2-18-04

Quote of the day:
"In 1970, I rode 15 hours in the back of U-Haul truck to open for Roy Orbison
at the Nashville Music Fair. It was a summer night and I was 20 years old and
he came out in dark glasses, a dark suit and he played some dark music. In
74, just prior to going in the studio to make Born To Run, I was looking at
Duane Eddy for his guitar sound and was listening to a collection of Phil
Spector
records and I was listening to Roy Orbison's All-time Greatest Hits. I'd lay
in bed at night with just the lights of my stereo on and I'd hear Cryin'. Love
Hurts, Runnin' Scared, Only The Lonely and It's Over filln' my room. Some rock
'n' roll reinforces friendship and community, but for me, Roy's ballads were
always best when you were alone and in the dark. Roy scrapped the idea that
you needed verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus to have a hit. His
arrangements were complex and operatic, they had rhythm and movement and they
addressed the underside of pop romance. They were scary. His voice was
unearthly.
He had the ability, like all great rock 'n' rollers, to sound like he'd
dropped in from another planet and yet get the stuff that was right to the heart
of
what you were livin' in today, and that was how he opened up your vision. He
made a little town in New Jersey feel as big as the sound of his records. I
always remember layin' in bed and right at the end of It's Over, when he hits
that note where it sounds like the world's going to end, I'd be laying there
promising myself that I was never going to go outside again and never going to
talk to another woman. Right about that time my needle would slip back to the
first cut and I'd hear..(opening riff) to Pretty Woman' I don't believe you/
You're not the truth/ No one could look as good as you. And that was when I
understood. I carry his records with me when I go on tour today, and I'll always
remember what he means to me and what he meant to me when I was young and afraid
to love. In 75, when I went into the studio to make Born To Run, I wanted to
make a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector, but
most of all I wanted to sing like Roy Orbision. Now everybody knows that nobody
sings like Roy Orbison" Bruce Springsteen

Thought of the day:
So did Jesus break Mary's hymen?