Say Something Interesting about: Roy Orbison

-- cºzen (skiplevel...), November 7th, 2004.

his best songs deserve to be a lot longer. as it is they often feel like they're over before they've begun. "it's over" is the classic example, but i guess that works on a thematic level.

i find chris isaak really sympathetic, although i haven't listened to his records in ages.

chris isaak is a lot hotter than roy orbison ever was, but roy made better records.

'You are completely wrapped in cling-film,' I say.

'You win the bet,' says Roy, muffled. 'Now unwrap me.'

'Not for several hours.'

'Ah.'

Another great song on that album to bury your head in the pillow to: 'Summersong'

George Harrison said that Roy was deeply conversant with the work of Monty Python. I love that.

The parenthesized disclaimer however doesn't necessarily mean that they could not be, correspondingly, the Roy'O of lesbos pop and the Roy'O of copycatsdom.

just get one of the greatest hits things with the original monument versions on it.

LONELY AND BLUE

Only The Lonely (Know The Way I Feel)
Bye-Bye Love
Cry
Blue Avenue
I Can't Stop Loving You
Come Back To Me (My Love)
Blue Angel
Raindrops
(I'd Be A) Legend In My Time
I'm Hurtin'
Twenty Two Days
I'll Say It's My Fault

IN DREAMS

In Dreams
Lonely Wine
Shahdaroba
No One Will Ever Know
Sunset
House Without Windows
Dream
Blue Bayou
(They Call You) Gigolette
All I Have To Do Is Dream
Beautiful Dreamer
My Prayer

Take either.

Only The Lonely
Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)
Blue Bayou
The Comedians
Ooby Dooby
Leah
Running Scared
Uptown
In Dreams
Crying
Candy Man
Go, Go, Go (Down The Line)
Mean Woman Blues
(All I Can Do Is) Dream You
Claudette
It's Over
Oh, Pretty Woman

I havn't heard this one, but it's got quite the playlist.

Could he actually be seen as a forerunner of Scott Walker, in some ways; not in the actual vocal timbre, but more in the heartbreaking nature, and an 'existential crooner' effect, perhaps.

Roy Orbison was the first American musician to use Marshall guitar amps. Orbison got an early one on a UK tour and liked it enough to make it his amp when he went back to the USA.

"Blue Bayou" is a force of nature.

Well...how do I say this...I find him kind of overrated in a way. I like him, I stupidly let go of this great Monument 2-LP set of his hits a while back and now I wish I had not. But my taste does not run to that particular style of singing and record-making. I like "Uptown" and "Running Scared" fine, "Pretty Woman" is one of the all-time riffs, etc. The thing I find interesting is that he really wasn't all that popular in his heyday, he was rediscovered later on. For whatever reason he doesn't move me; he sings great but it's not something I put on, you know. One of my literature teachers at the U. of Tenn. in Knoxville, Dick Penner, co-wrote "Ooby Dooby" and after I mentioned this to him I got even better grades. The Big O is someone I probably need to go back to and re-assess, he's one of the few Founding Rock Daddies I just don't quite get.

HI DERE#onethread