Glen Campbell's cover of "Wichita Lineman"

Josh White's cover of "Miss Otis Regrets"

Anyone figured these out? Or have a suggestion for a published source that is accurate.

The verse chord progression on "Whichita Lineman" is phenomenal but I can't seem to nail the correct grips. The stuff I've found on the web is very wrong. I saw Glen playing it last night on a CMT special about him. He played it in the 2nd to 6th fret area.

Thanks!

A couple of days go by and then suddenly there is a video in my mailbox. It turns out one of my guitar buddies saw Glen doing the tune solo on Larry King. He noted that the show was repeating at 3AM, set his VCR timer, and now I have the tape. Eureka!Great footage of his hands during the critical chord sequences!

I have about 80% figured out at this point and it now sounds correct with melancholy oozing out of the guitar. The OLGA harmony is actually correct. It's purely a chord voicing issue. Once I have it I may try to post it at OLGA.

Doesn't anybody here do any Josh White tunes/arrangements?

www.randsullivan.com/corndogmusic/030803WichitaLineman-b.mp3

This is just a beautiful song! Thanks Jimmy Webb.

Now I've got to get crackin' on Josh White's arangement of "Miss Otis Regrets". Any help on Josh White arrangements would be apreciated. Scott, don't you play any of his stuff?

There are two transcriptions of Josh White tunes in the book, "Mel Bay Presents Legends Of Country Blues Guitar" by Stefan Grossman. This comes with a CD that has copies of the original 78s and typical Grossman tab for "Little Brother Blues" in standard tuning a half step down and "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed" in Open D a whole step down. This 2nd tune rocks! I've tried working it up before but again the term "idiosyncratic" seems to apply. I tend to lose the groove in trying to follow Stefan's transcription although I love singing along with this one. I have the day off so I may work on this one a bit especially since I play very little in Open D.

Consider checking Homespun as there is a video on Josh White guitar stylings by none other than Josh White, Jr. I can't comment on it as I haven't seen it.

As requested, here is what I've come up with. The tough grips to nail were the F/A and the Asus4. If anyone has further refinements, let me know.

www.randsullivan.com/corndogmusic/WichitaLineman2.pdf

Oh, hi! A-heh heh! Is Miss Otis in?"
"Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today."

Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today, madam.
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today, mmmmmm.
And she's sorry to be delayed,
but last evening down at lover's lane
she strayed, madam.
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.

When she woke up and found
that her dream of love was gone, madam,
she ran to the man
who had lead her so far astray.
And from under her velvet gown
she drew a gun and shot her lover down, madam.
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.

In particular, the commentary on Josh's cover of Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets" describes how I'm drawn into the tune:

"Though this was exactly the sort of thing that bothered his purist folk fans, it was ideally suited to Josh's delivery. A blues ballad of murder and hanging told in the voice of a genteel sophisticate, it displayed both his sure musicianship and his wry, sexy humor. Other singers tend to sound overly arch or inappropriately bouncy when confronted with Porter's bizarre juxtaposition of events and tone, but for Josh it was a perfect fit; it was cafe blues, a style that he was inventing and of which he would be the sole successful practitioner."

That describes my response thoroughly. I think I need to pursue this "cafe blues" style a bit further. Can anyone think of other players of this style? Looks like this needs to be another thread.

The other intersting fact is that Josh White authored, with Ivor Mairants, the first blues guitar instruction book: "The Josh White Guitar Method" (Boosey & Hawkes, 1956).

It was the first study book for both Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn. Renbourn says it was the only good instruction book available and provided the basis for most of the players from his generation. Because the book not only had blues tunes but also included British ballads, Wald suggests that young English musicians in the 60s took White's idea of using blues techniques to play English traditional songs and expanded it to create a distinctly European fingerpicking style that overflowed into rock, pop, and jazz.

Wow! Is this overstated or have we stumbled on to one the signifant crossroads in the evolution of acoustic rock and pop music in the '60s?

Sadly, it seems that this book is no longer in print. I saw nothing in the current Boosey & Hawkes catalogue.

I'm glad to hear that they're working for you. Yeah, the strings were tough to get through on the studio track but you can hear him. The Larry King segement helped a lot because he was doing it solo acoustic. And I could see his hands somewhat.

