Say Something Interesting about: Roy Orbison

I was never officially a suspect in his death by the way.

2. He lost his wife and kids in a house fire.

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His close friends knew that he wasn't blind, and would refer to him jokingly as "The All-Seeing Orb".
-- jazz odysseus (nomorespa...), November 8th, 2003.

Those two posts made my entire evening. I did end up hooping tonight with murky results and was nursing quite the frantic comedown until jazz odysseus set me straight. Cheers mon, I'll sleep to your honor.

Now I'm imagining you in Blue Velvet, N.

if only Roy Orbison hadn't died, b/c a duet w/ Morrissey would have been so cool!

This may not really be classified as "interesting" though.

I'm sure that Nick Cave can find a mid-'50s equivalent, easy, But I'm unsure who? Elvis?

The revival of this thread led me to listen to Orbisongs and In Dreams (the album) again this this afternoon. I'd never properly appreciated 'House Without Windows' and '(Say) You're My Girl)' before. Just thinking about Roy Orbison makes me sad.

'Mind you, people do not realize how much is on each roll. I bet that with a single roll alone I could wrap you up entirely.'

Roy Orbison sits impassively like a monochrome Buddha. My palms are sweaty.

'I will take that bet,' says Roy. 'If you succeed I will give you tickets to my new concert. If you fail I will take Jetta, as a lesson to you not to speak boastfully.'

-- 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.

Yeah, I'm with that. I always thought "You Got It" was striking for being on a continuum with the earlier hits that worked just fine on radio and elsewhere. Still does.

Search: "Life Fades Away," from the 'Less Than Zero' soundtrack. He cowrote it with Danzig. Great one.

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

Two of my favorite things about Roy, these. ("Life Fades Away" is really great and I'm wondering if it was ever anthologized properly, as otherwise I guess it would be missed.)

now that's bizarre. {insert dan perry-esque quip here}

Same here. Still.

"THE DARK ELVIS!!"

...........Chuck E. don't like him much though.

I think I'm right in saying he was much more popular in the UK than the USA? Or he had hits for a longer period in the UK?

Anyway, y'all should rent this unexpectedly terrific documentary called Roy Orbison: In Dreams, released in 2003, featuring rather good interviews with Robert Plant, Jeff Lynne, Emmylou Harris, and a surprisingly un-twat-ish Bono, among others. The last 15 minutes, as the Mystery Girl-Traveling Wilburys triumphs approach, is so wonderful and sad that I had to pause the DVD. I forgot how much great stuff he recorded before he died: the k.d. lang remake of "Crying," the Danzig collab, "You Got It."

Fuck Johnny Cash -- he was the only artist who could have made one of those Rick Rubin album-length collabs work.

Yeah, I really enjoyed the fact that half the music business seemed to be behind him, determined to give him a hit.

-- scott seward (skotro...), March 26th, 2006. (scott seward)

That is interesting though - just by sheer odds it seems impossible.

He's part of the best anagram ever :

The Traveling Wilburys: Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison

An angry jew, the Beatle, blond boy, sorry prat in ELO, stiff guy, in short: very boring old men

Funny how they never managed to make a decent song after Big Roy's passing though.

YOU GOT IT

Is there any better sounding echo than on Roy Orbison's early 60s hits? I'm not familiar with music terms so I don't know if you would exactly call it "echo", but what I'm talkin about is the sound of his voice specifically on "In Dreams" when he starts singing "I close my eyes and drift away...". God I love that song.

reverb, I imagine

and yeah, it's pretty much the best reverb

He wore those big sunnies 'cause he was shy.

album recommendations?

The original In Dreams if you mean non-compilations.

The two-disc comp released a few years ago collects a lot of worthwhile one-off tracks from various eighties soundtracks ("Wild Hearts Run Out of Time," "Life Fades Away"), but the track list is frustratingly out of sequence.

There's a new 4xCD set called The Soul of Rock and Roll. It's out next month and it's very good.

does Roy Orbison join Al Green as the artist with universal ILE acclaim?

I like him a lot more than I do like Al Green. Al Green is, well, OK, but not at all up there with peers such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Roy Orbison was one of the very few great pre-Beatles acts.

