English–American musical group
POPULARITY
8 episodes with wilburys
2 episodes with wilburys
3 episodes with wilburys
2 episodes with wilburys
2 episodes with wilburys
2 episodes with wilburys
The side effects of being tired, sleepover scares, more made-up scenes, please stop Kars4Kids, a nice holiday story, don't share music in North Korea, a movie I will pass on, I say nay on Chalamet, a bunch of Wilburys, a stupid but great Christmas movie, some thoughts on suicide, and some inspiration from George C. Scott. Stuff mentioned: William Shakespeare The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1599-1603?), Kars4Kids Commercial (2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F94DBBJjzko), Holly Peterson "The Closely Guarded Secrets of Manhattan Doormen" (The Wall Street Journal, December 13, 2024 https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/the-closely-guarded-secrets-of-manhattan-doormen-49bf5236), A Complete Unknown (2024), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990-2000), Logan (2017), Traveling Wilburys "Handle with Care" (1988), and Jingle All the Way (1996).
This Spotlight Show focuses on The Music & Legacy of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Through the use of covers, deep tracks, guest appearances, influences, and explorations, we dig deeply into Petty's music and provide the listeners new experience with one of rock's great songwriters and performers.Catch all our Spotlight Shows including John Hiatt, Johnny Winter, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Everly Brothers, John Lee Hooker, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon, Neil Young, The 27 Club, and more...Support our Show & get the word out by wearin' our gear1981 Hard Promises 18. Devon Allman & Samatha Fish / Stop Draggin' My Heart Around 19. Linda Ronstadt / The Waiting 1982 Long After Dark (Ron Blair replaced by Howie Epstein20. Blackberry Smoke / You Got Lucky 1985 Southern Accents / Pack Up the Plantation (Live) [Dave Stewart] 21. Dolly Parton / Southern Accents22. TPH / Don't Bring Me Down (Carol King & Gerry Goffin) [Paradise 1978] 23. Rhiannon Giddens with Benmont Tench / Don't Come Around Here No More 24. Lucinda Williams / (I was born a) Rebel'88 Wilburys, '89 Full Moon Fever, '96, She's the One (OST)25. Bonnie Raitt / You Got It 26. John Fogerty (CCR) / I Won't Back Down 27. Steve Earle / You're So Bad 2021 She's the One (OST)27. Glen Campbell / Angel Dream1991 Into the Great Wide Open 28. Lissie / Into The Great Wide Open (Rebel without a clue) 29. The Replacements / I'll Be You30. Bob Dylan & TPH / Got My Mind Made Up31. TPH / I'm Walking Support our Show and get the word out by wearin' our gearOdds & Sods: The Extended Podcast Live with John Lee Hooker32. Serves You Right to Suffer33. Boogie Chillen 34. TPH (Dirty Knobs) / Goldfinger 35. TPH w/Stevie Nicks / Insider36. Lady A / Stop Draggin' My Heart Around37. TPH (Dylan) / Jammin' Me 38. Deanna Carter / Free Fallin' (King of the Hill OST)39. TPH w/ Bangles / Waiting for Tonight40. TPH / Restless
In this special bonus episode, we speak with Chris Lockheed, founder of the Traveling Wilburys Revue tribute band. The Revue keeps alive the magic and music of The Traveling Wilburys by performing live their music and solo songs of each member of the Wilburys all across the United States.
Despite the group's five superstars, the Traveling Wilburys have been covered less than you might think. Today the show investigates covers of both the few songs lots of artists cover (Handle with Care, End of the Line) and the many more Wilburys tunes that have only been covered once or twice. Songs in this episode include: Headstones — Tweeter and the Monkey Man Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins — Handle with Care Dr. John ft. Aaron Neville — End Of The Line Petr Rezek & Karel Vágner — Jak Ty To Děláš [Congratulations] The Sweetback Sisters — Rattled Killing the Day — If You Belonged to Me Adrian Belew — Not Alone Anymore SHOW CONTINUES ON THE EXTENDED EDITION Sweet Lights — Handle with Care Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — Tweeter and the Monkey Man George Harrison — If You Belonged to Me The episode includes only clips from these songs. Full versions of these covers are in the Watching The Covers Flow Playlist. Apple Music Spotify Tidal EXTENDED EDITIONS To hear the Extended and Bonus Episodes of our shows: Subscribe to FM+ : Click the subscribe button in Apple Podcasts or sign up here. (One subscription covers all our network podcasts for one low price ! ) Join FM Premium: Get an FM+ Subscription plus video interviews, blog posts, a weekly bonus email and more. MORE LINKS Flagging Down The Double E's - Ray's Dylan Newsletter Search all of our podcasts by album, song, or topic. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? Drop us a note at watchingcovers@fmpods.com. We're a proud member of The FM Podcast Network
The Traveling Wilburys. A Fake Group or What? Who were the Wilburys? At least the Monkees used their real names... George Harrison always wanted to be in another band. Is that why he created the Wilburys? Kennedy and Clarke provide engaging insights, both roasting and celebrating one of most bizarre supergroups ever.
Download the Volley.FM app for more short daily shows!
Face the Music: An Electric Light Orchestra Song-By-Song Podcast
A loooot of extra Del and Wilburys talk in this one. (Song Facts music, "Sunday Morning" by Nicolai Heidlas from Hooksounds.) Cover art by Tracer Anthony.
Today's episode is my ten questions with the amazing Mark Lindsey. As a veteran of over 40 Heartbreakers shows and as a guy who has seen Mudcrutch, Bob Dylan, ELO, and Bob Dylan live, my questions about opening acts, shows Mark would like to see, and Mudcrutch or the Wilburys became all the more interesting. His picks for people to cover Tom Petty songs were also on the money!Don't forget that Mark runs the Sight and Sound Care charity that provides free vision care, including examinations, contact lenses and glasses to musicians and music industry workers all across the US. So if you want to find out more about Sight and Sound Care and even make a donation, please visit: https://www.sightsoundcare.comDon't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectTwitter: https://twitter.com/TomPettyProjectInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt6BLRWuuAR43zHpNKIirOwAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you're looking for Tom's music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise. If you want merchandise for this podcast, please check out https://www.teepublic.com/user/eight-ninety-eight/albums/245634-tom-petty-projectA last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, Conversations with Tom Petty, this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In Conversations With Tom Petty, when author Paul Zollo asks about the origins of the song, Tom explains “It was when Jeff and George (Jeff Lynne and George Harrison obviously), went out to Anaheim to ask Roy Orbison to be in the band (the Traveling Wilburys, again obviously). We were writing everything we saw. One line I remember that we saw on a billboard was “every day is judgment day”. That later turned up in “End of the Line”, the Wilburys song.” He goes on to explain that “We stopped at a restaurant on the way back and these punky-looking guys recognized us and came over. I said “Where have you been? Where are you playing?” and they said “The Zombie Zoo” and out came the pads…”Today's episode covers the last track from Full Moon Fever, Zombie zoo.You can listen to the song here: https://youtu.be/hZTkF2cx9z4The Tom Petty Project is a proud member of The Deep Dive Podcast Network, which you can find on Twitter: https://twitter.com/deepdivepodnetDon't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectTwitter: https://twitter.com/TomPettyProjectInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt6BLRWuuAR43zHpNKIirOwAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com/Logo provided Ed Booth, who you can find here: https://edboothart.com/A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, Conversations with Tom Petty, this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Download the Volley.FM app for more short daily shows!
