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.'

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