I’ll bet you all had a hunch when I started prattling on about Roy Orbison last night who was going to be be appearing in this week’s Friday Evening Videos, didn’t you? Smart little Loyal Readers.
You’re quite correct: I was planning to post what I thought was Roy’s final hit, “You Got It,” from the 1989 album Mystery Girl, which was a favorite cassette of mine during my sophomore year of college and the following summer. But as I started poking around looking for the video clip and any interesting background information I could find, I discovered that this was not, in fact, Roy’s last charting single, and Mystery Girl was not his last album. Remember that he’d been working a lot with producer Jeff Lynne in the year or two prior to his death in 1988; it turns out he recorded more material than what ended up on Mystery Girl, enough to fill out one more album, which Lynne compiled and released four years later. Somehow, I completely missed King of Hearts in 1992, and I also missed the two final, posthumous hits it generated, a duet of Roy’s classic “Crying,” sung with k.d. lang, and this song:
“I Drove All Night” reveals a fairly tangled history when you delve into it. The song was written specifically for Roy, and he recorded it in 1987, a full year before his death, but for some reason it wasn’t selected for Mystery Girl, and of course it wouldn’t appear until King of Hearts came out in ’92. In the meantime, Cyndi Lauper, of all people, scored a top-10 hit with it in 1989, and I’m willing to bet a lot of people probably think the song was hers, and Roy’s version was the cover. It has since been covered again by a band I’ve never heard of, Pinmonkey, and most recently by — shudder — Celine Dion in 2003.
Since I was unfamiliar with the song, I obviously had never seen the video either, until this afternoon. I think it’s absolutely magnificent. The imagery is a perfect match for the audio, it’s very clever how the director covers for the fact that Roy had been dead for four years, and the young stars are simply beautiful to gaze upon. (If you can’t place them, you’re looking at Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Connelly, seen here at the peak of her Rocketeer-era detectability, and Jason Priestley, who was then riding high on the success of Beverly Hills, 90210.) Everything about this evokes a particular time in my life, a time I often miss, to be honest. I was old enough in ’92 to know something, but still young enough to believe in a lot of things. I acted tougher than I really was, and I was in love with the idea of love itself. In other words, I was a lot like the character that Priestley is playing here. Or at least, that’s how I used to imagine myself, and how I like to remember myself.
Hell, I could just reacting to the car, I guess. Priestley is driving a 1964 Galaxie, a little bit different than my older ’63, but close enough for this video to stir up a lot of sense memories.
For our second feature this evening, I wanted to post “End of the Line” by The Traveling Wilburys, another fabulous song that combines a catchy hook with some truly authentic and wise lyrics; unfortunately, the foul Copyright Lords have forbidden anyone from embedding it, so if you’d like to see it, you’ll have to click through. If nothing else, it’s worth a look to see how this one handled Roy’s absence.
Finally, here’s a little something by request, a B-52s song for my friend Keith. To be honest, I really don’t care for The B-52s — I find the majority of their stuff obnoxious, what with the herky-jerky delivery and a sound that generally rubs me the wrong way — but their 1989 hit “Roam” isn’t too bad, and it’s kind of in the same thematic ballpark as “I Drove All Night,” at least in the sense that it’s about traveling and love. Enjoy, Keith!
I should detest the B-52s for all the reasons you mentioned, but I actually really like their hit songs “Roam,” “Love Shack,” and even “Rock Lobster.” I like the retro parody vibe.
There’s a great scene in Paul Simon’s 1980 movie One Trick Pony where the main character, a former folk music star now just trying to scrape a living playing club blues, peeks through the backstage curtain at the headline act: It’s the B-52s singing “Rock Lobster” to a screaming crowd–the same crowd that was totally dead during his set. His expression is one of disgust and resignation.
No one seems to have seen this movie, but I highly recommend it. Despite the autobiographical motifs, it’s not a vanity film as one might expect, but a frank confession of what it’s like to be on the receding side of the pop music wave (this was waaaay before his comeback masterpiece Graceland).
Ugh, “Love Shack” and “Rock Lobster” were exactly the songs I had in mind when I called The B-52s obnoxious. “Rock Lobster” especially grates on my nerves.
Weirdly enough, I can still remember the first time I heard it. (Apparently, I was deeply traumatized by the event.) I was with Keith, actually, the friend who suggested I play some ’52s here on the blog. We were at a high school “stomp,” the informal dances where you went without a date and danced with anyone who would have you. This may have even been in middle school. Anyhow, the DJ cued up “Rock Lobster,” and I remember Keith getting this big silly grin, like the song was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, while I was asking “what the hell is this crap?” That moment pretty much defined where Keith and I fell on the subject of New Wave from then on…
You’ve mentioned One Trick Pony before, but I confess I’d never even heard of it until you told me about it. It must be pretty obscure… the wikipedia says it is on DVD, but Netflix doesn’t have it. Sounds like an interesting movie, though.