Another EPL season gone and another season of this podcast mercifully ends, except we'll likely do one more. Relegation battles are the story of the weekend and on the FPL side, we pick a player from each team to try and help you claw back any last hopes. Good luck all, enjoy the Sunday madness.Opening and filler music by The Tan and Sober Gentlemen
Thanks machiners! You voted for the ultimate modern day Traveling Wilburys and here's the top 15.
Milt and Dave travel back to 1989 to review the top albums of the week. Classic metal, the ultimate supergroup and a dash of bohemians.
Season seven is here and season six is but a faded memory! Today's episode covers the lead track from Let me Up (I've Had Enough!), Jammin' Me.When Paul asks Tom, “When you write with Bob, is that something where you're exchanging lines?”, his response is “Yeah, just like you'd think. I remember we would write a lot more verses than we needed. We did that in the Wilburys too. It's a great honour to work with someone so great. And more than an honour; it was fun, because he's really good at it.”Check out the song here: https://youtu.be/TCFAzPl1QmEYou can find the live version from the '97 Fillmore show here: https://youtu.be/ZARUZRe0spkIf you are able to donate financially to humanitarian aid relief efforts in Ukraine, the Red Cross is coordinating a large-scale effort which you can contribute to by visiting their website here: https://donate.redcross.ca/page/100227/donate/1The Tom Petty Project is a proud member of The Deep Dive Podcast Network, which you can find on Twitter: https://twitter.com/deepdivepodnetDon't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectTwitter: https://twitter.com/TomPettyProjectInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt6BLRWuuAR43zHpNKIirOwAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com/Logo provided Ed Booth, who you can find here: https://edboothart.com/The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you're looking for Tom's music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, Conversations with Tom Petty, this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
01. Electric Light Orchestra - Ticket To The Moon 02. Electric Light Orchestra - Here Is The News 03. Electric Light Orchestra - Four Little Diamonds 04. Electric Light Orchestra - Rock'n'Roll Is King 05. Electric Light Orchestra - Calling America 06. The Traveling Wilburys - Handle With Care 07. The Traveling Wilburys - She's My Baby 08. Electric Light Orchestra - Alright 09. Jeff Lynne's ELO - When I Was A Boy 10. Jeff Lynne's ELO - Down Came The Rain
Download the Volley.FM app for more short daily shows!
We Travel with the Wilburys. John Insults the Germans. Jeff Lynn produces the Beatles. Joe Garagiola interviews John Lennon. Grapefruits and Leo Sayer and we go Cold Turkey and then hear about the sad life of Mo.
Welcome to the Velocity Chaos Podcast! This is the 64th Episode of the Velocity Chaos Podcast!! Luke, Nick, and DJ Slip N' Slide talk about Bloodsport, Wilburys, and Praising Saints. They get into some "What Do You Think it Means?," Have a Deep Dive on Supergroups, and Tickle some Nostalgia about Martial Arts Movies. All that and more on this episode of the Velocity Chaos Podcast! Magnum Pollex - Our Short Film made in 48 hours for the 48hour film competition https://www.48hourfilm.com/home Watch it here! Thank you all so much! Be sure to Like, Comment, Subscribe, and or leave a rating on all the platforms! Share it with your friends! Instagram Facebook YouTube www.VelocityChaos.Libsyn.com Spotify Apple Podcast iheartRadio Episode Links Segment 1 What Do You Think it Means? - Hagiography https://www.etymonline.com/word/hagiography#:~:text=hagiography%20(n.),%22holy%22%20%2B%20%2Dgraphy Segment 2 Deep Dive - Supergroups https://www.travelingwilburys.com/history https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_Wilburys#:~:text=The%20musicians%20used%20pretend%20names,and%20not%20to%20trick%20anyone https://www.ranker.com/list/best-supergroups-ever-made/rockboy Segment 3 Nostalgia - Martial Arts Movies Aussie News Bit Nippily Swim https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-22/tas-nude-swimmers-winter-solstice-dark-mofo/101172426 Recommendation Traveling Wilburys - The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys Documentary https://youtu.be/SUQ_gj-biIc Songs are free YouTube songs: Jason Farnham - World Map E's Jammy Jams - Soul and Mind Didgeridoo Royalty Free Music Infraction - Upbeat Funk Rock [No Copyright Music] _ Saturday Send us an email about anything If you have any questions or topics you would like us to get into, please email VelocityChaosPodcast@gmail.com We'll see if we can tackle your question in an upcoming episode! Timecodes are slightly off, because they are taken from the YouTube Video Timeline. 0:00 Intro 0:22 Welcome and Show Set up 2:22 Missed Connection - Stevie Nicks to Duct Tape 4:32 Segment 1 - What Do You Think it Means? - Hagiography 16:25 Ad Break 1 - Book 17:37 Segment 2 - Deep Dive - Supergroups 41:30 Ad Break 2 - Grandmas 42:56 Segment 3 - Nostalgia - Martial Arts Movies 57:56 Australian News - Bit Nippily Swim 1:02:54 Summation 1:04:44 Recommendation - Traveling Wilburys Documentary 1:07:29 Outro
Download the Volley.FM app for more short daily shows!
Join us for the incredible story of a group of friends that came together to have a bit of fun-what we got was the Traveling Wilburys. We cover the extensive production work of Jeff Lynne during this period, and connect it to the members of the group. Below is a link to the Wilburys documentary-enjoy!LinksInstagramFacebookWilbury documentary
Download the Volley.FM app for more short daily shows!
