First there was the voice. It transcended generations and sang of universal longings that touched the heart with truth and sadness and desire. It was a beautiful instrument that was played with something approaching perfection. It could send quivers of recognition through the listener as it pleaded and ached and soothed and still offered a dark embrace of melody that floated ever closer to the tender surface. The voice was part country, part rock and part pop but it was all rock and roll. It Was a voice that never lied.
Then there were the songs. They were complete unto themselves. Nothing needed to be added because the world was full within them. It is a world defined by dreams and lived in reality and somewhere the two meet in song and we leave having learned something about our own vulnerability. They are songs about wounds and the wounded and glorious healings. Two stories are often told simultaneously - the first is of loss and desire and loneliness and (always) love and the second story is of something higher and invisible and cherished and sacred. It is a story that is founded on some knowledge that tears at the heart, bypasses the brain and spills from the lips with such sweet understanding and beauty that the listener is stunned into comprehension.
The man was kind and good and gentle in a business (and a world) where such simple attributes are the exceptions. He was one of the originators of rock and roll and carried that reponsibility with dignity but without formality. He sounded like a lost angel but always wore dark glasses and dressed in black. He had more than his fair share of personal tragedies and suffered in his own way and only mentioned it between the lines. He never stopped working at his craft and leaves behind this album filled with shining examples of his artistry in full bloom.
It was his singing, his songs and his humanity that lifted Roy Orbison into his legendary status but it was his genius to carry a note that pierces all the way from Wink, Texas to the state of being alive and alone in love that will forever keep him alive.
Roy Orbison sang about the great mystery, the only one that matters, the mystery of love where there is no solution, there is only eternal hope. His songs take us into a room and we hear the thrill and threat of the mystery in the dark where nothing is seen and everything is revealed.
Anna Abbott, Jeff Ayeroff, Benny Birchfield, John Bradschaw, Buddy Buie, Marcie Campbell, Chakrapani, Gemma Corfield, Tom Dills, Terry Elam, Debbie Gold, Danny Goldberg, Jordan Harris, Olivia Harrison, Kay Heidrich, Chris Issak, Nancy Jeffries, Will Jennings, Steve Jones, Tom Kelly, Freddy Khoury, Jim Kirby, Lester Knispel, David Lynch, Carrie Marrero, Sarah McMullen, Joe Melson, Bobby Neuwirth, Carter Newton, Tara O'Driskoll, Nadine, Roy Kelton, Alexander, Wesley, Sam and Oorbilee Orbison, Tony Seals, Rick Shipp, J.D. Souther, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Steinberg, Ron Stone, Robert Tepper, Bob Underwood, Don Was, David Was, Jack Weiner, Danny Wilde, Jerry Williams, Jim Zwickel, and all the Virgins.
I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who gave so freely to this album, I thanks them for their love and support and I apologize to anyone I might have momentarily forgotten. Making this album has truly been a gift to me.
To Barbara for her loving grace.
Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell, Howie Epstein and Tom Petty appear courtesy of MCA Records
Jim Horn appears courtesy of Warner Bros. Records
Bono appears courtesy of Island Records
George Harrison appears courtesy of Dark Horse/Warner Bros. Records
Mike Utley appears courtesy of MCA Master Series
Mastering at Precisions Lacquer
Design: Tim Stedman - Public Eye, Los Angeles
(P) & (C) 1989 Virgin Records America, Inc.
9247 Alden Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Distributed by WEA through arrangement with Atlantic Records.
The music on this Compact Digital Disc was originally recorded on analog equipment. We have attempted to preserve, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording. Because of it's high resolution, however, the Compact Disc can reveal limitations of the source tape.
Compact Disc Digital Audio
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