Hope to see you soon and play some music together!

It has revealed some of the unique qualities of Josh's playing and arrangement styles and provided some clues to how he approched Miss Otis Regrets. Lots of theory and fingerstyle chops building in the first half with some exercises for arrangement building, using the tunes You Don't Know My Mind and Turkey in the Straw.

The second half is complete detailed arrangements with standard and tab notation, chord grip diagrams, and some playing tips/commentrary for the following tunes: Molly Malone(trad), In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down) (LeRoy Carr), Jerry The Mule (Timber)(trad), Lord Have Mercy(trad),On Top of Old Smokey (trad), and The Riddle Song (I Gave My Love A Cherry)(trad). After spending some time with the book's material and his early recordings his influence on the early British Folk/Blues guys (Renbourn, Jansch, Fischer...)is very clear. Combined with his BBC broadcasts and shows throughout the UK at the same time, he was a critical source of their developing sounds and hybrid styles.

I like the Document DOCD-5194, Vol 1 of Josh's recordings from 1929-1940 the best so far in my listening library. The Classic Blues label re-issue The Essential Josh White is very good too but has less up front solo guitar playing. It has lots of collaborations with piano players, LeRoy Carr being among them. Free and Equal Blues is less interesting to me since its very often heavily laden Hokem and Jolsen-like charicature, probably the result of his fusion of Broadway and Hollywood elements into his performances. I guess that's where his commercial success was to be found. However, this CD does have a cover of Miss Otis Regrets that I really like and have been learning from.

some of these might not be 100%, but they're a very very close approximation to the chords used on the Glenn Campbell recording.

* please forgive me - i couldn't find a way to make this bb display a fixed width font. you'll have to copy it into notepad for the proper formatting.

code:

---

Bbmaj13:	x13233
Fmaj7:		x33210
Dm7: 		x00211
Am7:		x02010
Dsus4:		x00233
C11:		x33333
C11:		x30311
(use either C11 depending on which you think sounds the nicest. i like the second one)
A7sus4:		x02030
G(alt)		x20033
intro:
Fmaj7, c11
		 	Bbmaj13        Fmaj7                    	    C11
  I am a lineman for the county       		and I drive the main road 
  
Dm7              Am7     G       Dsus4       D
searchin' in the sun for another overload. 
  
                           C                                  G(alt)
I hear you singing in the wires,      I can hear you in the whine 
  
Bbmaj13	                D        A7sus4              Bb 
   And the Wichita Lineman       is still on the line. 
  
Cmaj     Bb    Cmaj
  
                      Bbmaj13        F                         C11 
  I know I need a small vacation,      but it don't look like rain. 
  
    Dm7              Am7                  G              Dsus4       D
And if it snows that sounthern load won't ever stand the strain. 
  
                          C                                    G(alt)
And I need you more than want you,       and I want you for all time. 
  
Bbmaj13              D         A7sus4                    Bb 
    And the Wichita Lineman          is still on the line. 
  
  
Cmaj    B   Cmaj

---

After many listens I think I have finally nailed the chords for Wichita Lineman. Most of the tabs I have found on the net are correct except for the passage that begins "...I hear you singing int he wires...". The strings in this section obscure the chords but I think I have it so here goes.

Intro - Fmaj7, C11

Verse - Bbmaj7, Am7, C11, Dm7, Am7, G, D
(this is the passage) C, Bm7 (or just Bm), Bb, D, Asus4

Bridge - Bb, Cadd9

Verse - same as the first

Solo - over first half of the verse chords then singing recommences on last half

Outro - Bbmaj7, C

So there it is. If anyone thinks this is incorrect let me know otherwise happy strumming.

Robin Moss

I will offer, on the "B part", the G/B played as a "small" F with the first finger on the B bass.
The Gm/Bb played as a generic Bb (2nd position barre), and the D (Lineman) played as a standard small chord "D" with your thumb grabbing the F# bass.

Again thank you for the effort on this ASTOUNDINGLY beautiful J. Webb composition.
Also, I'm newly registered to this site, and glad I found it thru google.