Canadian indie music icon Stephen Stanley (Lowest of The Low, Stephen Stanley Band) talks to Paul Romanuk about the 1988 album Travelling Wilburys Vol. I. The album has a Beatles connection, as musical legends Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne teamed up with former Fab George Harrison. Stephen talks about his love of the record, Bob Dylan and making music with friends and how that can add to the outcome of the record you're making. He also talks about making an album, when he was in Lowest Of The Low, with the man who worked as an engineer on the Wilburys' record - Don Smith. For all things Stephen Stanley, visit his website at https://stephenstanleyband.com (stephenstanleyband.com )
Missing Wilburys Broadcast on Otago Access Radio www.oar.org.nz
In part one of their Tom Petty Heavy Hitters episode TJ2 of the Rock and Roll Heaven Podcast challenged their listeners to come up with a set list for one of Tom's pet projects, The traveling Wilburys. We thought about listing them on one of their social media sites. But as we reviewed The Traveling Wilburys Volume 1 and 3 and some of the non-Wilbury work the members of the super group produced, Sissi, Aaron and I decided to do a companion podcast with our own picks where we could talk about them. We navigated through some chaos and confusion about the nature of the task to come up with the following. Check the social media sites at the bottom for the complete lists... Rules - 4 songs by each of the members of the Traveling Wilbury's. These couldbe from any song the artist appeared on in any capacity. Wide open. In the case of George Harrison, Beatle songs were permitted (why wouldn't they be?). Petty's work with Mudcrutch? Absolutely! You get the idea. - 4 songs from the two albums the group released as a band. Pretty simple. - 4 encores. This one really went sideways. Both Aaron and Lisa claim I did not make the encore stipulations clear, so I will take the blame. In the end, we did a composite of 4 tunes we all mostly agreed upon. But if there was one aspect of this homework assignment we failed it was this one. Socials https://twitter.com/YeahUhHuhPod https://instagram.com/YeahUhHuhPod https://facebook.com/YeahUhHuhPod https://yeah-uh-huh.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lisa-huey/message
This one's for the dads. Reaction Brat dads specifically, and the records that they're remembered by. Come for the Meatloaf and Wilburys tunes, stay for foggy memories, history lessons, and a pretty incredible SNL intro. Recorded and edited (and mixed!) at home. Instagram: @reactionbratspod Email: reactionbratspod@gmail.com
The Wilburys finally caught and unveil the killer clown! But will their end be so easy? What secrets will be revealed? Find out...by listening!
Beave and Len take on the combined solo efforts of John, Paul, George and Ringo, and break them down for your musical pleasure. What's the best solo Beatle LP? The most underrated? The worst? The guys also compile their very own 35-minute playlist of solo Beatles songs, which is a nearly impossible task. All this, plus the week in sports, album reviews, and general old guy nonsense. Tune in!
Episode 11: Let Thy Wilbury Done In 1988, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison formed the greatest “super group” in music history. The Traveling Wilburys took the world by storm with their hit album “Vol. 1” and suddenly those five guys were the toast of the town, indeed the world. This week, we take a look at the Wilburys and a series of albums they did together as well as in various combinations. It's a very brief look into some of the finest music ever recorded, during a time Tom Petty called the “best of his life.” It's Somebody Else's Favorite Wilbury Songs! Our Website: https://www.sefs.show Facebook: Somebody Else's Favorite Songs (facebook.com/sefs.show) Merch: https://www.teepublic.com/user/sefs
Download the Volley.FM app for more short daily shows!
This week i'm thinking back about the old days when Roy Orbison was still alive and cassette tapes were a valid media, how Spring has not quite sprung yet but that hasn't stopped lads from wearing shorts and how a book on becoming a father from 1995 has some advice that might be mistaken for being from fifty years before. All this plus a bonus bit of actual live stand up! Enjoy!
Dozens of years ago, the Wilburys got it right. "Look into the future / With your mystic crystal ball / See if it ain't yellow / See if it's there at all". This week Ethan Alexanian and I discuss the film made for the Warner's sales force: "Whatever Wilbury Wilbury", and the DVD film "True History of the Traveling Wilburys".
Caleb Synan loves the Traveling Wilburys, and Dave Ross knows nothing about the Traveling Wilburys, so Caleb describes his favorite Traveling Wilburys songs to Dave, and Dave listens. No one has ever thought of a podcast like this before, and this podcast idea references no other podcast ideas.
Legends by fate. Wilburys by choice. The Jokermen go to the end of line discussing side B of Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Download the Volley.FM app for more short daily shows!
Some of the greatest titans of rock and pop music cut their teeth in the 1960s. Many of these bands and artists were able to stay relevant throughout the 70s, even when disco and punk were setting the musical world on its ear. What's extremely rare is an artist or band that had big time success in the 60s having the staying power or the inexplicable comeback story that made them surprisingly relevant and vital 20 years down the road into the 80s. This was the first time that rockers of all genres were trying to navigate pop culture while pushing 40 or even 50 years old. Only a select few were able to pull this feat off, and we wanted to pay tribute to these journeymen and women by counting down our favorite 60s rockers that had a great 1980s commercially and/or critically. ATTT is excited to have a guest return to the show for the first time in years, and Minneapolis' own guitar wizard Steve Cunningham is on hand to help us count down our favorite aging superstars from the 60s doing it again in the 80s. Stream this playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/10rM4QLF9hpJe8MRoZHPwk?si=m7NumwnJQb2lN_hnWMM7YQ Follow Steve on Twitter for a bumpy ride through music geekery and politics: https://twitter.com/AnalogWalrus Join ATTT's Patreon Club to get Top Ten Songs That Take Place In A Day (Lyrically) on July 1st plus other exclusive episodes for as little as $2 a month: https://www.patreon.com/alltimetopten?alert=2 Subscribe to ATTT on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KQ6kPbUXrpQj1CEwcaPzC?si=nhQYfSHnQzu5DJZ7bHuFrQ
On episode 04, we discuss Last Night, the lead vocals shared by Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. We look at the lyrics, music, and production behind this catchy Wilburys track.
