Bottom Line:
It's distinctly possible Roy Orbison was one of the finest vocalists that ever lived, no matter what genre of music you're talking about. His clear, high tenor would have been as at home with everything from opera to the crisp roots rock/country he favored. As one of the founding fathers of the rock & roll genre, Orbison helped pave the path from the country to the cities for other country boy rockers, such as contemporaries Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Orbison's distinctive look, voice, and style made him a legend. This disc does a terrific job of showing how it all happened.
Roy Orbison knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a singer, and nothing deterred him in achieving this goal. Despite moving around from label to label searching for someone who would take a chance on him - from Sun Records to Monument - there was no doubt at all this was a superstar. The documentary In Dreams starts at the beginning and follows through, with his rise in the mid-50's, his presence with the other greats at Sun Records, the early rockabilly, through the sixties and to his amazing early 80's comeback (both solo and as a member of the powerhouse group, The Traveling Wilburys, with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan), with clips from dozens of performances and commentary from people who knew him, people who worked with him, and the many, many people who were influenced by him, including Johnny Cash, Bono, Raul Malo, Fred Foster (Monument Records), the Bee Gees, Bernie Taupin, Bruce Springsteen, k.d. lang, Dwight Yoakam, Chet Atkins, and dozens more - there are few in rock or country who weren't touched by Orbison's powerful voice, his sheer ability, and monumental talents. No one could hit notes like Orbison did. His songs were deeply influential to other songwriters, from the magnificent "Running Scared" and "Crying" to the iconic "Oh Pretty Woman."
About the only fault one could find with this documentary film is the clips of Roy actually singing are too few and far between, and more importantly, very few of them include the entire song. Of course, it IS a documentary and not a collection of videos. It's at its core really a "behind-the-music" style show, focused on the music rather than Orbison's personal life, which is really nice to see. The section where Roy opened for The Beatles before they came to America - and was so successful and so popular the Beatles were terrified of following him (and one night Roy got so many encores and standing ovations the boys from Liverpool had to send him home). Next he toured with the Rolling Stones - another interesting fit, and Stones audiences liked Roy as much as Beatles audiences had, and that was impressive, because few people were able to tour with the Stones and hold their own on that stage. He was a record- breaker, an innovator, a singer/songwriter who could not just sing his own songs (as well as the songs of others, as many of his biggest hits weren't his own compositions), but SELL them, to anyone who was listening, with such vibrant emotion he could tear the heart out of any listener. He was a star of amazing proportions, so popular in the United Kingdom he could fill Ireland "ballrooms" (Bono describes them as places in the middle of literally nowhere that could bring in 3,000 people) as well as clubs across England.
It is astounding to consider he totally vanished from the charts between 1967 and 1987, when a re-recording of "Crying" with k.d. lang introduced him to a whole new legion of fans. In 1987 and 1988, Roy Orbison recorded a new album, Mystery Girl, which blasted him back onto the charts for the first time in decades. He got together with friends to form The Traveling Wilburys, whose self-titled Volume One is one of the hands-down finest discs to come out of the middle-80's (unfortunately, it's long out of print and very hard to find). He went on to work with fellow Wilburys on their solo efforts of the time, including Tom Petty's masterpiece Full Moon Fever and George Harrison's Cloud Nine.
Unfortunately, this phenomenal
resurgence of interest in Orbison was shadowed by the fact that a decade earlier, he'd had triple
heart bypass surgery. On December 6, 1988, a fatal heart attack cut short one of the greatest
"comebacks" in musical history. Mystery Girl and its first single, "You Got It," were
posthumous hits. His music lives on not only on record, but also in movies such as Blue
Velvet, the David Lynch cult hit film; Orbison's voice will live forever. Watching this video
proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt (as though I didn't believe it already) that it's talent,
not looks, that make a superstar. Orbison wasn't a ripped, gorgeous cowboy. He was a plain
man with a voice touched by gods, who in turn touched others.