As for original albums, I guess "Crying" may be the most essential. The title track in particular, but also contains "Running Scared" among others.

Generally, original albums by pre-Beatles acts are not really recommended though. They were typical singles acts and should be treated as such. Also the case with Orbison.

Thanks for the education.

Had a look at the tracklisting for the box set - no "Southbound Jericho Parkway," no "definitive" I'm afraid.

He was a guest on Night Network one night in the late 80s, along with the Voice of the Beehive. They were reviewing new videos and a late Smiths or early solo Morrissey song came on and Roy Orbison said how sad the singer seemed and how he felt bad for him.
― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 9 November 2003

I picked up a really shabby looking Roy Orbison best of today for a dollar and I'm mighty glad that I did. I've always been envious of people who grew up with families who listened to radio all of the time, and have long been familiar with all the old staples. But then again, sometimes it's really cool to approach this stuff as an adult for the first time. Currently I'm going fucking wild about "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)", the way the drums get louder and louder during the final minute.

He's really somethin' else. Runnin' Scared is my jam.

I was flipping through channels on Thanksgiving during post-eating and some kind of all-star concert was shown on PBS.. It was filmed in B&W, and I remember hearing "It's Over" and "Pretty Woman.."

wow ZS, I'm not sure if I envy you or pity you.

Dream Baby, Crying, Dream Baby, Pretty Woman: these songs are the sdtk to my life.

hard to imagine what could've replaced them, but the thought of approaching with fresh ears is appetizing

xp

billstevejim, that special is the greatest dream like music thing i've ever seen. kinda lynchian

Yeah I loved it.. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of my family was into it, but there were people running in and out of the room a lot, so it's hard to tell.

Okay, I'm reading on wikipedia that he recorded a disco album called Laminar Flow in 1979. This sounds intriguing.

LIFE FADES AWAY

a friend of mine recently picked up a tape at a carboot sale with "boy or bison" written on the inlay card. he thought it was a great bandname and bought it for that reason. he got home and it was, of course, a roy orbison compliation.

His late Sixties/Early Seventies Jimmy Webb-style Überpop-opera recordings for MGM-Monument are totally slept on.
― musicmope (musicmope), Saturday, November 8, 2003 11:40 AM (5 years ago)

On the basis of the copy of 'Memphis' (1972) I just picked up, this would appear to be true - amazing song called 'Run the Engine High' by jerry McBee, that sounds like it could be the Box Tops, a bonkers, phased I fought the Law, and an even more Bonkers 'Danny Boy'

"She's a Mystery to Me" is an obvious standout on Mystery Girl but this is a really strong album. The second half is particularly strong: "The Comedians" is excellent as is said above, as is "Windsurfer" and "Careless Heart" (the latter a Diane Warren co-write but let's not hold that against it).

Why do we always go for something we can't reach? Nobody ever really understands.

roy orbison sing it for the lonely

Yeah, I really enjoyed the fact that half the music business seemed to be behind him, determined to give him a hit.

So true.

You know someone who said something interesting about Roy Orbison is Alan Sparhawk in that NPR Fresh Aire interview linked from the Low thread.

christ, but Mystery Girl is a TREMENDOUS album. obviously I always loved "You Got It", but never heard the entire lp until I picked up a sealed copy for three bucks last weekend. so wonderful in every way. how sad that he wasn't around to bask in its glow.

i love roy orbison more than life

Something interesting. Hmmm...

I think I read somewhere that Elvis Presley got a phone call from somebody praising his new song, but it turned out to be one of Roy's singles.

Someone's face was red.

Roy Orbison was the first American rock musician to start using Marshall amps and bring them back to the USA after a UK tour.

always listen to roy orbison at christmas

No proper C/D thread, so...

I picked up the Bear Family "Roy Rocks" comp of his rockabilly and up-tempo material and it's just strength to strength. While I enjoy Roy's ballads more than most of his contemporaries I really appreciate this Rocks series approach, it concentrates on the stuff I like best.

My favourite is Running Scared, an extraordinarily tense song. One of the live albums I have, he ends it on that huge "...with MEEEEEE!!!" and the audience goes wild, and then he just sings the last couple of lines another half dozen times, putting more into it each time. It's fantastic.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, November 7, 2004 11:13 PM (6 years ago)

martin OTM. this has been one of my favorite performances (on the record, haven't heard the live version) for ever and ever.