Episode eighty-three of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Only the Lonely" by Roy Orbison, and how Orbison finally found success by ignoring conventional pop song structure. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have two bonus podcasts -- part one of a two-part Q&A and a ten-minute bonus on "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources Apologies for the delay this week -- I'm still trying to catch up after last week. As usual, I have put together a Mixcloud mix with every song excerpted in this podcast. I have relied for biographical information mostly on two books -- The Authorised Roy Orbison written by Jeff Slate and three of Orbison's children, and Rhapsody in Black by John Kruth. For the musicological analysis, I referred a lot to the essay “Only the Lonely: Roy Orbison’s Sweet West Texas Style,” by Albin Zak, in Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music. There are many Orbison collections available, but many have rerecordings rather than the original versions of his hits. The Monument Singles Collection is the originals. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript It's been nearly a year since we last looked at Roy Orbison, so it's probably a good idea to quickly catch up with where we were up to. Roy Orbison had started out as a rockabilly singer, with a group called the Wink Westerners who changed their name to the Teen Kings and were signed to Sun Records. Orbison had thought that he would like to be a ballad singer, but everyone at Sun was convinced that he would never make it as anything other than a rocker. He had one minor hit on Sun, "Ooby Dooby", but eventually got dissatisfied with the label and asked to be allowed to go to another label -- Sam Phillips agreed to free him from his contract, in return for all the songwriting royalties and credits for everything he'd recorded for Sun. Newly free, Orbison signed to a major publisher and a major record label, recording for RCA with the same Nashville A-Team that were recording with Elvis and Brenda Lee. He had some success as a songwriter, writing "Claudette", which became a hit for the Everly Brothers, but he did no better recording for RCA than he had recording for Sun, and soon he was dropped by his new label, and the money from "Claudette" ran out. By the middle of 1959, Roy Orbison was an absolute failure. But this episode, we're going to talk about what happened next, and the startling way in which someone who had been a failure when produced by both Sam Phillips and Chet Atkins managed to become one of the most important artists in the world on a tiny label with no track record. Today, we're going to look at "Only the Lonely", and the records that turned Roy Orbison into a star: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely"] It seems odd that Roy Orbison could thank Wesley Rose for introducing him to Monument Records. Rose was the co-owner of Acuff-Rose publishing, the biggest country music publishing company in the world, and the company to which Orbison had signed as a songwriter. Fred Foster, the owner of Monument, describes being called to a meeting of various Nashville music industry professionals, at which Rose asked him in front of everyone "Why are you trying to destroy Nashville by making these..." and then used an expletive I can't use here and a racial slur I *won't* use here, to describe the slightly R&B-infused music Foster was making. Foster was part of the new wave of Nashville record makers that also included Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins, though at this time he was far less successful than either of them. Foster had started out as a songwriter, writing the words for the McGuire Sisters' hit "Picking Sweethearts": [Excerpt: The McGuire Sisters, "Picking Sweethearts"] He had moved from there into record production, despite having little musical or technical ability. He did, though, have a good ear for artists, and he made his career in the business by picking good people and letting them do the music they wanted. He started out at 4 Star Records, a small country label. From there he moved to Mercury Records, but he only spent a brief time there -- he was in favour of moving into the rockabilly market, while his superiors in the company weren't. He quickly found another role at ABC/Paramount, where he produced hits for a number of people, including one track we've already covered in this podcast, Lloyd Price's version of "Stagger Lee". He then put his entire life savings into starting up his own company, Monument, which he initially co-owned with a DJ named Buddy Deane. As Foster and Deane were based in Washington at this time, they used an image of the Washington Monument as the label's logo, and that also inspired the name. The first single they put out on the label caused them some problems. Billy Grammer, their first signing, recorded a song that they believed to be in the public domain, "Done Laid Around", which had recently been recorded by the Weavers under the name "Gotta Travel On": [Excerpt: The Weavers, "Gotta Travel On"] However, after putting out Grammer's version, Foster discovered that the song was actually in copyright, with a credit to the folk singer and folklorist Paul Clayton. I don't know if Clayton actually wrote the song or not -- it was common practice at that time for folk songs to be copyrighted in the name of an artist. But whether Clayton wrote the song or not, "Done Laid Around" had to be withdrawn from sale, and reissued under the name "Gotta Travel On", with Clayton credited as the composer -- something which cost the new label a substantial amount of money. But it worked out well for everyone, with Grammer's record eventually reaching number four on the pop charts: [Excerpt: Billy Grammer, "Gotta Travel On"] After that success, Foster bought out Buddy Deane and moved the label down to Nashville. They put out a few more singles over the next year, mostly by Grammer, but nothing recaptured that initial success. But it did mean that Foster started working with the Nashville A-Team of session musicians -- people like Bob Moore, the bass player who played on almost every important record to come out of Nashville at that time, including the Elvis records we looked at last week. Moore had also played on Roy Orbison's last sessions for RCA, where he'd seen how downcast Orbison was. Orbison had explained to Moore about how this was going to be his last session for RCA -- his contract was about to expire, and it was clear that Chet Atkins had no more idea than Sam Phillips how to make a successful Roy Orbison record. Moore told him not to worry -- he very obviously had talent, and Moore would speak to Wesley Rose about him. As well as being Orbison's music publisher, Rose was also Orbison's manager, something that would nowadays be considered a conflict of interest, but was par for the course at the time -- he was also the Everly Brothers' manager and publisher, which is how Orbison had managed to place "Claudette" with them. There were a lot of such backroom deals in the industry at the time, and few people knew about them -- for example, none of Bob Moore's fellow session players on the A-Team knew that he secretly owned thirty-seven percent of Monument Records. While Fred Foster is credited as the producer on most of Orbison's sessions from this point on, it's probably reasonable to think of Bob Moore as at the very least an uncredited co-producer -- he was the arranger on all of the records, and he was also the person who booked the other musicians on the sessions. Orbison was by this point so depressed about his own chances in the music industry that he couldn't believe that anyone wanted to sign him at all -- he was convinced even after signing that Fred Foster was confusing his own "Ooby Dooby" with another Sun single, Warren Smith's similar sounding "Rock and Roll Ruby": [Excerpt: Warren Smith, "Rock and Roll Ruby"] Wesley Rose had very clear ideas as to what Orbison's first single for Monument should be -- that last session at RCA had included two songs, "Paper Boy", and "With the Bug", that RCA had not bothered to release, and so Orbison went into the studio with much the same set of musicians he'd been working with at RCA, and cut the same songs he'd recorded there. The single was released, and made absolutely no impact -- unsurprising for a record that was really the end of Orbison's period as a failure, rather than the beginning of his golden period. That golden period came when he started collaborating with Joe Melson. The two men had known each other for a while, but the legend has it that they started writing songs together after Melson was walking along and saw Orbison sat in his car playing the guitar -- Orbison and his wife Claudette had recently had a son, Roy DeWayne Orbison (his middle name was after Orbison's friend Duane Eddy, though spelled differently), and the flat they were living in was so small that the only way Orbison could write any songs without disturbing the baby was to go and write them in the car. Melson apparently tapped on the car window, and asked what Roy was doing, and when Roy explained, he suggested that the two of them start working together. Both men were more than capable songwriters