Huh. Looks like it’s available through Warner Archive, that print-on-demand service I’ve talked about before:
http://www.wbshop.com/One-Trick-Pony/1000088058,default,pd.html?cgid=
Paul Simon has gone out of fashion again, and even I haven’t kept track of his career in a while. He followed Graceland with a mediocre album called Rhythm of the Saints, which combined some of the African musicians from the Graceland lineup with Brazilian musicians. But he fell down a “World Music” pidgeonhole and lost what made him unique. The important thing about Graceland is that it combined South African musicians and motifs with music of the American South–hence the title track and the zydeco aspects. It was a brilliant combination that he did not sustain in subsequent work.
Take the Traveling Wilbury’s, on the other hand. I’m glad you included the clip to “End of the Line,” one of the many gems on their first #and best# album. What a brilliant idea to match up these old farts who should have been way, way past the pop music wave but were actually in the very water, to stretch the metaphor. Tom Petty was the foam at the top. I’ve never been a Petty fan, but I thought he was great in the Wilburys and I enjoyed his solo album, which came out shortly thereafter and featured many of the Wilburys.
A point of trivia just for you, Jason: One of the Wilburys, George Harrison, played in another famous band that you seem not to be aware of. They had a few hits in the 60s. #!#
I remember Rhythm of the Saints; I liked the one single it produced, “The Obvious Child,” but otherwise, we’re in agreement on this one. Hugely disappointing after the non-stop delight of Graceland. I don’t think Simon has recorded anything since Rhythm, at least not as far as I know.
We also agree on Wilburys, Vol. 1. That’s one of those albums that’s defies any genre classification, it’s just good music. It hasn’t aged, either. (I listen to a lot of ’80s music and I’m not ashamed that I still enjoy it, but I’m no fool — I know when it sounds dated and when it doesn’t.) I actually did not know there was a second Wilburys album until just recently, when I bought the reissue that included both of them in one package. I think I’ve only listened to “Vol. 3” once or twice; it just didn’t have the same spark.
Curiously, the Wilburys was my introduction to Tom Petty. Prior to that, I was mainly aware of him as the guy who occasionally worked with Stevie Nicks (he contributed vocals to her first big solo hit, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”). After the one-two punch of the Wilburys and Full Moon Fever, though, I went back and checked out his back catalog, and I now count myself as a minor fan, at least enough of one to have a greatest-hits compilation and a couple regular albums.
Now, as to this Harrison fellow, you mean to tell me he did something in addition to that one solo album in the late ’80s, Cloud Nine?)
Seriously, I must’ve really traumatized you when I announced my relative indifference to The Beatles. Let me reiterate: I don’t dislike them. I just decided a while back that I thought they were… overexposed. In case you haven’t noticed by now, I tend to be a bit contrary about whatever everybody else is gushing over. 🙂
I’d also guess that I listen to classic-rock and oldies radio a lot more than you do, so I have more opportunity to grow weary of hearing “A Day in the Life” once an hour.
Huh. According to wikipedia, Paul Simon has recorded three studio albums since Rhythm of the Saints. Who knew?
Even the Beatles felt overexposed from pretty early on. What’s remarkable is how they responded to crises that derail most music groups. Overwhelmed by Beatlemania, they decided to stop performing live. Just imagine a band getting away with that nowadays. They consciously decided that it wasn’t worth the money and that they wanted to channel their energies into songwriting and recording. When they finally got sick of each other personally and couldn’t agree on management issues following the death of manager Brian Epstein, they decided to break up . . . after doing one last, kick-ass album. I think that the result, Abbey Road, is their best work by far. Can you think of any other band that has pulled itself out of a nosedive (I’m talking about the White Album and the abandoned Get Back sessions# and then created a final album that surpassed everything it had done before?
I’m not ignoring the occasional lapses #e.g., about half the White Album# and annoying eccentricities #e.g., the entire Yoko Ono thing#. But I really do respect these guys as musicians. Even Ringo pulled off a masterpiece #”Octopus’s Garden,” again on Abbey Road#. George Harrison got better and better #his two best songs are also on Abbey Road#. Lennon and McCartney became less consistent over the life of the band, but again, Side 2 of Abbey Road is a fantastic back-and-forth of complimentary styles that meshes together. Neither was ever anywhere near as good alone as he was in collaboration with the other.
How did I get on this rant about Abbey Road?? I feel like an evangelist preaching on a street corner. LISTEN TO ABBEY ROAD, FOR THE END IS AT HAND! (And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.)