What does this mean to you?

[Alpo]

This is a song lyric.

 

What do you think he's talking about?

 

 

I am a lineman for the county

And I drive the main road

Searchin' in the sun for another overload

 

 

There is an online story, about a business that are mostly electrical engineers. And they're making fun of the song - "right, you can see an overload".

 

When I first heard the song, way back when, I never actually listened to it. It was more background music. The radio was playing. Glen Campbell has a pleasant voice. The music was not annoying.

 

Then one day I actually listened to it. And I thought it was about a cowboy riding fence. Louis L'Amour has many stories where they're talking about line riders, and people staying in a line shack. "Wichita lineman"? Kansas got more cows than Texas does. Figured it was a line rider.

 

Years later I listened to it again, trying to figure it out.

 

 

You know I need a small vacation, but it don't look like rain

And if it snows that line down south won't ever take the strain

 

 

I decided he was a telephone line worker. And that would be the overload. Something on the wires that would pull them down. Snow. Fallen tree branch.

[Tell Sackett SASS 18436]

That STRETCH down south!!

I always figured he was what he SAID he was!

[Subdeacon Joe]

I've never thought about it before.  Or maybe if I did subconsciously,  just assumed that it would show as sagging or smoking wires.

 

So I went and found:

https://www.thomastthomas.com/Wichita_Lineman_112020.htm

[Eyesa Horg]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

I decided he was a telephone line worker. And that would be the overload. Something on the wires that would pull them down. Snow. Fallen tree branch.

That's pretty much my thoughts, or an electric company lineman as their lines are above the telephone.

[Blackwater 53393]

Overloads often show up as tripped circuit breakers on poles with transformers. You gotta look up into the sun to see if the breaker is tripped, (or use your spotlight to see it in the dark) and then you attempt to reset it as described in the article above.  If it won’t stay reset, then you call out the repair crew.

 

I won’t get into the discussion of engineers. Most of ‘em don’t have hands on knowledge of their products or what is involved in compensating for the shortcomings in their designs!  Those that do are worth their weight in gold!!

 

 

[Alpo]

Something it really puzzled me about that song was the first line.

 

I am a lineman for the county

 

Where I live there would be a lineman for Florida power and light, and one for WOW cable, and one for Comcast Cable, and one for Bell South telephone, and outside of the Incorporated areas there would be a lineman for Gulf Coast electric co-op. But those are all private companies.

 

I never heard of the county running power lines or telephone lines, or for that matter cable lines.

 

But Kansas is weird. I found that out when I was TDY there. The state next door to Kansas is called Arkansas - Ar-kin-saw. There is a river that runs in that state, called the Arkansas River. Also Ar-kin-saw. But the same river runs through Kansas. Where it is called the Arkansas River - Ar-KAN-zus. When the Spaniards were wandering around in the Great American desert in the 1500s they were looking for the City of Gold - El Dorado. John Wayne made a nice Western called El Dorado. Cadillac used to make a car called El Dorado. All of those are pronounced the same way - El Door-ah-doe. There is a town in Kansas called El Dorado. It is pronounced El Door-ay-doe.

 

They is weird in Kansas.

[Subdeacon Joe]

6 minutes ago, Alpo said:

 

I am a lineman for the county

 

 

As mentioned in the linked article above,  some counties do have county owned power generation,  transmission,  and distribution facilities. 

 

But, as also mentioned, he would likely be a "Troubleman" rather than a "Lineman," and driving backroads, sideroads, and access roads, not a main road.

[watab kid]

7 hours ago, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

That STRETCH down south!!

I always figured he was what he SAID he was!

me too , i think the song was about his lonely job that took a lot of time away from where he lived 

 

i did time in oklahoma and texas dor work back in those days - not that work , but it took me way for three weeks at a time - home one then gone again , it was a somewhat lonely life even tho i filled it with fellow workers in officers clubs in OKC , Enid , and at Shepard 

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

I guess I never thought about it that deeply. Sounds to me like he worked for an electric company thinking about his woman during the boredom of checking the lines.

