|
|
|
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I came late to Roy Orbison, first hearing his name when Bruce Springsteen used it in his classic “Thunder Road.” It wasn’t until later that I equated that name with the aching tenor that I’d heard coming out of my parents’ stereo for years via CBS-FM in New York.
Springsteen’s new single “Working on a Dream,” a pop confection in the Orbison mode, would be perfect for an Orbison comeback album were he around to make one. Instead, we’ll have to settle for the four-CD “The Soul of Rock And Roll,” an almost overwhelming collection that spans Orbison’s career — including hits, b-sides, soundtrack work and unreleased tracks — in fine fashion.
For best results, take it in one disc at a time, and appreciate the simplicity and the sometimes raw emotion of both the classics and lesser known songs that make up the various stages of his career.
Disc 1, spotlighting Orbison’s Sun Records years, serves up the classic rockabilly of “Ooby Dooby” and “Go! Go! Go!,” but it was apparent from the start that Orbison was different from his contemporaries at Sun. His music wasn’t about swagger, like Elvis, or vitriol, like Jerry Lee Lewis. Orbison’s songs, even the rockers, ached with the reticence of young awkward love — a reticence belied by his soaring vocals.
By disc 2, which focuses on his early ’60s Monument recordings, Orbison’s three-octave voice moves beyond soaring — it’s practically exploding with melancholy on classic tracks like “Only the Lonely” and “Crying.” By this point, he’d become a genre almost unto himself — good luck finding a song in the Orbison mode by another artist that stands up to these.
If the set bogs down at all it’s on the third disc, featuring Orbison’s late ’60s and ’70s output. “Oh Pretty Woman” is a rock classic by any standard, but much of this period was marked by songs that park themselves in cheese mode and never quite maneuver out of it. (“So Young” will probably not make you want to run out and see the movie it came from, “Zabriskie Point.”)
The extensive liner notes point out that Orbison was concentrating more on being a father during this period, and less on his musical output. That said, there are plenty of songs here — “Pistolero” from “The Fastest Guitar Alive” comes to mind — that do manage to transcend melodrama by sheer force of will and Orbison’s stunning vocals.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I came late to Roy Orbison, first hearing his name when Bruce Springsteen used it in his classic “Thunder Road.” It wasn’t until later that I equated that name with the aching tenor that I’d heard coming out of my parents’ stereo for years via CBS-FM in New York.
Springsteen’s new single “Working on a Dream,” a pop confection in the Orbison mode, would be perfect for an Orbison comeback album were he around to make one. Instead, we’ll have to settle for the four-CD “The Soul of Rock And Roll,” an almost overwhelming collection that spans Orbison’s career — including hits, b-sides, soundtrack work and unreleased tracks — in fine fashion.
For best results, take it in one disc at a time, and appreciate the simplicity and the sometimes raw emotion of both the classics and lesser known songs that make up the various stages of his career.
Disc 1, spotlighting Orbison’s Sun Records years, serves up the classic rockabilly of “Ooby Dooby” and “Go! Go! Go!,” but it was apparent from the start that Orbison was different from his contemporaries at Sun. His music wasn’t about swagger, like Elvis, or vitriol, like Jerry Lee Lewis. Orbison’s songs, even the rockers, ached with the reticence of young awkward love — a reticence belied by his soaring vocals.
By disc 2, which focuses on his early ’60s Monument recordings, Orbison’s three-octave voice moves beyond soaring — it’s practically exploding with melancholy on classic tracks like “Only the Lonely” and “Crying.” By this point, he’d become a genre almost unto himself — good luck finding a song in the Orbison mode by another artist that stands up to these.
If the set bogs down at all it’s on the third disc, featuring Orbison’s late ’60s and ’70s output. “Oh Pretty Woman” is a rock classic by any standard, but much of this period was marked by songs that park themselves in cheese mode and never quite maneuver out of it. (“So Young” will probably not make you want to run out and see the movie it came from, “Zabriskie Point.”)
The extensive liner notes point out that Orbison was concentrating more on being a father during this period, and less on his musical output. That said, there are plenty of songs here — “Pistolero” from “The Fastest Guitar Alive” comes to mind — that do manage to transcend melodrama by sheer force of will and Orbison’s stunning vocals.
But it’s disc 4, which captures Orbison’s ’80s comeback, that will be the real revelation for anyone who wasn’t paying attention the first time around. It’s striking how modern songs like “She’s A Mystery to Me” sound, even as they provide a platform for that classic voice, which amazingly hadn’t deteriorated one iota since Orbison’s ‘60s heyday. The Traveling Wilburys — for which Roy filled the elder statesman role, outshining both George Harrison and Bob Dylan — are represented by the buoyant “Not Alone Any More,” about the only song besides “Oh Pretty Woman” where Orbison gets the girl.
His “Black and White Night” — the PBS favorite featuring the likes of Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jackson Brown and Bonnie Raitt providing loving backup vocals — is represented here as well, and it’s hard not to recall the glow Orbison exuded on that triumphant night in 1987. A little over a year later, he was gone.
It was a shocking finale to a spectacular career that seemed to have so much left to give, but as “The Soul of Rock And Roll” proves, we’re lucky to have the recordings he left behind to help us through our own lonely days. If there’s one thing this set reminds us of, it’s that Roy was lonely so you didn’t have to be.
Peter Chianca's blog, Blogness on the Edge of Town, covers Bruce Springsteen news and other rock music topics. E-mail him at pchianca@cnc.com.
