Roy Orbison Forever (2022) Movie Script
BACKING GROUP:
Ooo-ooo-wahhh-ahhh
..
Only the lonely
Only the lonely
(CHEERING)
Know the way I...
People that are completely unique -
you don't so much admire them
as just marvel at them.
Only the lonely...
I was sitting in the living room
with me mum and me aunty,
and it came on the radio.
(SIGHS) What a voice.
Yeah. Fantastic.
And I always liked his stuff,
bought his records.
Me mum and me aunty were going,
"Ooh, it's too sexy!"
Only in dreams
NARRATOR: Sexy AND cool,
Roy Orbison was perhaps the most
humble and influential rock star
the world ever knew.
Dreams
All of us, in studying
the craft of making a good record,
had studied Roy's work.
In many ways, my whole life
has been fashioned,
subconsciously, by him.
Dreams...
I'm going back some day
Gonna stay on Blue Bayou
Where the folks are fine
And the world is mine
Blue Bayou...
NARRATOR:
His unique voice, his unique sound,
his totally unique appearance
made Roy Orbison one of a kind,
especially in Britain,
where his talent was embraced
and supported by rock royalty.
Golden days before they end
Whisper...
I think Roy and England
had a love affair.
Roy loved the British
and the British loved Roy.
(WILD CHEERING)
(PRETTY WOMAN INTRO)
Pretty woman
Walkin' down the street...
NARRATOR: By the 1980s,
Roy Orbison's status as a living
legend was well and truly confirmed,
when some of the biggest names
in the music business queued up
to be in his backing band for
his Black And White Night concert.
..as good as you
Roy and I talked about doing a show
that would be
a performance show for Roy.
So we set a time, finally -
September, 1987.
I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman...
It had been a while since people
had focused on Roy's music
quite this way.
A lot of care was taken to do
the songs justice
the way I believe the show does.
(PRETTY WOMAN INSTRUMENTAL)
Rrrrrrrrrr!
I'm being asked all the time how
this wonderful cast came together.
Everybody just seemed to be
available at that particular time.
If we would had done it
a month before, a month later,
I don't think
everybody could have been there.
(ROCK AND ROLL INSTRUMENTAL)
ELVIS COSTELLO:
I don't think the entire ensemble
was put together
until we were all on the set of
the Cocoanut Grove
in the Ambassador Hotel.
I know Bruce Springsteen
arrived at the very last minute.
How did you get that?
My big memory of that night was
Bruce arriving,
I think, for the sound check,
and then realising
that his memory of the songs
was not the same
as the ability to play them.
Sweet dreams...
Then you go:
(FALSETTO) Sweet dreams
You might wanna go under me.
Yeah, I may have to!
When he actually looked
at the charts and realised
that there were odd counts
in some of the songs,
I have an image of him
sitting with his guitar,
with, like, a cassette Walkman,
comparing
what he had obviously memorised,
over a couple of decades
since the records came out,
to what was written on the page,
and frantically closing
the distance between the two things
if he was gonna play
on a couple of these songs.
I thought that's the measure
of how much he loved Roy
because he was really dedicated.
BOTH: Sweet dreams, baby
Oh, how long
Must I dream?
OK.
BOTH: Sweet dreams, baby...
NARRATOR: Orbison clearly inspired
anyone who was anyone in music.
But just where did
all the raw talent come from?
Born in 1936 in the small town
of Vernon in Texas,
from an early age
Roy was single-minded
in his pursuit of a career in music.
ROY ORBISON: My mom and dad gave me
a guitar when I was six years old.
I always wanted to be a singer.
My father asked me,
when I was about six or seven,
maybe even earlier...
I don't know whether I was playing
the guitar at the time or not,
but he said, "Know what
you're gonna be when you grown up?"
and I said, "I'll be a singer."
I was able to get on a radio show
when I was eight years old -
an amateur hour -
and I showed up so often that
they made me a part of the show.
And when I was 14, I think,
I moved to West Texas
and formed a group.
Well, we were from Wink, Texas,
and so we were the Wink Westerners,
and when we got a bit more popular,
we became the Teen Kings.
We'll hang out and raise some fun
We'll stay out till after one...
I met him the first time
in Odessa and Midland, Texas.
He had a group that played
on the local television show there,
and the song was called Ooby Dooby.
Ooby dooby, ooby dooby
Ooby dooby,
dooby, dooby, dooby, dooby
Dooby doo...
ROY ORBISON: I made a demonstration
record called Ooby Dooby,
and sent that then to Sam Phillips
in Memphis, Tennessee.
He asked me -
could I be there in three days?
And so I grabbed my group
together and we made the record
and I dropped out of the university
- the junior college
that I was attending then -
and went on the road
within two or three months.
JOHNNY CASH:
What I thought at the time
was the smallest voice
was Roy Orbison.
Sam Phillips says he had to put
the microphone down his throat
to pick him up.
But I think Sam had
the wrong kind of microphone,
because his later records prove
that he's not only got
a great, strong voice,
but he's one of the greatest
singers in our business.
But he saw his own potential,
as did others,
and he moved to a bigger label
and had bigger records.
Pretty woman
Walkin' down the street
Pretty woman
The kind I like to meet
Pretty woman...
NARRATOR: Searching for ways
to fulfil that potential,
Roy looked across the Atlantic to an
early-'60s music culture in Britain
that was more than ready
to embrace something new.
Mercy!
In the early-'60s,
I worked for Decca
as a promotion man
and my job,
apart from promoting records,
was to look after all the American
artists who came over to London.
I was 21 years old,
and it was a dream job.
Are you lonely, just like me?
Rrrrrrrrrr!
Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman...
Very American, Southern, polite -
and that was
my initial impression of Roy.
Very softly spoken,
very polite, very appreciative.
He was a gentleman -
a real gentleman, actually.
And that's what he had -
that kind of rather sweet,
Southern states of America charm
that he had.
Pretty paper
Pretty ribbons
Of blue
Wrap your presents
To your darling
From you
Pretty pencils
To write - I love...
He would invariably
come with his wife Claudette
and his boys.
They'd have a little apartment,
and I would spend a lot of time
with them as a family,
cos they were very family, and...
he loved having the boys around,
he loved having Claudette around.
And so I became
part of their family.
Downtown shoppers
Christmas is nigh
And there he sits...
He always reminded me of a preacher,
he was so gentle.
Very, very sweet.
Loved his kids, loved the family.
He was just a lovely guy,
I mean, we were all mental.
We were young and mad.
Roy was very...
a very polite American.
He was very sweet.
We were Scousers -
hard cases, nutters.
He was a gentleman.
We were idolising
Americans at this point.
You know, we had Cliff
and we had Tommy Steele, but...
We were just kids from Liverpool,
who knew nothing,
following
Roy Orbison, a massive star,
whose songs we'd sung for years,
and we're there with him,
and watching him - a dream.
Well, I got a woman
as mean as she can be
Some-a-times I think
she's almost mean as me...
The Brits were
so enamoured of American...
of rock and roll, um...
they possibly appreciated them
more than the Americans did.
TONY KING: The songs seemed more hip
and the performances were more hip,
and that's what we were all about.
I think any British recording artist
from that period
would probably tell you
the same thing.
THE BEATLES: Love Me Do
NARRATOR: Though Britain
was hungry for all things American,
Roy's first UK tour would
turn out to be an unexpected test
of just how loyal
his British fans might be.
An all-English musical phenomenon
was sweeping the country.
Roy found himself
sharing the bill with The Beatles.
OLIVIA HARRISON:
You know, from what George told me,
they were so starved
of rock and roll
and how they waited
for the records to come out
and they knew there was
this thing going on in America.
So for them, it was just something
that they were really hungry for.
TONY KING: The Beatles responded
to Roy with total admiration.
I can't emphasise enough how much
American artists
were the thing to admire,
you know, and all things American.
Before I joined the Stones
in the late-'50s,
I thought he was fantastic.
And then he toured with The Beatles.
63?
(WILD CHEERING)
GERRY MARSDEN: The Beatles
were on the tour with us,
the Beats, ourselves and Roy -
massive tour.
1963 was a great time for me.
It was my first record,
first number one
and my first tour with
Mr Roy Orbison,
who became a very dear friend,
and such a lovely guy.
I got a woman
Yeah, I got a woman
Yeah, I got a woman...
OLIVIA HARRISON:
George told me they followed Roy
and they would stand in the wings
listening to this big ending,
and he said
they'd just be trembling thinking,
"How on earth are we gonna go out
and follow this?"
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)
In spite of the fact
that The Beatles were getting
this huge acclaim
from the British public
right from the word go, really -
from Love me Do, it started -
when Roy came on stage,
he still had the goods to top them.
