Lately I've been hearing "The Witchita Linesman" on the radio, and began wondering what kind of linesman he was supposed to be. Since he was a linesman for the county, he could possibly be working on powerlines, as some counties have public utilities to produce power. But some of the lyrics suggest that his sweetheart is talking on the line, making him a phone repairman. And the music while this is suggested is reminiscent of morse code... Anyway, it seems there should be a lot of irritating factual discrepancies in lyrics, since lyricists aren't always in touch with the real world. I used to live in Northfield MN where Jesse James robbed his last bank, and wrote a version of the Jesse James ballad, with my major historical research having been watching Bonnie and Clyde ten years earlier. I had also heard that after robbing the bank the gang was met up with near Madelia MN. So I put in the line, "It was down there near Madelia where they died from hemophilia, they were bleeders just as sure as they were born. Cole Younger, Frank, and Jesse, were laid in the field by Bessie, laid to rest in a field of corn." I hadn't paid enough attention to the Jesse James ballad tune I was using to note that Jesse was shot by that dirty little coward who shot poor mister Howard :')... Another example is the Greatful Dead's song which leads impressively up to the line: "The Great Northern, out of Cheyenne, from sea to shining sea..." I've hopped the Great Northern route, admittedly after it was Burlington Northern, and it follows US 2 through Northern Montana, whereas I believe Cheyenne was on the Southern Pacific Line. Don't take me as an authority for history, however... For more interesting BS, visit my webpage at http://pages.about.com/bsondahl