I grew up with this song. An overly dramatic changeling from the start, easily given to outbursts of melancholia bordering on the derisively maudlin.
Originally released as a 45 on Monument in 1964, next to "Running Scared" this has has always been my favourite Roy Orbison moment; the David Lynch movie, "Blue Velvet" did little to alter that fact. It peaked at No. 9 (revolution) on the Billboard Charts, but made the No. 1 spot here in the UK, where record buyers may have been fewer in number but made up for it by being more attuned to quiet desperation. Something to do with the rain, probably.
Composed - in the operatic sense - by Roy Orbison and Bill Dees.
Of course, the longer you grow in the tooth the more you realize it's less to do with the "l" word than just getting on with it. The melodrama is just an unwanted complication; a tv movie you somehow can't switch off.
I've been saving this for a while. Like that last cigarette in the packet.
▼ ROY ORBISON: IT'S OVER from "It's Over b/w Indian Wedding" 45 (Monument) 1964 (US)
PURCHASE BLACK & WHITE NIGHT REMASTERED + BONUS TRACKS
6 comments:
Sorry, but Mr. Orbison has always left me cold. One of the few records (apart from alexander Burke) which will actiely make me get up and turn the radio off or onto another channel
Word recognition is farldly. cue song "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?"
While not an admirer of the Traveling Wilburys, I do actually like Roy Orbison. Oddly, then, I can understand why his delivery might leave you - as you say - cold. There is more chilliness than warmth, despite the lush arrangements, in his records.
Or, to put it another way: Roy Orbison is to music, what Stanley Kubrick is to film.
Thanks for this... in all it's chilly brilliance.
I was checking my library before DLing this and was shocked to realize I have ZERO Orbison on my hard drive... A sad fact I shall soon make past, soon as I get my turntable hooked back up.
Yeah, I need to get my turntable updated too. The arm on it's fucked; the balance is awry; and the stylus is long past worn down to the wire...
This is a good one, I think.
Nicely said, Beer. Any friend of Johnny Cash is a listening companion of mine.
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