JHC

[WD Farren]

That lineman routinely drives through our neighborhood searching for the over load.

It is easily visible in my neighbor's back yard, as a (yet again) popped transformer.

 

It alerts the neighborhood with a huge loud BANG when it blows up.
They come out and reset or replace it until it blows again.

 

Last week, no high temps, no heat load, zero wind and no obvious amount of EVs on charging stations (work hours).

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

Never thought much about the lyrics as they speak for themselves. I like the melody and chord changes.

 

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wichita+lineman+chords&ia=web

[Cypress Sun]

19 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Overloads often show up as tripped circuit breakers on poles with transformers. You gotta look up into the sun to see if the breaker is tripped, (or use your spotlight to see it in the dark) and then you attempt to reset it as described in the article above.  If it won’t stay reset, then you call out the repair crew.

 

I won’t get into the discussion of engineers. Most of ‘em don’t have hands on knowledge of their products or what is involved in compensating for the shortcomings in their designs!  Those that do are worth their weight in gold!!

 

 

 

This^^^^

 

It is impossible to provide a visual image of me saying "If I ever meet the ******* idiot that designed this, I'll **** his  dumb ***."

I've said it way too many times.

 

 

Before computer controlled monitoring, they had to ride the lines looking for a tripped "jack". Miles and miles of overhead lines....many miles. Probably would have been easier to spot at night IF the breaker hadn't tripped....just look for the bright orange glow in the distance.

 

[Eyesa Horg]

It's pretty spectacular when a transformer explodes! Seen a couple over the years!

[Will Kane]

Wichita Lineman is one of my most favorite tunes. Every time I listen to it, which is pretty often, it takes me back to 1968 when I was in high school. Anyway, here's an article that seems to explain what Jimmy Webb was thinking when he wrote it. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/08/glen-campbell-jimmy-webb-and-wichita-lineman/

[watab kid]

im starting to think of it as nostalgia , the linemen that roard the roads chickening things out , the conductors and stokers on the trains , the tenders of the livery stables , a lot has changed in our lifetimes , things our kids cannot fathom , , 

 

my grandparents still had an outhouse when i was a kid - in town- the new bathroom was an addition to the house at the time , the icebox around the same time , my grandkids could never even imagine what they lived with , they cu;ld not imagine my life before AC in this hot summer weather , but my folks didnt have it till i was off at collage  , nor city sewer and water , all that came in the early 70s , they could not comprehend that we didnt have color TV till then either , but then they grow up in a different era , we lived ours , who knows how they may reflect back 50 years or more from now , after all my grandmother road and drrove a horse/carriage , my folks and i drove a car with a stick and no AC ,,  i was lucky i had an eight track and later a cassette player , 

 

i dont think folks today appreciate how far we have come - in such a short time , i know i dont , i have to pull out the owners manual poften to figure out how to operate the stuff in my 2016 suburban - i cant imagine the stuff in a 2925 , 

 

i think there are jobs that have gone away - "lineman for the county" might well be one of them , i did have a friend that was a splicer [never thought of that as a profession] but he did well at it  

[WD Farren]

"The City of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie is another tune that details the lost past.

 

[Jeff, #21334]

And overload, it wouldn't be a blown fuse, but that wouldn't necessarily be the only reason it's blown could be from 2 lines, slapping together.

The stretch down south, if the lines get iced up or a lot of snow on them, they'll sag down and break county lineman usually work for the r e a, or a pud

[Sedalia Dave]

Over loaded transmission lines will sag.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I'll bet you're still looking for the meaning of "you put your right foot in, you take your right foot out, you put...etc"

[Alpo]

Don't need to look for the meaning of the hokey pokey. They tell you in the last line - that's what it's all about.

[watab kid]

OK , ill go with that , ive never had a good feeling nor a good grasp on it - ive  listened to polka and square dance and a number of other folk music  venues - i get blue grass , i get Dixie and transitional rock , the acid rock , and country old AND new , i even get a little of the saturday night fever era , im not real up on the old ethnic stuff - i do understand some of my scots music and like it mostly , got no problem with the renaissance sounds , most are upbeat and fun , 

but give me the big band era and the roaring 20s for my kind of :fun" music 

 

i also like good classical music on occasion - but yes the hokey pokey aint my cup of tea 

[WD Farren]

Hokey Pokey then washed down with The Chicken Dance is a favorite fare at weddings.