on their own, but they brought out the best in one another, and soon they were writing material that was unlike anything else in popular music at the time. Their first collaboration to be released was Orbison's second Monument single, "Uptown", a bluesy rock and roll track which saw the first big change in Orbison's style -- the introduction of a string section along with the Nashville A-Team. This was something that was only just starting to be done in Nashville, and it made little sense to most people involved that Orbison would want strings on what would otherwise be a rockabilly track, but they went ahead: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Uptown"] The string arrangement was written by Anita Kerr, of the Anita Kerr Singers, the female vocal group that would be called into any Nashville session that required women's voices (the male equivalent was the Jordanaires). Kerr would write a lot of the string arrangements for Orbison's records, and her vocal group -- with Joe Melson adding a single male voice -- would provide the backing vocals on them for the next few years. Wesley Rose was still unsure that Orbison could ever be a star, mostly because he thought he was so odd-looking, but "Uptown" started to prove him wrong. It made number seventy-two on the pop charts -- still not a massive hit, but the best he'd done since "Ooby Dooby" three years and two record labels earlier. But it was the next single, another Orbison/Melson collaboration, that would make him into one of the biggest stars in music. "Only the Lonely" had its roots in two other songs. Melson had written a song called "Cry" before ever meeting Orbison, and the two of them had reworked it into one called "Only the Lonely", but they were also working on another song at the same time. They had still not had a hit, and were trying to write something in the style of a current popular record. At the time, Mark Dinning was having huge success with a ballad called "Teen Angel", about a girl who gets run over by a train: [Excerpt: Mark Dinning, "Teen Angel"] Orbison and Melson were writing their own knock-off of that, called "Come Back to Me My Love". But when they played it for Fred Foster, he told them it was awful, and they should scrap the whole thing -- apart from the backing vocal hook Joe was singing. That was worth doing something with: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely", vocal intro] They took that vocal part and put it together with "Only the Lonely" to make a finished song. According to most reports, rather than have Orbison record it, they initially tried to get Elvis to do it -- if they did, they must have known that they had no chance of it getting recorded, because Elvis was only recording songs published by Hill and Range, and Orbison and Melson were Acuff-Rose songwriters. They also, though, tried to get it recorded by the Everly Brothers, who were friends of Orbison, were also signed with Acuff-Rose, and were also managed by Wesley Rose, and even they turned it down. This is understandable, because the finished "Only the Lonely" is one of the most bizarrely structured songs ever to be a hit. Now, I've known this song for more than thirty years, I have a fair understanding of music, *and* I am explaining this with the help of a musicological essay on the song I've read, analysing it bar by bar. I am *still* not sure that my explanation of what's going on with this song is right. *That's* how oddly structured this song is. The intro is straightforward enough, the kind of thing that every song has. But then the lead vocal comes in, and rather than continue under the lead, like you would normally expect, the lead and backing vocals alternate, and push each other out of phase as a result. Where in the intro, the first "dum dum dum" starts on the first bar of the phrase, here it starts on the *second* bar of the phrase and extends past the end of Orbison's line, meaning the first line of the verse is actually five bars (from where the instruments come in after the a capella "Only the"), and not only that, the backing vocals are stressing different beats to the ones the lead vocal is stressing: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely", first line of verse] This is quite astonishingly jarring. Pop songs, of whatever genre -- country, or blues, or rock and roll, or doo-wop, or whatever -- almost all work in fours. You have four-bar phrases that build up into eight- or twelve-bar verses, choruses, and bridges. Here, by overlaying two four-bar phrases out of synch with each other, Orbison and Melson have created a five-bar phrase -- although please note if you try to count bars along with these excerpts, you may come out with a different number, because phrases cross bar lines and I'm splitting these excerpts up by the vocal phrase rather than by the bar line. The lead vocal then comes back, on a different beat than expected -- the stresses in the melody have moved all over the place. Because the lead vocal starts on a different beat for the second phrase, even though it's the same length as the first phrase, it crosses more bar lines, meaning two five-bar phrases total eleven bars. Not only that, but the bass doesn't move to a new chord where you expect, but it stays on its original chord for an extra two beats, giving the impression of a six-beat bar, even though the drums are staying in four-four. So the first half of the verse is eleven bars long, if you don't get thrown by thinking one of the bars is six beats rather than four. Structurally, harmonically, and rhythmically, it feels like someone has tried to compromise between a twelve-bar blues and an eight-bar doo-wop song: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely", second line] There's then another section, which in itself is perfectly straightforward -- an eight-bar stop-time section, whose lyric is possibly inspired by the Drifters song that had used strings and rhythmic disorientation in a similar way a few months earlier: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely", "There goes my baby..."] The only incongruity there is a very minor one -- a brief move to the fifth-of-fifth chord, which is the kind of extremely minor deviation from the key that's par for the course in pop music. That section by itself is nothing unusual. But then after that straightforward eight-bar section, which seems like a return to normality, we then get a five-bar section which takes us to the end of the verse: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely", "But only the lonely know why..."] The song then basically repeats all its musical material from the start, with a few changes – the second time, the verse starts on the third of the scale rather than the first, and the melody goes up more, but it's structured similarly, and finishes in under two and a half minutes. So the musical material of the song covers twenty-four bars, not counting the intro. Twenty-four bars is actually a perfectly normal number of bars for a song to cover, but it would normally be broken down into three lots of eight or two lots of twelve -- instead it's a five, a six, an eight, and a five. I think. Honestly, I've gone back and forth several times about how best to break this up. The song is so familiar to most of us now that this doesn't sound strange any more, but I distinctly remember my own first time listening to it, when I was about eight, and wondering if the backing vocalists just hadn't known when to come in, if the people making the record just hadn't known how to make one properly, because this just sounded *wrong* to me. But it's that wrongness, that strangeness, of course -- along with Orbison's magnificent voice -- that made the record a hit, expressing perfectly the confusion and disorientation felt by the song's protagonist. It went to number two in the US, and number one in the UK, and instantly made Roy Orbison a star. A couple of slightly more conventional singles followed -- "Blue Angel" and "I'm Hurtin'" -- and they were both hits, but nowhere near as big as "Only the Lonely", and this seems to have convinced Orbison and Melson that they needed to follow their instincts and go for different structures than the norm. They started to make their songs, as far as possible, through-composed pieces. While most songs of the time break down into neat little sections -- verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, instrumental solo, chorus to fade, or a similar structure, Orbison and Melson's songs rarely have sections that repeat without any changes. Instead a single melody develops and takes twists and turns over the course of a couple of minutes, with Orbison usually singing throughout. This also had another advantage, as far as Orbison was concerned -- their songs hardly ever had space for an instrumental break, and so he never had to do the rock and roll star thing of moving around the stage and dancing while the instrumentalists soloed, which was something he felt uncomfortable doing. Instead he could just stand perfectly still at the microphone and sing. The first single they released that fit this new style was inspired by a piece of music Fred Foster introduced Orbison to -- Ravel's "Bolero": [Excerpt: Ravel, "Bolero" (West-Eastern Divan