Despite boasting an "anodyne" production (as I heard someone call Jeff Lynne's job last month), "You Got It" is such a remarkable piece of craft.

Back in around 2006 or 2007 the RnR Hall of Fame had an Orbison exhibit. Among the artifacts was a hand-scrawled memo to himself essentially telling him to pull his shit together, from the mid-80s or so. It was in list form, kind of like "1) Fire manager; 2) Get new band" etc.

that's interesting - i'd always chalked orbison's comeback to a confluence of factors: blue velvet, the showtime 'black and white night' special (this was a pretty big deal at the time), the 'crying' remake w/ kd lang and then the watershed w/ traveling wilburys and mystery girl. i'd never even considered that he might've been the active catalyst behind it.

Was the subject of a bizarro early attempt to create stereo LPs from old mono recordings when stereo became big in the mid-60s, which budget label Design Records did by putting the original recording on the left channel, and overdubbing new instruments on the right channel. Unfortunately, someone thought that a tambourine and harmonica were the ticket to modernizing O's early recordings. Here's the sorry result. LOLling at description "Design Records vs. Roy Orbison", like it was an intended mash-up.....

xp The memo definitely predated "A Black & White Night," the Wilburys, and the kd lang collaboration. It was pretty fascinating, like he was taking stock: where have I been, where am I now, and where do I want to be?

How could Orbison be a passive agent in his own comeback?

had one of his songs featured in popular British sitcom "Only Fools And Horses". It was sung by a character in the show that was an ageing binman dressed up to look roughly like Tom Jones, who couldn't pronounce his R's properly. Thus, the song in question became 'Cwying'.

He should be swtiched off immediately if in the vicinity of Dennis Hopper with an oxygen cylinder

It's 1976 and the Big O has the number one album in the UK. How did that happen? I try to find out why.

his hair could do the work of ten men.
― scott seward, Saturday, 8 November 2003 04:07 (8 years ago) Bookmark

My buddy in junior high got dressed up like roy orbison, and I photographed him eating from a bowl of banana pudding.

....

Maybe I should've posted that in the seran wrap thread.

Well basically my prime dread re: hooping kind of happened and for the first twenty minutes the pill burned in my ass in that nagging, infuriating way like when your belly-button ring accidentally gets yanked too hard. Would you believe it though, one of my friends took it upon herself to put a condom over her finger and re-orient the thing -- I hadn't the money for a second attempt -- after which I had a pretty good time. Not all it's cracked up to be, however, though it may be different for girls. I guess it's on you to find out for yourselves.

― DarrensCoq, Sunday, November 9, 2003 9:06 AM (8 years ago)

During recent Louvin Brothers jag discovered this pretty good Live From Batley Variety Club album: http://open.spotify.com/album/4LFrznrFAkcoprQqaWrCAc

Wait there's also Live from Birmingham, Live from Queen's Theatre, and Live from The Fiesta Club. Set Lists vary slightly. This one is the only one without "Leah," which is one of my favorites, although it is the only one with a cover of "When I Stop Dreaming," which is how I found it.

my god this concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YG__LBJVZ0&feature=relmfu

'in dreams' is about the best song anyone ever wrote.
― cºzen (Cozen), Sunday, November 7, 2004 7:45 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Worth repeating.

I would not have expected the best song anyone ever wrote to start with the words "a candy-colored clown..."

...yet here we are.

Up until recently, I had discs from the box set in rotation in the car changer. I must say, all the superlatives thrown at the Monument stuff are true: amazing production elevating even the lesser material to stratospheric heights, and THAT VOICE. Interesting songwriting too. Have ya'll actually listened to "Leah"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Ib3_jMp9s

Pretty strange...everything...for a hit from '63 or so.

got sucked in again into watching the 'Give Us Money' presentation of Orbison's Black and White Night on PBS

TCB band backing him up, Bruce and Elvis Costello and Tom Waits and kd lang and bonnie raitt just chilling on stage and you can't for a second take your eyes off the Big O.

