 Roy Orbison I'd always heard that there was a large Roy Orbison bootleg circle, though that concept made no sense to me – who wants to listen to minor variations in rehash after rehash of "Oh, Pretty Woman," right? Then appeared this queer little box set, which I spotted at Best Buy for something like $14. I was fascinated. Four discs, each presenting an popular Orbison bootleg in (reasonably) cleaned-up sound and official packaging – very similar in concept to Frank Zappa's Beat the Boots series, but Roy Orbison? I was totally prepared to be massively disappointed, with 20-minute CDs, miserable sound, and the same ten hits played over and over, but with screaming fans on top of it. And yet, even predicting that scenario, I still had to have the set. I thought the idea itself was so good that it merited a listen. More artists should have their legacy attended to with as much care as Barbara Orbison has lavished on Roy's. Make no mistake: this is not a set that most people will feel the need to find room for on their shelf, but the fans will cherish it, and the curious (like me) will be rewarded. In fact, this is the only Roy Orbison material I currently own, and I'm pretty much satisfied – I don't think I really want to own the classic studio recordings. For some reason, bootleg Roy Orbison is the coolest way to listen to the man. The four discs are all very well-done – they are full shows, with extraneous crowd noise and tuning between songs edited out. The discs run over 50 minutes each, jam-packed with tons of great performances, and the shows are spread out enough chronologically that there ends up being a lot of variety to the set, even though many of the expected songs are repeated. The first disc, Live From Batley Varsity Club, is from a 1969 show originally intended for release as a live album, but shelved in favor of a faux-"live" studio album. This one has the most intriguing set list, featuring many songs not associated with Roy, like "Help Me Rhonda," "Land of 1,000 Dances," and "Money," alongside the hits ("Oh, Pretty Woman," "Crying," "Blue Bayou," "In Dreams") and several lesser known Orbison gems. "Running Scared" emerges at the key Orbison live song in every performance, a really intense, dramatic song that makes it immediately apparent why Elvis Costello likes him so much. "Lana" is another one that reveals itself as a neglected Roy classic. The band at the 1969 show is tight, a little cheesy in parts, but what the hey. Sound quality is fair, Roy is in good voice, and the whole thing is energetic as hell. Quite a romp. Live From Queen's Theatre is from a 1975 fan club show in the UK, and benefits greatly from a seriously simpatico band – they give the songs some real punch, not stepping over them but supporting Roy with great feeling and sensitivity. The backing vocals are much better here, too. Roy's a bit shaky in places ("Crying" is quite a wobble), but through most of the show he's really on fire, especially on the great, unheralded treasure "Penny Arcade" (which was a big international hit for Roy but a big dud in the US). "Lana" is great here, and some songs not on the first disc include the heart-tearing "Leah," "Too Soon to Know" (that one shows you why k.d. lang loves him so much), and a rockin' "Ooby Dooby." Unexpectedly, he launches into "Drift Away," which is tremendously welcome, not beating Dobie Gray's original, but what a great song for Roy. "Evergreen" is another cover, and some of the gems here include "Candyman," "Blue Angel," and "It's Over." By the time he hits the rousing closer of "Oh, Pretty Woman," the crowd is tangibly excited, and it translates to the listener. A great show; if I had to pick one disc from the set as being "the show," it might be this one – great sound, great performance, lots of surprises. Live From the Fiesta Club is another UK show (3 of the 4 shows are from England), this one from 1980. The performance is awesome, the sound a bit pinched (it's clearly an audience recording, but not a bad one – no sounds of Rerun eating popcorn, like that Doobie Brothers bootleg I bought). Roy is dead on, really tearing through the great ones and working the obviously excited crowd like a pro. The set list is very similar to the previous one (he didn't vary all that much – always opened with "Only the Lonely," almost always closed with "Pretty Woman." By this time, synths have entered the picture, so there's a cheese factor to some of these songs ("Penny Arcade" is well done, but the synths are pretty dorky). The band is good, good singers, and there are a couple of songs unique to this disc ("Working For the Man" – not a Velvet Underground rewrite, fortunately/unfortunately). The disc closes with a phenomenal "Running Scared," which keeps building, climax after climax, and then a reprise of it takes it even higher – kind of hilariously, but very awesome regardless. Live From Birmingham, also from 1980, is a US show with considerably better sound (taken from a broadcast-quality recording). Again, the synths are noticeable, but not overbearing. Another good "Lana," a great "Blue Bayou," a brilliant "Running Scared," and a truly, truly exciting "Oh, Pretty Woman" that clocks in at six minutes. Great stuff. The band is tight and Roy is in strong voice all night. So the big question is, do you need this much bootleg Roy Orbison? Probably not, but the price is certainly right, and the set is just marvelously done. It almost makes up for me not seeing Roy when I had a chance to in like 1986, when he was appearing at a hotel or something near my town. That's probably my biggest regret of a concert I didn't attend. Of course, now I've got over 4 hours of live Orbison to choose from whenever I want to exorcise that demon. Sure, this is a very non-essential release, but the fact that it exists at all makes it incredibly interesting. Kudos to Orbison Records for taking a risk and doing something with limited market appeal, and doing it very, very well. The liner notes imply that further volumes are to be expected – and you know what, I'd probably be crazy enough to get those too. And enjoy them as much.
Review by Amber Ring |