Orchestra)] Orbison and Melson took that basic feel and changed it into what would become Orbison's first number one in the US, "Running Scared": [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Running Scared"] That song was apparently one that met some resistance from the Nashville A-Team. A chunk of the song is in rubato, or "free time", where the musicians speed up or slow down slightly to make the music more expressive. This was not something that Bob Moore, in particular, was comfortable with -- they were making pop music, weren't they? Pop music was for kids to dance to, and if kids were going to dance to it, it had to have a steady beat. Orbison wasn't very good at all at dealing with conflict, and wherever possible he would try to take the most positive attitude possible, and in this case he just went into the control room and waited, while the musicians tried to figure out a way of playing the song in strict tempo, and found it just didn't work. After a while, Orbison walked back into the studio and said "I think we should play it the way it was written", and the musicians finally went along with him. It may also have been on "Running Scared" that they pioneered a new recording technique, or at least new for Nashville, which was surprisingly conservative about recording technology for a town so rooted in the music industry. I've seen this story written about three different early Orbison songs, and it could have been any of them, but the descriptions of the "Running Scared" session are the most detailed. While Orbison had a great voice, at this point it wasn't especially powerful, and with the addition of strings, the band were overpowering his voice. At this time, it was customary for singers to record with the band, all performing together in one room, but the sound of the instruments was getting into Orbison's mic louder than his voice, making it impossible to get a good mix. Eventually, they brought a coatrack covered with coats into the studio, and used it to partition the space -- Orbison would stand on one side of it with his mic, and the band and their mics would be on the other side. The coats would deaden the sound of the musicians enough that Orbison's voice would be the main sound on his vocal mic. In this case, the reason his voice was being overpowered was that right at the end of the song he had to hit a high A in full voice -- something that's very difficult for a baritone like Orbison to do without going into falsetto. It may also be that he was nervous about trying this when the musicians could see him, and the coats in the way helped him feel more secure. Either way, he does a magnificent job on that note: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Running Scared", tag] Apparently when Chet Atkins popped into the studio for a visit, he was utterly bemused by what he saw -- but then he was impressed enough by the idea that he got RCA to build a proper vocal isolation booth at their studios to get the same effect. "Running Scared" also came along just after Orbison made one big change to his image. He'd been on tour with Patsy Cline, promoting "Blue Angel", and had left his glasses on the plane. As he couldn't see well without them, he had to resort to using his prescription sunglasses on stage, and was astonished to find that instead of looking gawky and rather odd-looking, the audience now seemed to think he looked cool and brooding. From that point on, he wore them constantly. For the next three years, Orbison and Melson continued working together and producing hits -- although Orbison also wrote several hits solo during this time, including "In Dreams", which many consider his greatest record. But Melson was becoming increasingly convinced that he was the real talent in the partnership. Melson was also putting out singles on his own at this time, and you can judge for yourself whether his most successful solo track, "Hey Mr. Cupid" is better or worse than the tracks Orbison did without him. [Excerpt: Joe Melson, "Hey Mr. Cupid"] Eventually Melson stopped working with Orbison altogether, after their last major collaboration, "Blue Bayou". This turned out to be the beginning of the collapse of Orbison's entire life, though it didn't seem like it at the time. It was the first crack in the team that produced his biggest hits, but for now he was on a roll. He started collaborating with another writer, Bill Dees, and even though Beatlemania was raging in the UK, and later in the US, he was one of a tiny number of American artists who continued to have hits. Indeed, two of the early collaborations by Orbison and Dees were the *only* two records by an American artist to go to number one in the UK between August 1963 and February 1965. The second of those, "Oh, Pretty Woman", also went to number one in the US, and became one of his most well-known songs: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Oh, Pretty Woman"] That song again caused problems with his new collaborator, as Bill Dees sang the harmony vocals on it, and felt he wasn't getting enough credit for that. But that was the high point for Orbison. Wesley Rose and Fred Foster had never got on, and Rose decided that he was going to move Orbison over to MGM Records, who gave him an advance of a million dollars, but immediately the hits dried up. And the events of the next few years were the kind of thing that would would break almost anyone. He had divorced his wife Claudette, who had inspired "Oh, Pretty Woman", in November 1964, just before signing to MGM, because he'd discovered she was cheating on him. But the two of them had been so in love they'd ended up reconciling and remarrying in December 1965. But then six months later, they were out riding motorbikes together, Claudette crashed hers, and she died. And then a little over two years later, while he was on tour in the UK, his house burned down, killing two of his three children. Orbison continued to work, putting out records that no-one was buying, and playing the chicken-in-a-basket circuit in the UK. He even remarried in 1969, and found happiness and a new family with his second wife. But for about twenty years, from 1965 through to 1985, he was in a wilderness period. Between personal tragedy, changing fashions in music, and the heart condition he developed in the 70s, he was no longer capable of making records that resonated with the public, even though his voice was as strong as ever, and he could still get an audience when singing those old hits. And even the old hits were hard to get hold of -- Monument Records went bankrupt in the seventies, and reissues of his old songs were tied up in legal battles over their ownership. But then things started to change for him in the mid-eighties. A few modern artists had had hits with cover versions of his hits, but the big change came in 1985, when he collaborated with his fellow ex-Sun performers Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, on an album called Class of 55: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison and the Class of 55, "Coming Home"] That came out in 1986, and made the top twenty on the country charts -- the first time he'd had an album make any chart at all since 1966. Also in 1986, David Lynch used Orbison's "In Dreams" in his film Blue Velvet, which brought the record to a very different audience. He collaborated with k.d. lang, who was then one of the hottest new singers in country music, on a new version of his hit "Crying": [Excerpt: Roy Orbison and k.d. lang, "Crying"] That later won a Grammy. He recorded a new album of rerecordings of his greatest hits, which made the lower reaches of the charts. He got inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame, and recorded a live TV special, A Black and White Night, where he was joined by Elvis' seventies backing band, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Tom Waits, among others, all just acting as backing singers and musicians for a man they admired. He also joined with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan in a supergroup called The Travelling Wilburys, whose first album made the top five: [Excerpt: The Travelling Wilburys, "Handle With Care"] And he recorded an album of new material, his best in decades, Mystery Girl, produced by Lynne and with songs written by Orbison, Lynne, and Petty -- along with a couple of songs contributed by famous admirers like Bono and the Edge of U2. But by the time that came out, Orbison was dead -- after a day flying model aeroplanes with his sons, he had a heart attack and died, aged only fifty-two. When Mystery Girl came out a couple of months later, it rose to the top five or better almost everywhere -- and in the UK and US, he had two albums in the top five at the same time, as in the UK a hits compilation was also up there, while in the US the Wilburys album was still near the top of the charts. Orbison's is one of the saddest stories in rock music, with one of the greatest talents in history getting derailed for decades by heartbreaking tragedies unimaginable to most of us, and then dying right at the point he was finally starting to get the recognition he deserved. But the work he did, both as a songwriter and as a singer, would inspire people long after his death.
