Roy Orbison toured Britain in the summer of 1963 with a much younger but lesser-known band second on the bill.
John Lennon later recalled:
We were selling records [in the UK] but we were still second on the bill, and one of our first big tours was second on the bill to Roy Orbison. It was pretty hard to keep up with that man. He really put on a show; well, they all did, but Orbison had that fantastic voice.That fantastic voice -- a three octave range.
More from the Wiki regarding that summer of '63 tour:
Orbison's first meeting with John Lennon was awkward because Orbison was overwhelmed with the amount of advertising devoted to The Beatles when Orbison was supposed to headline the show. Beatlemania, however, was taking hold and Orbison accepted that he was not quite the main draw, so he decided to go first on stage. On opening night, the audience reacted intensely toward Orbison's ballads, as he finished with 'In Dreams'.
Philip Norman, a Beatles biographer, later wrote: 'As Orbison performed, chinless and tragic, The Beatles stood in the wings, wondering how they would dare to follow him'. After demanding Orbison play for double the time he was scheduled, the audience then screamed for a fifteenth encore, which Lennon and Paul McCartney refused to allow by holding Orbison back from re-entering the stage.Years later, a reviewer distilled the essence of In Dreams, including a sublime reference to Orbison's superior vocal range:
Echoes of ranchera music offer bittersweet counterpoint from the lulling intro, through the aching verses to a finish that just seems to evaporate.
Listen again and try not to think of Dean Stockwell and Dennis Hopper.
5 comments:
If you listen to Dolly Parton's song Jolene slowed down from 45 rpm to 33 rpm it sort of sounds like Roy Orbison singing it.
What a great song that is. I didn't know he had a three octave voice.
Windbag... lol.
I saw him 63/64, small theater in Jax, Fl. He resonated, that voice, back then. Well, probably forever too.
Roy had a tragic life, and you could hear the pain in that incredible voice. I don't know much about music but that voice didn't require musical knowledge to appreciate.
I wonder if ever dabbled in opera; he had the natural vocal talent — maybe too much? I defer to others. His career peaked in 1964 - shortly after that concert — with the release of “Pretty Woman.” The British Invasion hit the airwaves and blew him away. Same bad timing that Dick Dale had. The intersection of two pop music waves. If Orbison ever dabbled in opera, it would have been a three way collision. Very rare.
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