Just before the dawn
He just stood there and sang -
that's all he did -
didn't do anything else!
I don't remember him
putting one foot to the left
or one foot to the right,
to be honest with you.
I can't help it
I can't help it, if I...
That was what the impact was -
was that he had the nerve
to do that - to just stand there
and let his voice do the work.
It's too bad
That all these things...
BILL WYMAN: Some people can do that
- they just give off this aura.
They don't have to move about.
I've been trying to do it
for 30 years,
but it doesn't happen with me!
So I stay in the shadows. (LAUGHS)
Only
In dreams...
ROY ORBISON: Well, in my case,
when you see me perform, it's -
what happens is I sing
and the audience watches me do that.
Some-a-times I think
she's almost mean as me
On opening night, I had
between seven to 15, 20 encores,
and Paul and John
grabbed me by the arms and said,
"Yankee, go home," whatever,
and wouldn't let me
take my last curtain call.
But it was all in good fun.
GERRY MARSDEN: And that voice -
my God! -
used to annoy me it was so good.
Each place we go
I'm so afraid...
TONY KING: He'd sing Running Scared,
and his mouth would go...
"just running scared",
like this - you know? -
this tiny little movement
of the mouth,
but, phwoar... And
he'd get to the end of that song,
where it goes
up and up and up and up,
and his mouth
still wasn't moving, not a lot,
not like, "ahr", you know,
I'm really gonna give it
the full whack.
He'd just still stand there and
his mouth would open slightly more,
and then out would come
this incredible note.
And I think
that's what was so thrilling
because his modesty
in combination
with his vocal prowess
was quite something to see.
You love him so
GERRY MARSDEN:
The way he sang was different
than we'd ever heard before.
Elvis didn't do that, but Roy did.
And I think
just the difference in sound
that that man made,
that's why he's so popular.
If he came back
Which one would you choose?
ROY ORBISON: I never had
any formal training, and I think
maybe it's just that
I might be a baritone
with a real high range,
two-and-a-half octaves or so,
but I've never checked it.
His head in the air
Oh, my heart was breaking
Which one would it be?
You turned around
And walked away with me
I started singing this way
because I was writing songs,
and I wrote the melody
that I heard in my head.
So then I had to sing those notes
as well. I didn't know how high
or low you were supposed to go,
so I went where I wanted to.
I could smile for a while
But I saw you last night
You held my hand so tight
As you stopped to say hello
Oh, you wished me well
You couldn't tell
That I'd been crying
Over you
Crying
Over you
Then you said, "So long"
Left me standing
All alone
Alone and crying...
There was something
about Roy's voice
that was completely unique to him,
which was obviously a good thing
because it was hard to emulate,
that had this sort of -
and I always thought
it had a crying sound to it.
It almost was like
a controlled cry.
The touch of your hand
Can start me crying
I thought that I
Was over you
But it's true
So true
I love you even more
Than I did before
But, darling, what can I do?
For you don't love me
And I'll always be
(FALSETTO) Cry-y-y-ing
Over you...
I think Roy's voice
is like an opera voice, only sexy.
Opera voices are kind of -
to me, they're not sexy.
It's just the music they're singing.
But Roy doing
rock and roll and blues,
you know, blue notes, and things
with that kind of opera voice -
now, that made it really different,
and it put like an opera slant
on a rock-and-roll track.
It's wonderful and it's sad
at the same time
because that's the inflection,
and what he puts
into the soulfulness of his voice.
You know, he's got marvellous soul.
I think, that's...
He was probably a soul singer
before any of them, you know?
Cry-ing
O-o-o-ver
You-ooo-oooooooo
JEFF LYNNE: You know, like
Elvis said, "Ladies and gentlemen,
the best singer in the world
right there - Roy Orbison."
Probably cos
he WAS the best singer of all.
Golden days before they end
NARRATOR: Roy's entry
into the British music scene
had been a triumph with It's Over
topping the UK charts in 1964.
Your baby won't be...
But personal tragedy would soon
threaten to end Roy's career.
In 1966, his wife Claudette
was killed in a motorbike accident.
And there was
even more heartbreak to come.
TONY KING: They had this
beautiful boy called Roy DeWayne.
I used to take him to the zoo
and take him around,
and I loved his company.
He was like a really sweet kid.
And I remember once I came back
to the promotion offices
in Great Marlborough Street -
the Decca offices,
and Roy DeWayne, I'd exhausted him.
And he must have been
about six or seven -
he wasn't a baby.
Anyway, I'd had to carry him
back to the office
cos he was so exhausted he fell
asleep, and I remember carrying him.
I remember his little head
on my shoulder.
But, oh, what will you do?
And then he got...
burnt to death in that fire.
We're through-oo-oo
We're through...
We'd been playing
the Birmingham Theatre for a week.
This was September '68,
and the following day we were
gonna do the last performance,
which was a concert in Bournemouth,
and then he was going
to be flying back to the US -
that was the end of the tour.
I got a call
about three o'clock in the morning
local time in England.
Send falling stars
That seem to cry...
JOHNNY CASH:
He was on tour in England,
and he got the news over there
that his house had burned
and he had lost two of his boys.
I remember thinking: How is that...
..man going to cope with that?
It breaks your heart in two
JOHNNY CASH: He stayed
in seclusion for quite a while.
We made contact and let him know
we cared and were concerned,
and it was a long time
until I saw Roy
because it wasn't something
that he was wanting to talk about.
Well, to be quite honest,
I really thought,
at that particular point in time,
that he... that would be the...
that we would never see him again.
I thought that would be...
He had not worked really
since Claudette had died.
However, I did get another call
saying that he was coming back.
NARRATOR: To a large extent,
Roy's return had been made possible
by someone he had met and
fallen in love with before the fire.
We started dating,
and six weeks later
the house fire happened
in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
But I think
it was such a gift for him
to have fallen in love with me
before, so he did have a focus.
It gave him a chance to create
a life that he really wanted,
and that was one of a real
stable family and to have more kids.
Roy just had such
an incredible gentle strength.
He scaled the heights and the lows.
Lonely rivers sigh
Wait for me...
I arrived in December of '68
in Tennessee,
and then we travelled in America
and we got married in March.
We had Roy Kelton Junior,
who was born in 1970,
and then Alex in '74
and we had Wesley
from the marriage with Claudette.
If you would have seen
Roy with the kids,
you would have never suspected
that he had lost two kids
in a house fire...
A long, lonely time
Time
Goes by...
JOHNNY CASH: They came through it
in a really great way,
a very surprising way.
He came back stronger than ever
after this terrible loss
of those two boys.
He came back with
all of the determination
and the will to go ahead
and to be the great artist he is.
(PRETTY WOMAN INTRO)
(APPLAUSE)
NARRATOR: As the '70s dawned,
a new-look Roy returned
again and again
to tour for his UK fans,
and of course,
the Orbison family went too.
Pretty woman
Walkin' down the street...
BARBARA ORBISON:
When it was tour time, we all went.
We went - nannies...
Everybody just went out on the road.
Baby formulas,
baby cribs, perambulators,
whatever it took,
you know?
Mercy!
We would be, tours or no tours,
probably four or five months
out of the year in London.
We practically lived here
in the '70s, and loved it.
I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman
You look lovely as can be...
He loved England.
He loved the British people.
It was somehow Britain or
the British people Roy that liked.
You know, I think
that it was a love affair.
Roy Orbison loved...
Roy loved England.
I mean,
he loved everything about it.
He loved the food,
and that was tough
to love in the '60s.
JEFF LYNNE: He came up to my house
in the Midlands,
and he brought with him -
he showed me in his trunk -
he said, "Look at this."
He had a driver, and he said,
"Look what I've brought,"
and he'd got, like,
four sets of pie and mash,
you know, for everybody.
Brought it all the way from London.
Pretty woman,
say you'll stay with me
Roy, I think, just loved
the English way of life.
He would love to listen to accents,
and go and see places in Scotland
and go and visit castles
and walk the hills. Nutcase!
We were in bed -
he was walking the hills.
He just loved Britain.
He really did. And we loved him.
Ahhhhhhhh!
Pretty woman
He was very real.
He wasn't slick
and he wasn't show-bizzy.
He didn't have a patter.
You know, he didn't...
He wasn't a schmoozy kind of guy.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate
you coming tonight very much.
We're happy to be here.
I hope you are.
BARBARA ORBISON: He was that same
person, on stage and off stage.
It was never about ego,
you know?
It was just about being himself.
Only the lonely
Dum-dum-dum dummy-doo-wah
Know the way I feel tonight
Ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah...