Episode eighty-three of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Only the Lonely” by Roy Orbison, and how Orbison finally found success by ignoring conventional pop song structure. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have two bonus podcasts — part one of a two-part Q&A and a ten-minute bonus on “Walk Don’t Run” by the Ventures. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources Apologies for the delay this week — I’m still trying to catch up after last week. As usual, I have put together a Mixcloud mix with every song excerpted in this podcast. I have relied for biographical information mostly on two books — The Authorised Roy Orbison written by Jeff Slate and three of Orbison’s children, and Rhapsody in Black by John Kruth. For the musicological analysis, I referred a lot to the essay “Only the Lonely: Roy Orbison’s Sweet West Texas Style,” by Albin Zak, in Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music. There are many Orbison collections available, but many have rerecordings rather than the original versions of his hits. The Monument Singles Collection is the originals. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript It’s been nearly a year since we last looked at Roy Orbison, so it’s probably a good idea to quickly catch up with where we were up to. Roy Orbison had started out as a rockabilly singer, with a group called the Wink Westerners who changed their name to the Teen Kings and were signed to Sun Records. Orbison had thought that he would like to be a ballad singer, but everyone at Sun was convinced that he would never make it as anything other than a rocker. He had one minor hit on Sun, “Ooby Dooby”, but eventually got dissatisfied with the label and asked to be allowed to go to another label — Sam Phillips agreed to free him from his contract, in return for all the songwriting royalties and credits for everything he’d recorded for Sun. Newly free, Orbison signed to a major publisher and a major record label, recording for RCA with the same Nashville A-Team that were recording with Elvis and Brenda Lee. He had some success as a songwriter, writing “Claudette”, which became a hit for the Everly Brothers, but he did no better recording for RCA than he had recording for Sun, and soon he was dropped by his new label, and the money from “Claudette” ran out. By the middle of 1959, Roy Orbison was an absolute failure. But this episode, we’re going to talk about what happened next, and the startling way in which someone who had been a failure when produced by both Sam Phillips and Chet Atkins managed to become one of the most important artists in the world on a tiny label with no track record. Today, we’re going to look at “Only the Lonely”, and the records that turned Roy Orbison into a star: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely”] It seems odd that Roy Orbison could thank Wesley Rose for introducing him to Monument Records. Rose was the co-owner of Acuff-Rose publishing, the biggest country music publishing company in the world, and the company to which Orbison had signed as a songwriter. Fred Foster, the owner of Monument, describes being called to a meeting of various Nashville music industry professionals, at which Rose asked him in front of everyone “Why are you trying to destroy Nashville by making these…” and then used an expletive I can’t use here and a racial slur I *won’t* use here, to describe the slightly R&B-infused music Foster was making. Foster was part of the new wave of Nashville record makers that also included Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins, though at this time he was far less successful than either of them. Foster had started out as a songwriter, writing the words for the McGuire Sisters’ hit “Picking Sweethearts”: [Excerpt: The McGuire Sisters, “Picking Sweethearts”] He had moved from there into record production, despite having little musical or technical ability. He did, though, have a good ear for artists, and he made his career in the business by picking good people and letting them do the music they wanted. He started out at 4 Star Records, a small country label. From there he moved to Mercury Records, but he only spent a brief time there — he was in favour of moving into the rockabilly market, while his superiors in the company weren’t. He quickly found another role at ABC/Paramount, where he produced hits for a number of people, including one track we’ve already covered in this podcast, Lloyd Price’s version of “Stagger Lee”. He then put his entire life savings into starting up his own company, Monument, which he initially co-owned with a DJ named Buddy Deane. As Foster and Deane were based in Washington at this time, they used an image of the Washington Monument as the label’s logo, and that also inspired the name. The first single they put out on the label caused them some problems. Billy Grammer, their first signing, recorded a song that they believed to be in the public domain, “Done Laid Around”, which had recently been recorded by the Weavers under the name “Gotta Travel On”: [Excerpt: The Weavers, “Gotta Travel On”] However, after putting out Grammer’s version, Foster discovered that the song was actually in copyright, with a credit to the folk singer and folklorist Paul Clayton. I don’t know if Clayton actually wrote the song or not — it was common practice at that time for folk songs to be copyrighted in the name of an artist. But whether Clayton wrote the song or not, “Done Laid Around” had to be withdrawn from sale, and reissued under the name “Gotta Travel On”, with Clayton credited as the composer — something which cost the new label a substantial amount of money. But it worked out well for everyone, with Grammer’s record eventually reaching number four on the pop charts: [Excerpt: Billy Grammer, “Gotta Travel On”] After that success, Foster bought out Buddy Deane and moved the label down to Nashville. They put out a few more singles over the next year, mostly by Grammer, but nothing recaptured that initial success. But it did mean that Foster started working with the Nashville A-Team of session musicians — people like Bob Moore, the bass player who played on almost every important record to come out of Nashville at that time, including the Elvis records we looked at last week. Moore had also played on Roy Orbison’s last sessions for RCA, where he’d seen how downcast Orbison was. Orbison had explained to Moore about how this was going to be his last session for RCA — his contract was about to expire, and it was clear that Chet Atkins had no more idea than Sam Phillips how to make a successful Roy Orbison record. Moore told him not to worry — he very obviously had talent, and Moore would speak to Wesley Rose about him. As well as being Orbison’s music publisher, Rose was also Orbison’s manager, something that would nowadays be considered a conflict of interest, but was par for the course at the time — he was also the Everly Brothers’ manager and publisher, which is how Orbison had managed to place “Claudette” with them. There were a lot of such backroom deals in the industry at the time, and few people knew about them — for example, none of Bob Moore’s fellow session players on the A-Team knew that he secretly owned thirty-seven percent of Monument Records. While Fred Foster is credited as the producer on most of Orbison’s sessions from this point on, it’s probably reasonable to think of Bob Moore as at the very least an uncredited co-producer — he was the arranger on all of the records, and he was also the person who booked the other musicians on the sessions. Orbison was by this point so depressed about his own chances in the music industry that he couldn’t believe that anyone wanted to sign him at all — he was convinced even after signing that Fred Foster was confusing his own “Ooby Dooby” with another Sun single, Warren Smith’s similar sounding “Rock and Roll Ruby”: [Excerpt: Warren Smith, “Rock and Roll Ruby”] Wesley Rose had very clear ideas as to what Orbison’s first single for Monument should be — that last session at RCA had included two songs, “Paper Boy”, and “With the Bug”, that RCA had not bothered to release, and so Orbison went into the studio with much the same set of musicians he’d been working with at RCA, and cut the same songs he’d recorded there. The single was released, and made absolutely no impact — unsurprising for a record that was really the end of Orbison’s period as a failure, rather than the beginning of his golden period. That golden period came when he started collaborating with Joe Melson. The two men had known each other for a while, but the legend has it that