Blows my mind that that beautiful voice comes out of him so seemingly effortlessly, it just goes there

Otm

i haven't watched that show in a while, that's a good reminder to put it back in the queue.

it's so good

Something good in a similar vain is the one Dave Edmunds did with Carl Perkins.

wow never seen that. i'll def have to check that out

Got my favorite guitar duel of all time, on Pretty Woman, with Springsteen knowing better and just sitting back and doing his basic box of blues, vs James Burton tearing it up.

yes! i loved that

god those TCB guys are so tight

I adore his music.

Nice! I'm glad you put "Communication Breakdown" in there.

Roy is magical imo

VegemiteGrrl, you know what's magical?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5N9IHqqGcA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tt5DE4hbYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ltMHQMUFE

Ha

Exactly

Eno sounds lovely here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPN0EHyy09Y

Dylan said something in Chronicles to the effect that listening to Orbison's hits when they first came out showed him that you could break the rules and make great records that reached a lotta people. An Orbison bio (blanking on the title), quoted a British journalist: "brave and chinless"--perfect tag, esp. re: observing the reception that RO got when The Beatles had him as opening act (a mistake there, lads).

This photo fills me with joy.

https://sonicmoremusic.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/135172713781351.jpg

Amazing! Who are the other guys? A couple look almost familiar---

Rick Rubin, Roy, Danzig and ... time-traveler Wolfgang Van Halen?

L-R: Rick Rubin, George Drakoulias, Roy Orbison, Glenn Danzig.

There's a neat anecdote from Danzig in the liners to the Roy box about being invited to Roy's estate for a writing session for "Life Fades Away". He's waiting in a sitting room for Roy to come down, so he picks up and starts playing this priceless antique Spanish guitar that's on display. Roy suddenly appears and Danzig gets embarrassed and stops playing. Roy tells him, "No, no--continue. That's what it's made for."

L-R: Crusty Wilbury, Cheeky Wilbury, Lefty Wilbury, Farty Wilbury

Lol

Finally listening to Mystery Girl after all these years. It has an Albert Hammond co-write.#onethread. Maybe newly reissued King of Hearts is next.

I was at a trivia thing Saturday night, and one of the questions identified the Traveling Wilburys as the five principals plus Eric Clapton...? I could only guess that they were going by album credits and Clapton contributed backing to a song or two.

!

That doesn't sound right at all. Harrison does appear on and contributes a song to Clapton's Journeyman.

2 live crew got away with their rip off of pretty women

Sorry, meant to say “Mercy!”

Here's something interesting about Roy Orbison that doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet - he starred in a feature film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fastest_Guitar_Alive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK9JwuqZXWM

Roy Orbison: “In Dreams”
“Just before he made his comeback with The Traveling Wilburys, before he died, I saw him at the Mean Fiddler. It was just him, his guitar and voice, so beautiful, so moving—what a fucking guy. And I was waiting out back to meet him and I did. Y’know what he said to me? “Get out of the way, son,’ as he pushed past me on the way to his limousine.”

https://cocteautwins.com/robin-guthrie-my-favourite-records-melody-maker.html

lol

Mercy

At least he added "son." Respectful if patronizing.

Don't criticize what you don't understand, son, you've never walked in that man's shoes.

Pretty shoes too

http://www.rebeccapromitzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/booties.jpeg

Well that didn't work. Here's a link.

it worked (I see the pretty shoes)

The book includes an account of how the Big O accidentally developed his sunglasses image while on a U.K. tour with the Beatles in 1963. “He had left his regular glasses on a plane, right before the tour," Roy Jr. told Rolling Stone. "He had the dark glasses with him and decided to keep wearing them. Dad wasn't able to see without glasses. When he got off the plane in England, people were taking pictures and that's what they saw, Dad with the dark glasses."

Read More: Roy Orbison's Son Reveals Why He Started Wearing Dark Glasses | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/roy-orbison-dark-glasses/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

"Running Scared" never stops amazing me

the lyric constructed in such a way that you don't exactly know whether it's tragedy or celebration until the very last word

(ok the rhyme structure clues you in 1 line earlier but ffs)

also the only singer whose voice i love more than Roy's is Al Green

the only singer

Is this really the only time he ever performed this song live?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvR1YgT7QYs

HI DERE#onethread