It's inherent
in the British nature
to admire modesty,
especially when it's accompanied
with a great talent.
There goes my baby
Pum pum pum pum...
He was a shy man,
a family man,
a quiet man.
Who he was
was just as much
a part of everything
as what he was singing.
Know why-y-y
I cry...
By the time we got married,
all that was important
was to have a great relationship
and to live life
and to sort of, like,
mend those incredible painful times
and to really enjoy life
and do what he felt
he was called on this earth for.
I got a woman
Yeah, I got a woman...
He said,
"For that, I will go anywhere -
smallest club,
biggest marinas, whatever."
I think she's almost
Mean as me
SEX PISTOLS: Anarchy In The UK
NARRATOR: Though
Roy still had a loyal following,
the mid-'70s saw a change
in the British music scene -
the rejection
of all things mainstream
and the stripped-down
instrumentation of punk rock
seemed, at first glance,
to leave little room for the Big O.
(ACOUSTIC GUITAR
PLAYS PRETTY WOMAN INTRO)
Pretty woman
Won't you pardon me?
Pretty woman
I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman
You look lovely...
See, I can't get up there.
When I was in the Sex Pistols,
if you were
a closet music fan like myself,
there were loads of bands who
I would've probably got hung for,
if it would have gotten out
that I liked at the time, you know?
Would he come
under that umbrella as -
it's old hat
and you shouldn't be liking him,
because
we were against all that nonsense.
I don't think that is the case.
I don't think
he ever fell into that bag
as being out of flavour, you know?
When I was growing up in the '70s,
Roy was kind of
an anachronism, really.
He was completely
out of kilter with the times,
and people I was hanging out with
didn't have Roy Orbison albums.
They just didn't.
He was from a different era.
But then,
as the '70s begat punk rock,
there became
an interest in the '50s.
I think it was...
you know,
punk rock was a '50s thing,
in a way - Rebel Without A Cause,
the short haircuts,
the stance of Elvis,
stripping things down to the bone.
So it was through the door
that punk rock opened
that Roy Orbison
walked into my life.
You have to remember
Roy didn't get to be Roy Orbison
by being like...
anything but outside the norm.
Those guys in Memphis,
when they created rockabilly,
they didn't create rockabilly
by being the boy next door.
Just runnin' scared
Feelin' low...
OLIVIA HARRISON: Although he was
right in there at the very beginning
with Jerry Lee and Elvis,
I think because he was so unique -
his particular type of singing -
that he didn't really
come in or out of fashion,
and I think
when rock and roll came to England
and then
English music went back to America,
Roy was sort of outside of that.
His head in the air
And my heart was breaking...
ROBIN GIBB: It's not a sissy thing
for a man to sing about emotion.
It's just what it is. It's real,
and everybody can relate to that.
And he does it in such a way
that's so open -
he opens his heart completely.
Not being a wimp -
I think
that was the magnificent part
about the singer
and the songwriter Roy Orbison.
He turned something
that could have been a weakness
into a total strength.
It was really very unusual
at the time.
Since then,
everybody's crying like a tart,
but in them days it was quite bold
to say that you cried.
He was one of
the first top-40 artists
to take away or veer off
from the traditional way
of saying things,
which he did
in all those classic songs.
ROY ORBISON: I had to write
the songs that I wanted to sing,
because no-one else
really would at the time,
and then I thought,
since I wrote them,
I might be able to sing them
better than the next person.
So it kind of goes like that.
So whatever the style is
is basically me
and my personal taste.
Roy the singer
people talk about all the time.
Everyone curtsies to the voice,
and so they should.
The thing people don't talk about
enough, as far as I'm concerned,
is how innovative this music was,
how radical,
in terms of its songwriting.
When I write a song, I don't think
in terms of two verses and a chorus
or the accepted method
of songwriting.
I just start and, wherever
I wanna go, that's where I go.
(APPLAUSE)
In dreams, I walk...
Classic pop structure is, you know,
verse chorus, verse chorus,
middle eight, chorus, end.
Most pop songs in the world
are like that.
And then you hear
something like In Dreams.
In dreams
You're mine
All of the time...
I can't remember the structure,
but it's something like -
A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
Nothing repeats.
From those odd proportions
comes the tension,
and from the tension
comes the emotional impact,
that it takes you
somewhere unexpected.
Just before
The dawn...
He slowly built it from nothing,
and built it into this huge climax,
and then it went into another part,
which was even better
and got even bigger and better, and
that's what I liked about his songs.
I can't help it
I can't help it
If I cry...
JOE WALSH: That's really hard to do,
as a songwriter.
The ability to just have
the music flow with the storyline.
Very few people could do that.
All these things
Can only happen...
What you end up with is
a pop song that broke every rule,
and won.
It's like a classical composition.
Only in dreams
In dreams
In beautiful dreams
I was at a classical concert
one night,
and this Schumann song started -
was in the programme.
And I said, "This is the actual
melody of a Roy Orbison song."
You know I can't help myself
And now I'm crawling...
The Roy song goes -
Only you and you alone
Can keep me crawling back
After all you've done to me
The way you put me down
I still will be your clown
Cos I love you
I still will be your clown
Because I love you...
And the Schumann song goes -
(HUMS MELODY)
Has a very similar shape,
you know?
You know I would die for you
I suppose, like anybody of his age,
he could have turned on the radio
and maybe heard
some gracious melodies there.
It doesn't fit in with any
of the other things about his music.
The background in music,
as I understand it,
and certainly those early records
on Sun and so forth,
they were of their time,
and they were good records,
but they were rock-and-roll records.
And at a certain point,
he started writing these ballads
that are just
not like anything else.
Mm-hm-hm
Crawling back...
Roy was the real thing,
at a time where very few people
wrote their own material.
There was so much soul
in that music and mystery -
and it was - it was mystery music.
They were very dramatic songs,
and he was kind of dramatic too.
He was very dark
and always in black and the glasses.
Wild hearts run out of time
And you'll need a love like mine
To show you hope is there...
I never knew why
he wore the shades all the time.
I think he thought
he had weak eyes or something.
Wild hearts run out of time
ROY ORBISON: I simply left
my clear pair on the aeroplane
when I did the tour with The Beatles
and Gerry & The Pacemakers in '63.
By the time the pictures came back,
and by the time
he had played a couple of nights,
he never changed.
He always wore sunglasses
every night he played,
for the rest of his life.
Don't let
the bright lights burn you
BARBARA ORBISON:
Buddy Holly made it OK
to wear prescription glasses
on stage,
and then Roy made it cool
to wear prescription sunglasses.
They're still cool today.
It could be yours or mine
It happens all the time
Wild hearts run out of time
Wild hearts run out of time
A candy-coloured clown
they call the sandman
Tiptoes to my room every night
Just to sprinkle stardust
And to whisper
Go to sleep...
Dennis Hopper
was supposed to sing it,
and so I got him the music
and told him
to learn the lyrics and practise,
and I thought
he was memorising it.
And Dean Stockwell
was a good friend of Dennis's,
so Dean said
he would work with Dennis.
And so I pictured
the two of them going...
and Dennis, you know,
having it down.
But in the process,
Dennis had kind of...
burned himself pretty bad
from his past living,
and he wasn't able
to memorise these things.
In dreams
I walk with you...
But Dean memorised it,
and so,
when we started rehearsing the scene
where this song
was supposed to be,
at a certain point,
the two of them
were sort of singing.
At a certain point
Dennis just dropped out,
and was just watching Dean,
and Dean was letter perfect,
and it just was so obvious
what was supposed to happen.
(SONG STOPS ABRUPTLY)
(CASSETTE PLAYER CLICKS)
All right, let's hit the road.
I heard rumours that,
after the film was released,
Roy saw it, and was upset about...
That song meant something to Roy,
you know,
and it didn't mean
what it was in the film.
There was such a...
sexual conflict
going on in his songs.
They weren't about holding hands.
They were about, you know...
There was a grind to them.
There was a sweatiness, you know.
There was a longing,
an anxiousness about them.
And they were basically
songs about sex.
Before the dawn
Then he saw it again
and changed his mind,
and appreciated it
from a different point of view.
So, by the time I met Roy,
he was pretty happy
about Blue Velvet.
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams
I had David Lynch's soundtrack
to Blue Velvet,
and I kept...
I had it on repeat, and it was
going round and round and round,
and kept stopping
appropriately on In Dreams.
And I couldn't sleep and
this song was going through my head.
When I woke up the next day,
I had a song in my head,
which I presumed
was another Roy Orbison song
that was on the soundtrack,
and I looked for it
and I couldn't find it.
