Monday Long Song

Roy Orbison's 1960-64 imperial phase is the stuff of legend - 'Only the Lonely', 'Running Scared', 'Pretty Woman', 'In Dreams'...the list goes on. Roy didn't reduce his prodigious work rate as the hits became less frequent, releasing a steady stream of singles and albums during the remainder of the 1960s and right through the 1970s. There are some terrific, unjustly overlooked nuggets scattered throughout those later years, a few of which will hopefully feature in an ICA I'm currently tinkering with. 

Then there's 'Southbound Jericho Parkway'. You can search high and low in every corner of Roy's extensive catalogue and you won't find anything else remotely like it. Tucked away on the b-side of 1969 single 'My Friend' and heavily indebted to the previous year's 'MacArthur Park', the song was written by Bobby Bond, otherwise best known for penning more conventional material for the likes of George Hamilton IV, Waylon Jennings, Don Gibson and Crystal Gayle. Extraordinary.

Roy Orbison - Southbound Jericho Parkway

55 From 55 - 1961

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far.

I've written about Dad's love of music a few times, how it drifted from Jazz in the 1950's to Pop in the 1960's and on to Classical in later life. He was never interested in Rock 'n' Roll, yet owned virtually complete sets of Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison singles, many of which I still have. I think it was the quality of the songwriting that attracted him to these particular artists. He had good taste too. All these years later Buddy and Roy are legends, while other popular artists of the day have faded from memory.

Are you laughing at my hat? The Swede in '61.

The drama of Roy Orbison's songs captivated me as soon as I was old enough to pay attention, evident even in lesser hits like 'Blue Bayou' and 'Borne on the Wind', but dominant in 'It's Over', 'In Dreams' and most of all here, in 'Running Scared'. One day (I don't know how old I was, 5, perhaps 6) as I listened to this song, I can remember feeling my eyes tingle and tears starting to form. It was frightening, I thought something was wrong with me, but, even at such a young age, I was already picking up on the emotion in the writing and performance. 50 years later, it's still a challenge to make it through 'Running Scared' unscathed.

(More on Roy Orbison, Dad and I, here.)

Roy Orbison

Regrets, I've had a few...and many of them concern artists I never got to see in concert. Roy Orbison is a prime example. Thanks to Dad's record collection, I'd been listening to Roy Orbison since before I could walk - to this day 'Running Scared' can reduce me to tears. By June 1985, however, neither Dad or I gave serious consideration to travelling the barely one mile from home to see him onstage at the Ipswich Gaumont. Dad's tastes had moved away from 'pop' towards the classics and I was concerned that, by now, Orbison's performance would be a pale, embarrassing, showbizzy, shadow of its former glory, replete with lazy vocals and greatest hit medleys.

A week later, I ran into a friend who'd attended the concert. My heart sank as he raved about the show, confirming what is now commonly known to be the case, that Roy Orbison never 'phoned in' a performance in his life, not even in the lean years. His voice, a magnificent mystery, hit every glorious note and continued to do so, right up to his untimely death in 1988, 25 years ago today.