But I couldn't stay away from you

From 1965, here is the most exquisite of lost pop treasures.   Brian Wilson wrote Guess I'm Dumb, one of his most touching and sublime songs in 1964.  The instrumental track was recorded late that year during the Beach Boys Today! sessions.    Inexplicably the band passed on recording it, and as a returned favor for taking Brian's spot on tour, he gave the song to Glen Campbell.   That turned out to be divine providence for Glen had exactly the right voice to send the soaring melodic twists into the stratosphere.  Of course, the single tanked and failed to chart.

The instrumental work is quite a foreshadowing of where the band would be headed in 1966 with Pet Sounds.   When Glen's voice climbs to the heavens with the line "I'm not on top like I used to be" my heart just melts.  The lyrics speak for themselves:

The way I act don't seem like me
I'm not on top like I used to be
I'll give in when I know I should be strong
I still give in even though I know it's wrong, know it's wrong
I guess I'm dumb but I don't care

And breaking off wasn't hard to do
But I couldn't stay away from you
I feel love but not the way I did before
This time girl, has got to be forever more, ever more
I guess I'm dumb but I don't care

And baby since we've been apart
Maybe I've found I had a heart
I couldn't let go even if I wanted to
You must know baby now it's only you, only you
I guess I'm dumb but I don't care

Searching in the sun for another overload

From Stockholm to Wichita in 24 hours. Wichita is a great little city. Clean and prosperous, never in the race to build a clunky downtown skyline like Dallas. Beautiful 1930s bungalows stretch north of downtown along the meanders of the Little Arkansas River. The gorgeous art deco tower and terra cotta work on Wichita North High School brings to mind a time when school architecture was adventurous and a student actually could look forward to going to school there. A two hour drive north of my home town, I always felt a special affinity there and still have fond memories of once a week journeys during my senior year in college to take viola lessons at WSU (The Wheatshockers!).

What brings me to revisit Wichita is perhaps one of the finest songs written in the 20th century. Those that read this blog know that I have a big gooey soft spot for the songwriting of Jimmy Webb. He has a way with weaving his words into melodies that seem to have always been there in the back of my mind. And more often than not the lyrics hit a chord with me that continues to vibrate years later. Wichita Lineman conveys a feeling of yearning, a desire for a connection that never quite transpires. The lineman imagines the voice of his lover echoing over the electric lines. But there he is, up on the pole, miles away from the real thing and the reality and loneliness sets in. The arrangement adds to the mood, with swooning strings and a Gulbransen synthesizer (thanks Wikipedia!) telegraphing an insistent morse code signal.

I hear you singing in the wire
I can hear your through the whine
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line

And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
But the Wichita lineman is still on the line