I thought, "Where's this tune?
Maybe I've just written it."
So I took it down
to the sound check,
and I played the tune
to the rest of the band.
They really liked it.
And I said, "It's kind of like
a Roy Orbison song, is it?"
And they said, "Yeah, yeah, Roy
Orbison. Yeah, great. We like him."
And we played the concert
and then after the show
I was sitting
and I had the guitar up again
and was trying to finish the song.
And there was a knock at the door,
and John our security guy said,
"There's Roy Orbison
and his wife Barbara outside.
Um...um...
Can I bring them in?
They'd really like to meet you."
So the band looked at me
like I was...
I'd either been winding them up
or I had some voodoo in me.
My wife and kiddies
had been to see U2
and told me about them,
and I hadn't heard them
or seen them.
And I went to one of their concerts
in London when I was there,
with fresh ears,
and I wasn't expecting anything.
I just went to see and an open mind.
He said in his very quiet voice,
you know,
"I really liked the show.
I can't tell you why I liked it,
but I really liked it."
He said,
"You wouldn't have a song for me?
Shall we write a song together?
Because I just, you know,
I'm kind of into what you're doing."
So everyone's kind of falling round,
and no-one
could quite believe their ears,
and I played him there and then
the song She's A Mystery To Me.
I wanna run,
she's pulling me apart
NARRATOR: In 1988, Roy was
working on his album Mystery Girl
with producer Jeff Lynne, who had
also worked with George Harrison.
During long hours in the studio,
George and Jeff
had often talked about
the line-up of their dream group.
As Lefty Wilbury,
Roy Orbison was about to become
the ultimate musician's musician.
I know that George and Jeff,
when they were in the studio
working together,
had sometimes had this thing about,
"Oh, yeah, we could have a band."
George would say,
"We should have a group, you know?"
And I'd go, "Yeah, that would be
good. Let's have a group."
And it was literally -
who do you want in it?
and I said,
"I'd love Roy Orbison in it,"
and he said,
"I want Bob Dylan in it."
It was just like that, just like
a pair of school kids, really.
It wasn't
a contrived thing that happened.
They weren't out to make a band.
It just happened, you know -
one event lead to another.
And I was working with Tom
as well at the time,
and George knew Tom by then, and
we said, "Let's have Tom as well."
All that remained was
George to ask these people
if they wanted to be in it,
in the group, which they all did,
and the one we had to convince last
was Roy.
We went to see Roy in concert,
I think out in Anaheim somewhere.
We all piled in the car
and went out to see him.
You make it on time
Oh, don't relax
I want elbows and backs
I want to see everybody
from behind
Cos you're working
for the man...
It was a brilliant show,
just like normal, in a theatre,
and all the people were going mad,
and we were all going mad,
like, "Yeah, give it some!"
And George was so keen.
It was so exciting,
and we all watched the show.
It was the first time
I'd ever seen Roy perform.
We went in his dressing room
afterwards,
and George said to him,
"Do you want to be in our group?"
It was kind of like a proposal,
you know?
I think
George even got down on his knee
and said,
"Will you be in our band?"
And he sort of went,
"Yeah, I suppose.
I suppose so, yeah."
And he offered
to join there and then.
So he was in the Traveling Wilburys
then, from that moment.
Handle me with care
Reputations changeable
Situations tolerable
Baby, you're adorable
Handle me with care
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
Won't you show me
That you really care?
Everybody's
Got somebody
To lean on...
TOM PETTY:
Sometimes we'd sing the same song,
just to see who sounded good
or if this key fits somebody.
That was a lot of fun.
George would kind of audition us,
which could be really intimidating,
because
Roy Orbison would sing the song,
and then
they'd send you out to sing it,
and it was like, "Well,
damn, that's really intimidating."
Last night
Thinking about last night...
They had a lot of fun,
but they didn't goof around.
It wasn't just one big party.
They were working.
Last night...
ROY ORBISON: There wasn't
a lot of deciding what to do,
not a lot of time
spent planning out anything.
So we just wrote
the best songs that we could write,
and sang them as best we could.
I got out of the car...
No, she was long and tall.
Or short and fat.
(LAUGHTER)
She was dressed to kill.
Yeah, that's good.
To give me a thrill
was over the hill.
(LAUGHTER)
I don't think it was a conspiracy
or something, but if we decided...
And he was funny -
that was the thing
that George enjoyed
about him the most was that
he seemed to be a tragic figure,
or there was tragedy
attached or projected to Roy,
but in reality he was very funny,
and that was the sort of secret Roy
that he loved to be around.
And sometimes Roy would have
George and the guys in hysterics.
He loved Monty Python -
that was his favourite comedy stuff,
and he could do
all the sketches on his own.
He had that slightly Southern lilt,
and yet he would recite
lines from Monty Python.
He'd break into a sketch
of one of Python's routines,
playing all the parts,
and end up just giggling himself,
like a maniac, giggling away,
and we'd all start giggling.
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have...
He was surrounded by
all friends that he really loved,
and they really loved him,
and the basis of the Wilbury record
was lots of laughter
and just lots of fun
and incredible creativity.
Every time I look
Into your loving eyes...
And so it came towards
'88 Thanksgiving,
and we had all decided
that we would go to George
and Olivia's house in England
and spend Thanksgiving with them.
I drift away
I pray that you...
Roy and I got stuck in Paris
and never made it,
and Roy flew back to America
because he had to fulfil...
He had booked two shows
in Boston and in Ohio,
and those shows
were like long-time booked.
You got it
Baby...
And I decided to stay in Europe.
Every time I hold you
I begin to understand...
The last thing I heard from Roy
was a message on my answerphone
in England saying,
"Hey, Jeff, I'm sorry
I couldn't see you this trip,
but I'm all about Wilbury'd out."
And he was really tired from
doing all the Wilbury interviews,
and he'd got his own album
coming out
at the same time
called Mystery Girl.
And he said,
"I'll see you when I get back.
I'll be back over in a few weeks."
No-one can do
The things you do...
BARBARA:
I got a call one night from Roy
that basically said
he had given in
to come back to England.
George had asked over and over
for a second Wilbury video.
Baby...
And I said, "Are you really sure?"
and he said,
"When I get off that plane,
I know your smiling real nice
will be waiting for me,"
and he said,
"For that, I will do anything."
So that was the last time
I ever talked with him.
(DISTANTLY) Pretty paper
(BECOMES DISTINCT)
Pretty ribbons of blue
Wrap your presents to your darling
From you
Pretty pencils
To write - I love you
Pretty paper
Pretty ribbons
Of blue
NEWSCASTER: Roy Orbison, one of the
first and greatest rock performers,
has died from a heart attack.
He was 52.
In his prime,
he topped bills above The Beatles,
and just this year
was in the charts again
in a supergroup that included
George Harrison and Bob Dylan.
GEORGE HARRISON:
Roy would have liked us
to have continued to do
The End Of The Line.
It's a very optimistic song,
and we love Roy
and life flows on
within you and without you,
and he's around in his astral body.
The end of the line
Maybe somewhere down the road
When somebody plays...
You know,
we played it like he was there,
like, we'd all look at the armchair,
and there would be Lefty,
but it was just his guitar.
Well, it's all right
If you got someone to love
Well, it's all right
Everything'll work out fine
BARBARA: If Roy would have been
giving you the interview today,
and you would have asked him
about his songs -
what was his best song ever -
and he would have said,
"I haven't written it yet."
At the end of the line
I'm just glad to be here
Happy to be alive...
BARBARA ORBISON: The artists
today that have come along
in the last 20 years
probably don't even remember
that the Wilburys in '88
had a number-one album.
(GUITAR FINALE)
I love you even more
Than I did before
But, darling, what can I do?
For you don't love me
And I'll always be
Crying
Over you
Crying
Over you...
I'm totally amazed
that so many artists today
still use Roy as their inspiration.
Over you...
Only the lonely
Dum-dum-dum dummy-doo-wah
Know the way I feel...
At the very end, when he was asked
how he wanted to be remembered,
and he paused for a minute
and he said,
"Hmm, I just would like
to be remembered."
Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman, give your smile
To me
Pretty woman...
OLIVIA HARRISON:
My lasting memory of Roy would be
him walking down the stairs
coming to dinner
and all of us were already down,
so looking at Roy
in his black shirt, black trousers
and his dark glasses, and we all
stood at the bottom of the stairs
watching Roy
come down the staircase.
It was like, "Wow,
you know, the Big O."
It's too bad
That all these things
Can only happen
In my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(WOLF-WHISTLING)
Still missing you
California blue
Still missing you
California blue
Still missing you
California blue
AccessibleCustomerService@sky.uk
Ooo-ooo-wahhh-ahhh
..
