster as the humble protagonist of \u2018Wichita Lineman\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I could write a song as good as \u2018Wichita Lineman\u2019, I\u2019d be a very happy man,\u201d Joel told Bill Maher. <\/p>\n He was so inspired by the Jimmy Webb-written classic from 1968 that he even attempted to try his hand at a similar tale of a dignified workman wearily going about his ways. \u201cI tried,\u201d Joel explained, \u201cThere\u2019s a song called \u2018Stop in Nevada\u2019, I was trying to write \u2018Wichita Lineman\u2019. I was thinking, \u2018Midwestern guy climbing a telephone pole with the barren fields of Kansas. How do you evoke that? How do I write that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dylan must\u2019ve wondered much the same more than a few times to have been confident enough to proclaim that it was \u201cthe greatest song ever written<\/a>\u201d when he was asked to provide a testimony for Dylan Jones\u2019 novel on the unfinished track. Bob\u2019s venerated name offers a lot of weight to such a proclamation, and Joel\u2019s isn\u2019t far behind. But, in truth, it isn\u2019t hard to argue that Campbell\u2019s ode to the American worker and their honest struggles mastered the form.<\/p>\n You can be listening in a cafe in Croydon on a wet Tuesday in November, having your ear talked off by Carole, but suddenly, \u2018Wichita Lineman\u2019 comes on BBC Radio 2 and you\u2019re adjusting a spanner under the baking Kansas sun, thinking about home. <\/p>\n While the track is rife with symbolism, it\u2019s this distinct sense of imagery that sets the tone. Just as Dylan evokes a cabin in Utah to talk about the virtues of the oft-neglected quiet life and Joel journeys into a mid-range inauthentic Italian restaurant to tackle the vicissitudes of a mutual midlife crisis that often besets marriages, the specific placement of the lineman helps to make his tale seem real and relatable.<\/p>\n That\u2019s something Joel and Dylan have always deployed. Joel has written the likes of \u2018Downeaster Alexa\u2019<\/a> about a fisherman toiling away in an industry where everything seems to be pitted against him, something everyone from music journalists to green grocers can relate to. Dylan has \u2018North Country Blues\u2019 about life in a failing mining town that more universally taps into a grander sense of existing within austerity.<\/p>\n These songs make sense of the fact that most people aren\u2019t chasing glory, they\u2019re just trying to get through the day with a little dignity. There\u2019s a great sense of poetry to that which Joel and Dylan have mulled over for a lifetime. But rarely has this style of song debunked the American Dream with more truth and grace than \u2018Wichita Lineman\u2019.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n But it is not a trifling detail that the song was a hit, too. It hit third in the US and seventh in the UK, making it clear to the likes of the Eagles that easy AM radio listening didn\u2019t have to be defanged. The bliss wasn\u2019t ignorant with this classic track, and Don Henley took note, going on to hail Campbell as one of \u201dthe greatest musicians this country has ever produced\u201d. A legion of songwriters were in agreement, and suddenly they had a blueprint for a sweeter way to get a cutting point across.<\/p>\n Amid soaring strings, we can also find a semblance of hope in our humble protagonist, who achieves a degree of dignified contentment in reconciling his struggles and knowing he has something that makes them worthwhile. \u201cI know I need a small vacation \/ But it don\u2019t look like rain,\u201d might not sound like a dream, but it\u2019s the best we can hope for, and two American masters believe it has never been said better.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Billy-Joel-Musician-1978-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Columbia Records<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter<\/p>\n