Roy Orbison: In Dreams (radio documentary)
Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:55 pm
Folks,
I listened to a wonderful 1-hour documentary about Roy Orbison today called Roy Orbison: In Dreams. It includes Roy himself talking about his career and songs, but also includes interview segments with other artists who worked with Roy and/or were influenced by him. Comments are heard from Bruce Springsteen, Barry & Robin Gibb, Chet Atkins and many others. Some terrific stories about songs and recording sessions are told by producer, Fred Foster. But the best story was told by Barry Gibb:
BG: he told me what happened with Pretty Woman, the story about where Mercy came from, and that it really didn't have anything to do that song, it was it was him begging for mercy because he was out of breath. And of course in those days everything went on tape, and they kept it as part of the record and I never knew that. That was a bit of history for me.
And I loved Bruce Springsteen's comment about Roy's songs being so BIG:
BS: he caught some, some part of the spiritual aspect of it also, in the sense that the songs were very, and I think it was by the nature of his voice, which was fundamentally other-worldly. He, he didn't sound, he sounded both other-worldly and like the most human thing you'd ever heard, you know? And he had a very dark picture, almost all his music was you know, and the music that people remember from him the most, you know, was this sort of very churning, dark music. It was isolated, and you were left alone at the end to ponder, and it was something to ponder, your own nest and the fate of the universe, simultaneously, it seemed like. The songs were so big they seemed to encompass everything, you know, and he covered a lot of ground.
The good news is that I found a web site (linked below) where you can listen to the whole documentary! You have to go though a relatively painless registration process to listen, but it's so worth it. (I'm listening to it again right now and Roy is singing "crying" - oh my.) I highly recommend listening to this documentary. (You can also read a transcript of the documentary at the link below.)
Roy Orbison: In Dreams
KarenZ
I listened to a wonderful 1-hour documentary about Roy Orbison today called Roy Orbison: In Dreams. It includes Roy himself talking about his career and songs, but also includes interview segments with other artists who worked with Roy and/or were influenced by him. Comments are heard from Bruce Springsteen, Barry & Robin Gibb, Chet Atkins and many others. Some terrific stories about songs and recording sessions are told by producer, Fred Foster. But the best story was told by Barry Gibb:
BG: he told me what happened with Pretty Woman, the story about where Mercy came from, and that it really didn't have anything to do that song, it was it was him begging for mercy because he was out of breath. And of course in those days everything went on tape, and they kept it as part of the record and I never knew that. That was a bit of history for me.
And I loved Bruce Springsteen's comment about Roy's songs being so BIG:
BS: he caught some, some part of the spiritual aspect of it also, in the sense that the songs were very, and I think it was by the nature of his voice, which was fundamentally other-worldly. He, he didn't sound, he sounded both other-worldly and like the most human thing you'd ever heard, you know? And he had a very dark picture, almost all his music was you know, and the music that people remember from him the most, you know, was this sort of very churning, dark music. It was isolated, and you were left alone at the end to ponder, and it was something to ponder, your own nest and the fate of the universe, simultaneously, it seemed like. The songs were so big they seemed to encompass everything, you know, and he covered a lot of ground.
The good news is that I found a web site (linked below) where you can listen to the whole documentary! You have to go though a relatively painless registration process to listen, but it's so worth it. (I'm listening to it again right now and Roy is singing "crying" - oh my.) I highly recommend listening to this documentary. (You can also read a transcript of the documentary at the link below.)
Roy Orbison: In Dreams
KarenZ
keep 'em comin