Only the lonely
Only the lonely
(CHEERING)
Know the way I...
People that are completely unique -
you don't so much admire them
as just marvel at them.
Only the lonely...
I was sitting in the living room
with me mum and me aunty,
and it came on the radio.
(SIGHS) What a voice.
Yeah. Fantastic.
And I always liked his stuff,
bought his records.
Me mum and me aunty were going,
"Ooh, it's too sexy!"
Only in dreams
NARRATOR: Sexy AND cool,
Roy Orbison was perhaps the most
humble and influential rock star
the world ever knew.
Dreams
All of us, in studying
the craft of making a good record,
had studied Roy's work.
In many ways, my whole life
has been fashioned,
subconsciously, by him.
Dreams...
I'm going back some day
Gonna stay on Blue Bayou
Where the folks are fine
And the world is mine
Blue Bayou...
NARRATOR:
His unique voice, his unique sound,
his totally unique appearance
made Roy Orbison one of a kind,
especially in Britain,
where his talent was embraced
and supported by rock royalty.
Golden days before they end
Whisper...
I think Roy and England
had a love affair.
Roy loved the British
and the British loved Roy.
(WILD CHEERING)
(PRETTY WOMAN INTRO)
Pretty woman
Walkin' down the street...
NARRATOR: By the 1980s,
Roy Orbison's status as a living
legend was well and truly confirmed,
when some of the biggest names
in the music business queued up
to be in his backing band for
his Black And White Night concert.
..as good as you
Roy and I talked about doing a show
that would be
a performance show for Roy.
So we set a time, finally -
September, 1987.
I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman...
It had been a while since people
had focused on Roy's music
quite this way.
A lot of care was taken to do
the songs justice
the way I believe the show does.
(PRETTY WOMAN INSTRUMENTAL)
Rrrrrrrrrr!
I'm being asked all the time how
this wonderful cast came together.
Everybody just seemed to be
available at that particular time.
If we would had done it
a month before, a month later,
I don't think
everybody could have been there.
(ROCK AND ROLL INSTRUMENTAL)
ELVIS COSTELLO:
I don't think the entire ensemble
was put together
until we were all on the set of
the Cocoanut Grove
in the Ambassador Hotel.
I know Bruce Springsteen
arrived at the very last minute.
How did you get that?
My big memory of that night was
Bruce arriving,
I think, for the sound check,
and then realising
that his memory of the songs
was not the same
as the ability to play them.
Sweet dreams...
Then you go:
(FALSETTO) Sweet dreams
You might wanna go under me.
Yeah, I may have to!
When he actually looked
at the charts and realised
that there were odd counts
in some of the songs,
I have an image of him
sitting with his guitar,
with, like, a cassette Walkman,
comparing
what he had obviously memorised,
over a couple of decades
since the records came out,
to what was written on the page,
and frantically closing
the distance between the two things
if he was gonna play
on a couple of these songs.
I thought that's the measure
of how much he loved Roy
because he was really dedicated.
BOTH: Sweet dreams, baby
Oh, how long
Must I dream?
OK.
BOTH: Sweet dreams, baby...
NARRATOR: Orbison clearly inspired
anyone who was anyone in music.
But just where did
all the raw talent come from?
Born in 1936 in the small town
of Vernon in Texas,
from an early age
Roy was single-minded
in his pursuit of a career in music.
ROY ORBISON: My mom and dad gave me
a guitar when I was six years old.
I always wanted to be a singer.
My father asked me,
when I was about six or seven,
maybe even earlier...
I don't know whether I was playing
the guitar at the time or not,
but he said, "Know what
you're gonna be when you grown up?"
and I said, "I'll be a singer."
I was able to get on a radio show
when I was eight years old -
an amateur hour -
and I showed up so often that
they made me a part of the show.
And when I was 14, I think,
I moved to West Texas
and formed a group.
Well, we were from Wink, Texas,
and so we were the Wink Westerners,
and when we got a bit more popular,
we became the Teen Kings.
We'll hang out and raise some fun
We'll stay out till after one...
I met him the first time
in Odessa and Midland, Texas.
He had a group that played
on the local television show there,
and the song was called Ooby Dooby.
Ooby dooby, ooby dooby
Ooby dooby,
dooby, dooby, dooby, dooby
Dooby doo...
ROY ORBISON: I made a demonstration
record called Ooby Dooby,
and sent that then to Sam Phillips
in Memphis, Tennessee.
He asked me -
could I be there in three days?
And so I grabbed my group
together and we made the record
and I dropped out of the university
- the junior college
that I was attending then -
and went on the road
within two or three months.
JOHNNY CASH:
What I thought at the time
was the smallest voice
was Roy Orbison.
Sam Phillips says he had to put
the microphone down his throat
to pick him up.
But I think Sam had
the wrong kind of microphone,
because his later records prove
that he's not only got
a great, strong voice,
but he's one of the greatest
singers in our business.
But he saw his own potential,
as did others,
and he moved to a bigger label
and had bigger records.
Pretty woman
Walkin' down the street
Pretty woman
The kind I like to meet
Pretty woman...
NARRATOR: Searching for ways
to fulfil that potential,
Roy looked across the Atlantic to an
early-'60s music culture in Britain
that was more than ready
to embrace something new.
Mercy!
In the early-'60s,
I worked for Decca
as a promotion man
and my job,
apart from promoting records,
was to look after all the American
artists who came over to London.
I was 21 years old,
and it was a dream job.
Are you lonely, just like me?
Rrrrrrrrrr!
Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman...
Very American, Southern, polite -
and that was
my initial impression of Roy.
Very softly spoken,
very polite, very appreciative.
He was a gentleman -
a real gentleman, actually.
And that's what he had -
that kind of rather sweet,
Southern states of America charm
that he had.
Pretty paper
Pretty ribbons
Of blue
Wrap your presents
To your darling
From you
Pretty pencils
To write - I love...
He would invariably
come with his wife Claudette
and his boys.
They'd have a little apartment,
and I would spend a lot of time
with them as a family,
cos they were very family, and...
he loved having the boys around,
he loved having Claudette around.
And so I became
part of their family.
Downtown shoppers
Christmas is nigh
And there he sits...
He always reminded me of a preacher,
he was so gentle.
Very, very sweet.
Loved his kids, loved the family.
He was just a lovely guy,
I mean, we were all mental.
We were young and mad.
Roy was very...
a very polite American.
He was very sweet.
We were Scousers -
hard cases, nutters.
He was a gentleman.
We were idolising
Americans at this point.
You know, we had Cliff
and we had Tommy Steele, but...
We were just kids from Liverpool,
who knew nothing,
following
Roy Orbison, a massive star,
whose songs we'd sung for years,
and we're there with him,
and watching him - a dream.
Well, I got a woman
as mean as she can be
Some-a-times I think
she's almost mean as me...
The Brits were
so enamoured of American...
of rock and roll, um...
they possibly appreciated them
more than the Americans did.
TONY KING: The songs seemed more hip
and the performances were more hip,
and that's what we were all about.
I think any British recording artist
from that period
would probably tell you
the same thing.
THE BEATLES: Love Me Do
NARRATOR: Though Britain
was hungry for all things American,
Roy's first UK tour would
turn out to be an unexpected test
of just how loyal
his British fans might be.
An all-English musical phenomenon
was sweeping the country.
Roy found himself
sharing the bill with The Beatles.
OLIVIA HARRISON:
You know, from what George told me,
they were so starved
of rock and roll
and how they waited
for the records to come out
and they knew there was
this thing going on in America.
So for them, it was just something
that they were really hungry for.
TONY KING: The Beatles responded
to Roy with total admiration.
I can't emphasise enough how much
American artists
were the thing to admire,
you know, and all things American.
Before I joined the Stones
in the late-'50s,
I thought he was fantastic.
And then he toured with The Beatles.
63?
(WILD CHEERING)
GERRY MARSDEN: The Beatles
were on the tour with us,
the Beats, ourselves and Roy -
massive tour.
1963 was a great time for me.
It was my first record,
first number one
and my first tour with
Mr Roy Orbison,
who became a very dear friend,
and such a lovely guy.
I got a woman
Yeah, I got a woman
Yeah, I got a woman...
OLIVIA HARRISON:
George told me they followed Roy
and they would stand in the wings
listening to this big ending,
and he said
they'd just be trembling thinking,
"How on earth are we gonna go out
and follow this?"
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)
In spite of the fact
that The Beatles were getting
this huge acclaim
from the British public
right from the word go, really -
from Love me Do, it started -
when Roy came on stage,
he still had the goods to top them.