This is "participation" music more than "listening" music.

A good entertainer can get his audience "participating" in many ways... both dance and voice.

 

[Three Foot Johnson]

I'll take song lyrics that don't make sense for $500.

 

"Sink the Bismarck", Johnny Horton.

 

"On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees"...?

That makes no sense, BUT these long, vertically inclined spars with block & tackle used to load ships were called steeves, from which the word stevedore comes from - one who works the steeves. Did the lyrics have a typo? Did Johnny misunderstand what was written by songwriter Tillman Franks, or did he just take poetic license and decide "steers" flowed better than "steeves", even if it made no sense?

[Dapper Dave]

On 7/29/2025 at 10:02 PM, watab kid said:

OK , ill go with that , ive never had a good feeling nor a good grasp on it - ive  listened to polka and square dance and a number of other folk music  venues - i get blue grass , i get Dixie and transitional rock , the acid rock , and country old AND new , i even get a little of the saturday night fever era , im not real up on the old ethnic stuff - i do understand some of my scots music and like it mostly , got no problem with the renaissance sounds , most are upbeat and fun , 

but give me the big band era and the roaring 20s for my kind of :fun" music 

 

i also like good classical music on occasion - but yes the hokey pokey aint my cup of tea 

My stepfather was a WWII veteran, so I grew up on Big Band, was actually playing Glenn Millers' Greatest Hits at work yesterday, to the consternation of my co workers who just couldn't understand why I was singing along with Chattanooga Choo Choo and dancing behind my desk with String of Pearls. 

The chicken dance...in 1988 I won the chicken dance contest at the Chatterbox Pizza Haus on Magsaysay Ave, (old salts know EXACTLY what I'm talking about now), and my prize was a 96 oz. mug of Mojo. I drank it, and when I got up to use the head, well, my legs went on strike...don't remember much else after that, to be honest...

[Brazos Bottom Bill Miller]

Nowdays, utility companies find them by computer. They can see where overloads in the grid are and notify customers. In the old days, they had to drive the roads to find the thrown breaker on the poles.

[Cactus Jack Calder]

“I am a lineman for the county.”

In 1962, when I graduated High School, I didn’t even know how to spell Injuneer. Now I are one, an Electric Power Injuneer as a mater of fact. I worked for an Electric Utility for 33 years. 15 years as a Distribution Engineer and 18 years as an Electric System Operator. There was a REA Utility tied into our system to purchase power for their customers.

 

The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (REA), enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States.

Some REA’s eventually became agencies of the county in which they operated.

 

“Searching in the Sun for another overload.”

Distribution pole lines have transformers hung on the poles to reduce the distribution voltage, several 1000’s of volts, to household voltage, 120/240 volts. These transformers have power limits and are equipped with a small red light that will illuminate if the transformer is subjected to an overload. These red lights can be difficult to spot in bright sun light. They are easy to spot in the dark, but safety rules usually preclude making adjustments unless there is an outage.

 

Alpo,
It all made perfect sense to me. I don’t understand your question.😁

 

CJ

1972 - BSEE - New Jersey Institute of Technology 

formerly Newark College of Engineering 

[watab kid]

i didnt have questions either , seemed straight forward lyrics to me , 

[Jeff, #21334]

Only the copy transformers have the light once they come on. They're on, so nobody pays attention to them a transformer for residential can work at 200 percent overload for short periods that makes the light come on. But it won't go off the only way we could get him off was to break the bulb.

[Jeff, #21334]

I don't know why it does this. I meant to say csp transformer

[watab kid]

when this was written and performed there were linemen traversing the county checking the grid - im not at all certain how they track things these days but im sure they dont have trucks driving around with some lonely guy missing his girl ...but then i dont KNOW THAT , maybe they do