Every Picture Tells a Story 8/18/20

 

You might have noticed by now that I'm a huge fan of Roy Orbison--he of the operatic voice on "Crying," "In Dreams," "Pretty Woman" and a whole bunch more.

This three-CD set claims to be "The Ultimate Collection," and I can't argue with that assessment--it features every one of Roy's major his, along with many of his minor hits and B-sides. 

Much as I love the songs mentioned above, I truly dig deeper cuts like "Goodnight," "The Crowd" and "Shadaroba" ("Fate knows what's best for you...") 

Between this set and "The Essential Roy Orbison," which I bought at Rolling Stones Records pre-Pandemic, my Orbison obsession is just about sated.

Every Picture Tells a story 6/25/20

I recently wrote about King of Hearts, an album by the great Roy Orbison that was released four years after his untimely death at age 50 in 1988. 

At the time I wrote that piece, I thought that was his last album of original music--that King of Hearts was the last word on the voice behind "Crying," "Blue Bayou" and "Oh Pretty Woman."

Once again, I was wrong.

I discovered One of the Lonely Ones on Amazon while ordering King of Hearts from an Amazon Marketplace seller. I didn't know anything about the album--had never even heard of it. So I bopped on over to Wikipedia for the skinny on this "lost" Orbison album.

According to Wikipedia, here's what happened:

Apparently, Orbison recorded One of the Lonely ones in 1969 following the deaths of two of his sons in a house fire in September of the previous year. In July 1969, Orbison completed recording for the album, but his record company at the time, MGM, decided to shelve One of the Lonely Ones because of a contract dispute.

And there the album sat. For 40-plus years. 

It was even thought to be lost entirely, but Roy's sons found the master tapes and here I am, headphones on in Mom's living room, listening to "new" Roy Orbison songs for the first time and, as I always do when listening to his music, struggling not to shed a tear or two.

Thanks, Roy's Boys, for finding this truly hidden gem.

Every Picture Tells a Story 6/17/20

I was a huge fan of Roy Orbison's music long before I'd ever bought any of his albums. From songs like "Only the Lonely" to "Crying" to "It's Over" ("Your baby doesn't love you anymore..."), Roy's songs always seemed to cut deeper than most love-lost tunes, and his falsetto--hitting notes no human being should ever be able to hit--chilled me beyond the bone.

Like most music fans, I was deeply saddened when Roy, in the midst of a huge comeback, died suddenly on December 6, 1988--coincidentally, Mom's 50th birthday--and lamented loudly that I'd never heart Roy's voice again on a new record.

Of course, I was wrong.

Released in 1992--nearly four years after his death--King of Hearts was a collection of songs left in various stages of production. Some were completely finished; others were no more than demos. Each song got loving production from a number of industry veterans (including Robbie Robertson, who elevated "Love in Time" from a basic vocal track to something magical), and the collection was padded out with a previously released duet rendition of "Crying" with k.d. lang and the original demo for "Careless Heart" (from his previous record, Mystery Girl).

Didn't matter. I still loved it. And now that I have another copy of it via Amazon Marketplace? I still do.