Just before the dawn
He just stood there and sang -
that's all he did -
didn't do anything else!
I don't remember him
putting one foot to the left
or one foot to the right,
to be honest with you.
I can't help it
I can't help it, if I...
That was what the impact was -
was that he had the nerve
to do that - to just stand there
and let his voice do the work.
It's too bad
That all these things...
BILL WYMAN: Some people can do that
- they just give off this aura.
They don't have to move about.
I've been trying to do it
for 30 years,
but it doesn't happen with me!
So I stay in the shadows. (LAUGHS)
Only
In dreams...
ROY ORBISON: Well, in my case,
when you see me perform, it's -
what happens is I sing
and the audience watches me do that.
Some-a-times I think
she's almost mean as me
On opening night, I had
between seven to 15, 20 encores,
and Paul and John
grabbed me by the arms and said,
"Yankee, go home," whatever,
and wouldn't let me
take my last curtain call.
But it was all in good fun.
GERRY MARSDEN: And that voice -
my God! -
used to annoy me it was so good.
Each place we go
I'm so afraid...
TONY KING: He'd sing Running Scared,
and his mouth would go...
"just running scared",
like this - you know? -
this tiny little movement
of the mouth,
but, phwoar... And
he'd get to the end of that song,
where it goes
up and up and up and up,
and his mouth
still wasn't moving, not a lot,
not like, "ahr", you know,
I'm really gonna give it
the full whack.
He'd just still stand there and
his mouth would open slightly more,
and then out would come
this incredible note.
And I think
that's what was so thrilling
because his modesty
in combination
with his vocal prowess
was quite something to see.
You love him so
GERRY MARSDEN:
The way he sang was different
than we'd ever heard before.
Elvis didn't do that, but Roy did.
And I think
just the difference in sound
that that man made,
that's why he's so popular.
If he came back
Which one would you choose?
ROY ORBISON: I never had
any formal training, and I think
maybe it's just that
I might be a baritone
with a real high range,
two-and-a-half octaves or so,
but I've never checked it.
His head in the air
Oh, my heart was breaking
Which one would it be?
You turned around
And walked away with me
I started singing this way
because I was writing songs,
and I wrote the melody
that I heard in my head.
So then I had to sing those notes
as well. I didn't know how high
or low you were supposed to go,
so I went where I wanted to.
I could smile for a while
But I saw you last night
You held my hand so tight
As you stopped to say hello
Oh, you wished me well
You couldn't tell
That I'd been crying
Over you
Crying
Over you
Then you said, "So long"
Left me standing
All alone
Alone and crying...
There was something
about Roy's voice
that was completely unique to him,
which was obviously a good thing
because it was hard to emulate,
that had this sort of -
and I always thought
it had a crying sound to it.
It almost was like
a controlled cry.
The touch of your hand
Can start me crying
I thought that I
Was over you
But it's true
So true
I love you even more
Than I did before
But, darling, what can I do?
For you don't love me
And I'll always be
(FALSETTO) Cry-y-y-ing
Over you...
I think Roy's voice
is like an opera voice, only sexy.
Opera voices are kind of -
to me, they're not sexy.
It's just the music they're singing.
But Roy doing
rock and roll and blues,
you know, blue notes, and things
with that kind of opera voice -
now, that made it really different,
and it put like an opera slant
on a rock-and-roll track.
It's wonderful and it's sad
at the same time
because that's the inflection,
and what he puts
into the soulfulness of his voice.
You know, he's got marvellous soul.
I think, that's...
He was probably a soul singer
before any of them, you know?
Cry-ing
O-o-o-ver
You-ooo-oooooooo
JEFF LYNNE: You know, like
Elvis said, "Ladies and gentlemen,
the best singer in the world
right there - Roy Orbison."
Probably cos
he WAS the best singer of all.
Golden days before they end
NARRATOR: Roy's entry
into the British music scene
had been a triumph with It's Over
topping the UK charts in 1964.
Your baby won't be...
But personal tragedy would soon
threaten to end Roy's career.
In 1966, his wife Claudette
was killed in a motorbike accident.
And there was
even more heartbreak to come.
TONY KING: They had this
beautiful boy called Roy DeWayne.
I used to take him to the zoo
and take him around,
and I loved his company.
He was like a really sweet kid.
And I remember once I came back
to the promotion offices
in Great Marlborough Street -
the Decca offices,
and Roy DeWayne, I'd exhausted him.
And he must have been
about six or seven -
he wasn't a baby.
Anyway, I'd had to carry him
back to the office
cos he was so exhausted he fell
asleep, and I remember carrying him.
I remember his little head
on my shoulder.
But, oh, what will you do?
And then he got...
burnt to death in that fire.
We're through-oo-oo
We're through...
We'd been playing
the Birmingham Theatre for a week.
This was September '68,
and the following day we were
gonna do the last performance,
which was a concert in Bournemouth,
and then he was going
to be flying back to the US -
that was the end of the tour.
I got a call
about three o'clock in the morning
local time in England.
Send falling stars
That seem to cry...
JOHNNY CASH:
He was on tour in England,
and he got the news over there
that his house had burned
and he had lost two of his boys.
I remember thinking: How is that...
..man going to cope with that?
It breaks your heart in two
JOHNNY CASH: He stayed
in seclusion for quite a while.
We made contact and let him know
we cared and were concerned,
and it was a long time
until I saw Roy
because it wasn't something
that he was wanting to talk about.
Well, to be quite honest,
I really thought,
at that particular point in time,
that he... that would be the...
that we would never see him again.
I thought that would be...
He had not worked really
since Claudette had died.
However, I did get another call
saying that he was coming back.
NARRATOR: To a large extent,
Roy's return had been made possible
by someone he had met and
fallen in love with before the fire.
We started dating,
and six weeks later
the house fire happened
in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
But I think
it was such a gift for him
to have fallen in love with me
before, so he did have a focus.
It gave him a chance to create
a life that he really wanted,
and that was one of a real
stable family and to have more kids.
Roy just had such
an incredible gentle strength.
He scaled the heights and the lows.
Lonely rivers sigh
Wait for me...
I arrived in December of '68
in Tennessee,
and then we travelled in America
and we got married in March.
We had Roy Kelton Junior,
who was born in 1970,
and then Alex in '74
and we had Wesley
from the marriage with Claudette.
If you would have seen
Roy with the kids,
you would have never suspected
that he had lost two kids
in a house fire...
A long, lonely time
Time
Goes by...
JOHNNY CASH: They came through it
in a really great way,
a very surprising way.
He came back stronger than ever
after this terrible loss
of those two boys.
He came back with
all of the determination
and the will to go ahead
and to be the great artist he is.
(PRETTY WOMAN INTRO)
(APPLAUSE)
NARRATOR: As the '70s dawned,
a new-look Roy returned
again and again
to tour for his UK fans,
and of course,
the Orbison family went too.
Pretty woman
Walkin' down the street...
BARBARA ORBISON:
When it was tour time, we all went.
We went - nannies...
Everybody just went out on the road.
Baby formulas,
baby cribs, perambulators,
whatever it took,
you know?
Mercy!
We would be, tours or no tours,
probably four or five months
out of the year in London.
We practically lived here
in the '70s, and loved it.
I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman
You look lovely as can be...
He loved England.
He loved the British people.
It was somehow Britain or
the British people Roy that liked.
You know, I think
that it was a love affair.
Roy Orbison loved...
Roy loved England.
I mean,
he loved everything about it.
He loved the food,
and that was tough
to love in the '60s.
JEFF LYNNE: He came up to my house
in the Midlands,
and he brought with him -
he showed me in his trunk -
he said, "Look at this."
He had a driver, and he said,
"Look what I've brought,"
and he'd got, like,
four sets of pie and mash,
you know, for everybody.
Brought it all the way from London.
Pretty woman,
say you'll stay with me
Roy, I think, just loved
the English way of life.
He would love to listen to accents,
and go and see places in Scotland
and go and visit castles
and walk the hills. Nutcase!
We were in bed -
he was walking the hills.
He just loved Britain.
He really did. And we loved him.
Ahhhhhhhh!
Pretty woman
He was very real.
He wasn't slick
and he wasn't show-bizzy.
He didn't have a patter.
You know, he didn't...
He wasn't a schmoozy kind of guy.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate
you coming tonight very much.
We're happy to be here.
I hope you are.
BARBARA ORBISON: He was that same
person, on stage and off stage.
It was never about ego,
you know?
It was just about being himself.
Only the lonely
Dum-dum-dum dummy-doo-wah
Know the way I feel tonight
Ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah...
It's inherent
in the British nature
to admire modesty,
especially when it's accompanied
with a great talent.
There goes my baby
Pum pum pum pum...
He was a shy man,
a family man,
a quiet man.
Who he was
was just as much
a part of everything
as what he was singing.
Know why-y-y
I cry...
By the time we got married,
all that was important
was to have a great relationship
and to live life
and to sort of, like,
mend those incredible painful times
and to really enjoy life
and do what he felt
he was called on this earth for.
I got a woman
Yeah, I got a woman...
He said,
"For that, I will go anywhere -
smallest club,
biggest marinas, whatever."
I think she's almost
Mean as me
SEX PISTOLS: Anarchy In The UK
NARRATOR: Though
Roy still had a loyal following,
the mid-'70s saw a change
in the British music scene -
the rejection
of all things mainstream
and the stripped-down
instrumentation of punk rock
seemed, at first glance,
to leave little room for the Big O.
(ACOUSTIC GUITAR
PLAYS PRETTY WOMAN INTRO)
Pretty woman
Won't you pardon me?
Pretty woman
I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman
You look lovely...
See, I can't get up there.
When I was in the Sex Pistols,
if you were
a closet music fan like myself,
there were loads of bands who
I would've probably got hung for,
if it would have gotten out
that I liked at the time, you know?
Would he come
under that umbrella as -
it's old hat
and you shouldn't be liking him,
because
we were against all that nonsense.
I don't think that is the case.
I don't think
he ever fell into that bag
as being out of flavour, you know?
When I was growing up in the '70s,
Roy was kind of
an anachronism, really.
He was completely
out of kilter with the times,
and people I was hanging out with
didn't have Roy Orbison albums.
They just didn't.
He was from a different era.
But then,
as the '70s begat punk rock,
there became
an interest in the '50s.
I think it was...
you know,
punk rock was a '50s thing,
in a way - Rebel Without A Cause,
the short haircuts,
the stance of Elvis,
stripping things down to the bone.
So it was through the door
that punk rock opened
that Roy Orbison
walked into my life.
You have to remember
Roy didn't get to be Roy Orbison
by being like...
anything but outside the norm.
Those guys in Memphis,
when they created rockabilly,
they didn't create rockabilly
by being the boy next door.
Just runnin' scared
Feelin' low...
OLIVIA HARRISON: Although he was
right in there at the very beginning
with Jerry Lee and Elvis,
I think because he was so unique -
his particular type of singing -
that he didn't really
come in or out of fashion,
and I think
when rock and roll came to England
and then
English music went back to America,
Roy was sort of outside of that.
His head in the air
And my heart was breaking...
ROBIN GIBB: It's not a sissy thing
for a man to sing about emotion.
It's just what it is. It's real,
and everybody can relate to that.
And he does it in such a way
that's so open -
he opens his heart completely.
Not being a wimp -
I think
that was the magnificent part
about the singer
and the songwriter Roy Orbison.
He turned something
that could have been a weakness
into a total strength.
It was really very unusual
at the time.
Since then,
everybody's crying like a tart,
but in them days it was quite bold
to say that you cried.
He was one of
the first top-40 artists
to take away or veer off
from the traditional way
of saying things,
which he did
in all those classic songs.
ROY ORBISON: I had to write
the songs that I wanted to sing,
because no-one else
really would at the time,
and then I thought,
since I wrote them,
I might be able to sing them
better than the next person.
So it kind of goes like that.
So whatever the style is
is basically me
and my personal taste.
Roy the singer
people talk about all the time.
Everyone curtsies to the voice,
and so they should.
The thing people don't talk about
enough, as far as I'm concerned,
is how innovative this music was,
how radical,
in terms of its songwriting.
When I write a song, I don't think
in terms of two verses and a chorus
or the accepted method
of songwriting.
I just start and, wherever
I wanna go, that's where I go.
(APPLAUSE)
In dreams, I walk...
Classic pop structure is, you know,
verse chorus, verse chorus,
middle eight, chorus, end.
Most pop songs in the world
are like that.
And then you hear
something like In Dreams.
In dreams
You're mine
All of the time...
I can't remember the structure,
but it's something like -
A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
Nothing repeats.
From those odd proportions
comes the tension,
and from the tension
comes the emotional impact,
that it takes you
somewhere unexpected.
Just before
The dawn...
He slowly built it from nothing,
and built it into this huge climax,
and then it went into another part,
which was even better
and got even bigger and better, and
that's what I liked about his songs.
I can't help it
I can't help it
If I cry...
JOE WALSH: That's really hard to do,
as a songwriter.
The ability to just have
the music flow with the storyline.
Very few people could do that.
All these things
Can only happen...
What you end up with is
a pop song that broke every rule,
and won.
It's like a classical composition.
Only in dreams
In dreams
In beautiful dreams
I was at a classical concert
one night,
and this Schumann song started -
was in the programme.
And I said, "This is the actual
melody of a Roy Orbison song."
You know I can't help myself
And now I'm crawling...
The Roy song goes -
Only you and you alone
Can keep me crawling back
After all you've done to me
The way you put me down
I still will be your clown
Cos I love you
I still will be your clown
Because I love you...
And the Schumann song goes -
(HUMS MELODY)
Has a very similar shape,
you know?
You know I would die for you
I suppose, like anybody of his age,
he could have turned on the radio
and maybe heard
some gracious melodies there.
It doesn't fit in with any
of the other things about his music.
The background in music,
as I understand it,
and certainly those early records
on Sun and so forth,
they were of their time,
and they were good records,
but they were rock-and-roll records.
And at a certain point,
he started writing these ballads
that are just
not like anything else.
Mm-hm-hm
Crawling back...
Roy was the real thing,
at a time where very few people
wrote their own material.
There was so much soul
in that music and mystery -
and it was - it was mystery music.
They were very dramatic songs,
and he was kind of dramatic too.
He was very dark
and always in black and the glasses.
Wild hearts run out of time
And you'll need a love like mine
To show you hope is there...
I never knew why
he wore the shades all the time.
I think he thought
he had weak eyes or something.
Wild hearts run out of time
ROY ORBISON: I simply left
my clear pair on the aeroplane
when I did the tour with The Beatles
and Gerry & The Pacemakers in '63.
By the time the pictures came back,
and by the time
he had played a couple of nights,
he never changed.
He always wore sunglasses
every night he played,
for the rest of his life.
Don't let
the bright lights burn you
BARBARA ORBISON:
Buddy Holly made it OK
to wear prescription glasses
on stage,
and then Roy made it cool
to wear prescription sunglasses.
They're still cool today.
It could be yours or mine
It happens all the time
Wild hearts run out of time
Wild hearts run out of time
A candy-coloured clown
they call the sandman
Tiptoes to my room every night
Just to sprinkle stardust
And to whisper
Go to sleep...
Dennis Hopper
was supposed to sing it,
and so I got him the music
and told him
to learn the lyrics and practise,
and I thought
he was memorising it.
And Dean Stockwell
was a good friend of Dennis's,
so Dean said
he would work with Dennis.
And so I pictured
the two of them going...
and Dennis, you know,
having it down.
But in the process,
Dennis had kind of...
burned himself pretty bad
from his past living,
and he wasn't able
to memorise these things.
In dreams
I walk with you...
But Dean memorised it,
and so,
when we started rehearsing the scene
where this song
was supposed to be,
at a certain point,
the two of them
were sort of singing.
At a certain point
Dennis just dropped out,
and was just watching Dean,
and Dean was letter perfect,
and it just was so obvious
what was supposed to happen.
(SONG STOPS ABRUPTLY)
(CASSETTE PLAYER CLICKS)
All right, let's hit the road.
I heard rumours that,
after the film was released,
Roy saw it, and was upset about...
That song meant something to Roy,
you know,
and it didn't mean
what it was in the film.
There was such a...
sexual conflict
going on in his songs.
They weren't about holding hands.
They were about, you know...
There was a grind to them.
There was a sweatiness, you know.
There was a longing,
an anxiousness about them.
And they were basically
songs about sex.
Before the dawn
Then he saw it again
and changed his mind,
and appreciated it
from a different point of view.
So, by the time I met Roy,
he was pretty happy
about Blue Velvet.
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams
I had David Lynch's soundtrack
to Blue Velvet,
and I kept...
I had it on repeat, and it was
going round and round and round,
and kept stopping
appropriately on In Dreams.
And I couldn't sleep and
this song was going through my head.
When I woke up the next day,
I had a song in my head,
which I presumed
was another Roy Orbison song
that was on the soundtrack,
and I looked for it
and I couldn't find it.
I thought, "Where's this tune?
Maybe I've just written it."
So I took it down
to the sound check,
and I played the tune
to the rest of the band.
They really liked it.
And I said, "It's kind of like
a Roy Orbison song, is it?"
And they said, "Yeah, yeah, Roy
Orbison. Yeah, great. We like him."
And we played the concert
and then after the show
I was sitting
and I had the guitar up again
and was trying to finish the song.
And there was a knock at the door,
and John our security guy said,
"There's Roy Orbison
and his wife Barbara outside.
Um...um...
Can I bring them in?
They'd really like to meet you."
So the band looked at me
like I was...
I'd either been winding them up
or I had some voodoo in me.
My wife and kiddies
had been to see U2
and told me about them,
and I hadn't heard them
or seen them.
And I went to one of their concerts
in London when I was there,
with fresh ears,
and I wasn't expecting anything.
I just went to see and an open mind.
He said in his very quiet voice,
you know,
"I really liked the show.
I can't tell you why I liked it,
but I really liked it."
He said,
"You wouldn't have a song for me?
Shall we write a song together?
Because I just, you know,
I'm kind of into what you're doing."
So everyone's kind of falling round,
and no-one
could quite believe their ears,
and I played him there and then
the song She's A Mystery To Me.
I wanna run,
she's pulling me apart
NARRATOR: In 1988, Roy was
working on his album Mystery Girl
with producer Jeff Lynne, who had
also worked with George Harrison.
During long hours in the studio,
George and Jeff
had often talked about
the line-up of their dream group.
As Lefty Wilbury,
Roy Orbison was about to become
the ultimate musician's musician.
I know that George and Jeff,
when they were in the studio
working together,
had sometimes had this thing about,
"Oh, yeah, we could have a band."
George would say,
"We should have a group, you know?"
And I'd go, "Yeah, that would be
good. Let's have a group."
And it was literally -
who do you want in it?
and I said,
"I'd love Roy Orbison in it,"
and he said,
"I want Bob Dylan in it."
It was just like that, just like
a pair of school kids, really.
It wasn't
a contrived thing that happened.
They weren't out to make a band.
It just happened, you know -
one event lead to another.
And I was working with Tom
as well at the time,
and George knew Tom by then, and
we said, "Let's have Tom as well."
All that remained was
George to ask these people
if they wanted to be in it,
in the group, which they all did,
and the one we had to convince last
was Roy.
We went to see Roy in concert,
I think out in Anaheim somewhere.
We all piled in the car
and went out to see him.
You make it on time
Oh, don't relax
I want elbows and backs
I want to see everybody
from behind
Cos you're working
for the man...
It was a brilliant show,
just like normal, in a theatre,
and all the people were going mad,
and we were all going mad,
like, "Yeah, give it some!"
And George was so keen.
It was so exciting,
and we all watched the show.
It was the first time
I'd ever seen Roy perform.
We went in his dressing room
afterwards,
and George said to him,
"Do you want to be in our group?"
It was kind of like a proposal,
you know?
I think
George even got down on his knee
and said,
"Will you be in our band?"
And he sort of went,
"Yeah, I suppose.
I suppose so, yeah."
And he offered
to join there and then.
So he was in the Traveling Wilburys
then, from that moment.
Handle me with care
Reputations changeable
Situations tolerable
Baby, you're adorable
Handle me with care
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
Won't you show me
That you really care?
Everybody's
Got somebody
To lean on...
TOM PETTY:
Sometimes we'd sing the same song,
just to see who sounded good
or if this key fits somebody.
That was a lot of fun.
George would kind of audition us,
which could be really intimidating,
because
Roy Orbison would sing the song,
and then
they'd send you out to sing it,
and it was like, "Well,
damn, that's really intimidating."
Last night
Thinking about last night...
They had a lot of fun,
but they didn't goof around.
It wasn't just one big party.
They were working.
Last night...
ROY ORBISON: There wasn't
a lot of deciding what to do,
not a lot of time
spent planning out anything.
So we just wrote
the best songs that we could write,
and sang them as best we could.
I got out of the car...
No, she was long and tall.
Or short and fat.
(LAUGHTER)
She was dressed to kill.
Yeah, that's good.
To give me a thrill
was over the hill.
(LAUGHTER)
I don't think it was a conspiracy
or something, but if we decided...
And he was funny -
that was the thing
that George enjoyed
about him the most was that
he seemed to be a tragic figure,
or there was tragedy
attached or projected to Roy,
but in reality he was very funny,
and that was the sort of secret Roy
that he loved to be around.
And sometimes Roy would have
George and the guys in hysterics.
He loved Monty Python -
that was his favourite comedy stuff,
and he could do
all the sketches on his own.
He had that slightly Southern lilt,
and yet he would recite
lines from Monty Python.
He'd break into a sketch
of one of Python's routines,
playing all the parts,
and end up just giggling himself,
like a maniac, giggling away,
and we'd all start giggling.
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have...
He was surrounded by
all friends that he really loved,
and they really loved him,
and the basis of the Wilbury record
was lots of laughter
and just lots of fun
and incredible creativity.
Every time I look
Into your loving eyes...
And so it came towards
'88 Thanksgiving,
and we had all decided
that we would go to George
and Olivia's house in England
and spend Thanksgiving with them.
I drift away
I pray that you...
Roy and I got stuck in Paris
and never made it,
and Roy flew back to America
because he had to fulfil...
He had booked two shows
in Boston and in Ohio,
and those shows
were like long-time booked.
You got it
Baby...
And I decided to stay in Europe.
Every time I hold you
I begin to understand...
The last thing I heard from Roy
was a message on my answerphone
in England saying,
"Hey, Jeff, I'm sorry
I couldn't see you this trip,
but I'm all about Wilbury'd out."
And he was really tired from
doing all the Wilbury interviews,
and he'd got his own album
coming out
at the same time
called Mystery Girl.
And he said,
"I'll see you when I get back.
I'll be back over in a few weeks."
No-one can do
The things you do...
BARBARA:
I got a call one night from Roy
that basically said
he had given in
to come back to England.
George had asked over and over
for a second Wilbury video.
Baby...
And I said, "Are you really sure?"
and he said,
"When I get off that plane,
I know your smiling real nice
will be waiting for me,"
and he said,
"For that, I will do anything."
So that was the last time
I ever talked with him.
(DISTANTLY) Pretty paper
(BECOMES DISTINCT)
Pretty ribbons of blue
Wrap your presents to your darling
From you
Pretty pencils
To write - I love you
Pretty paper
Pretty ribbons
Of blue
NEWSCASTER: Roy Orbison, one of the
first and greatest rock performers,
has died from a heart attack.
He was 52.
In his prime,
he topped bills above The Beatles,
and just this year
was in the charts again
in a supergroup that included
George Harrison and Bob Dylan.
GEORGE HARRISON:
Roy would have liked us
to have continued to do
The End Of The Line.
It's a very optimistic song,
and we love Roy
and life flows on
within you and without you,
and he's around in his astral body.
The end of the line
Maybe somewhere down the road
When somebody plays...
You know,
we played it like he was there,
like, we'd all look at the armchair,
and there would be Lefty,
but it was just his guitar.
Well, it's all right
If you got someone to love
Well, it's all right
Everything'll work out fine
BARBARA: If Roy would have been
giving you the interview today,
and you would have asked him
about his songs -
what was his best song ever -
and he would have said,
"I haven't written it yet."
At the end of the line
I'm just glad to be here
Happy to be alive...
BARBARA ORBISON: The artists
today that have come along
in the last 20 years
probably don't even remember
that the Wilburys in '88
had a number-one album.
(GUITAR FINALE)
I love you even more
Than I did before
But, darling, what can I do?
For you don't love me
And I'll always be
Crying
Over you
Crying
Over you...
I'm totally amazed
that so many artists today
still use Roy as their inspiration.
Over you...
Only the lonely
Dum-dum-dum dummy-doo-wah
Know the way I feel...
At the very end, when he was asked
how he wanted to be remembered,
and he paused for a minute
and he said,
"Hmm, I just would like
to be remembered."
Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman, give your smile
To me
Pretty woman...
OLIVIA HARRISON:
My lasting memory of Roy would be
him walking down the stairs
coming to dinner
and all of us were already down,
so looking at Roy
in his black shirt, black trousers
and his dark glasses, and we all
stood at the bottom of the stairs
watching Roy
come down the staircase.
It was like, "Wow,
you know, the Big O."
It's too bad
That all these things
Can only happen
In my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(WOLF-WHISTLING)
Still missing you
California blue
Still missing you
California blue
Still missing you
California blue
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