they started writing songs together after Melson was walking along and saw Orbison sat in his car playing the guitar — Orbison and his wife Claudette had recently had a son, Roy DeWayne Orbison (his middle name was after Orbison’s friend Duane Eddy, though spelled differently), and the flat they were living in was so small that the only way Orbison could write any songs without disturbing the baby was to go and write them in the car. Melson apparently tapped on the car window, and asked what Roy was doing, and when Roy explained, he suggested that the two of them start working together. Both men were more than capable songwriters on their own, but they brought out the best in one another, and soon they were writing material that was unlike anything else in popular music at the time. Their first collaboration to be released was Orbison’s second Monument single, “Uptown”, a bluesy rock and roll track which saw the first big change in Orbison’s style — the introduction of a string section along with the Nashville A-Team. This was something that was only just starting to be done in Nashville, and it made little sense to most people involved that Orbison would want strings on what would otherwise be a rockabilly track, but they went ahead: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Uptown”] The string arrangement was written by Anita Kerr, of the Anita Kerr Singers, the female vocal group that would be called into any Nashville session that required women’s voices (the male equivalent was the Jordanaires). Kerr would write a lot of the string arrangements for Orbison’s records, and her vocal group — with Joe Melson adding a single male voice — would provide the backing vocals on them for the next few years. Wesley Rose was still unsure that Orbison could ever be a star, mostly because he thought he was so odd-looking, but “Uptown” started to prove him wrong. It made number seventy-two on the pop charts — still not a massive hit, but the best he’d done since “Ooby Dooby” three years and two record labels earlier. But it was the next single, another Orbison/Melson collaboration, that would make him into one of the biggest stars in music. “Only the Lonely” had its roots in two other songs. Melson had written a song called “Cry” before ever meeting Orbison, and the two of them had reworked it into one called “Only the Lonely”, but they were also working on another song at the same time. They had still not had a hit, and were trying to write something in the style of a current popular record. At the time, Mark Dinning was having huge success with a ballad called “Teen Angel”, about a girl who gets run over by a train: [Excerpt: Mark Dinning, “Teen Angel”] Orbison and Melson were writing their own knock-off of that, called “Come Back to Me My Love”. But when they played it for Fred Foster, he told them it was awful, and they should scrap the whole thing — apart from the backing vocal hook Joe was singing. That was worth doing something with: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely”, vocal intro] They took that vocal part and put it together with “Only the Lonely” to make a finished song. According to most reports, rather than have Orbison record it, they initially tried to get Elvis to do it — if they did, they must have known that they had no chance of it getting recorded, because Elvis was only recording songs published by Hill and Range, and Orbison and Melson were Acuff-Rose songwriters. They also, though, tried to get it recorded by the Everly Brothers, who were friends of Orbison, were also signed with Acuff-Rose, and were also managed by Wesley Rose, and even they turned it down. This is understandable, because the finished “Only the Lonely” is one of the most bizarrely structured songs ever to be a hit. Now, I’ve known this song for more than thirty years, I have a fair understanding of music, *and* I am explaining this with the help of a musicological essay on the song I’ve read, analysing it bar by bar. I am *still* not sure that my explanation of what’s going on with this song is right. *That’s* how oddly structured this song is. The intro is straightforward enough, the kind of thing that every song has. But then the lead vocal comes in, and rather than continue under the lead, like you would normally expect, the lead and backing vocals alternate, and push each other out of phase as a result. Where in the intro, the first “dum dum dum” starts on the first bar of the phrase, here it starts on the *second* bar of the phrase and extends past the end of Orbison’s line, meaning the first line of the verse is actually five bars (from where the instruments come in after the a capella “Only the”), and not only that, the backing vocals are stressing different beats to the ones the lead vocal is stressing: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely”, first line of verse] This is quite astonishingly jarring. Pop songs, of whatever genre — country, or blues, or rock and roll, or doo-wop, or whatever — almost all work in fours. You have four-bar phrases that build up into eight- or twelve-bar verses, choruses, and bridges. Here, by overlaying two four-bar phrases out of synch with each other, Orbison and Melson have created a five-bar phrase — although please note if you try to count bars along with these excerpts, you may come out with a different number, because phrases cross bar lines and I’m splitting these excerpts up by the vocal phrase rather than by the bar line. The lead vocal then comes back, on a different beat than expected — the stresses in the melody have moved all over the place. Because the lead vocal starts on a different beat for the second phrase, even though it’s the same length as the first phrase, it crosses more bar lines, meaning two five-bar phrases total eleven bars. Not only that, but the bass doesn’t move to a new chord where you expect, but it stays on its original chord for an extra two beats, giving the impression of a six-beat bar, even though the drums are staying in four-four. So the first half of the verse is eleven bars long, if you don’t get thrown by thinking one of the bars is six beats rather than four. Structurally, harmonically, and rhythmically, it feels like someone has tried to compromise between a twelve-bar blues and an eight-bar doo-wop song: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely”, second line] There’s then another section, which in itself is perfectly straightforward — an eight-bar stop-time section, whose lyric is possibly inspired by the Drifters song that had used strings and rhythmic disorientation in a similar way a few months earlier: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely”, “There goes my baby…”] The only incongruity there is a very minor one — a brief move to the fifth-of-fifth chord, which is the kind of extremely minor deviation from the key that’s par for the course in pop music. That section by itself is nothing unusual. But then after that straightforward eight-bar section, which seems like a return to normality, we then get a five-bar section which takes us to the end of the verse: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely”, “But only the lonely know why…”] The song then basically repeats all its musical material from the start, with a few changes – the second time, the verse starts on the third of the scale rather than the first, and the melody goes up more, but it’s structured similarly, and finishes in under two and a half minutes. So the musical material of the song covers twenty-four bars, not counting the intro. Twenty-four bars is actually a perfectly normal number of bars for a song to cover, but it would normally be broken down into three lots of eight or two lots of twelve — instead it’s a five, a six, an eight, and a five. I think. Honestly, I’ve gone back and forth several times about how best to break this up. The song is so familiar to most of us now that this doesn’t sound strange any more, but I distinctly remember my own first time listening to it, when I was about eight, and wondering if the backing vocalists just hadn’t known when to come in, if the people making the record just hadn’t known how to make one properly, because this just sounded *wrong* to me. But it’s that wrongness, that strangeness, of course — along with Orbison’s magnificent voice — that made the record a hit, expressing perfectly the confusion and disorientation felt by the song’s protagonist. It went to number two in the US, and number one in the UK, and instantly made Roy Orbison a star. A couple of slightly more conventional singles followed — “Blue Angel” and “I’m Hurtin'” — and they were both hits, but nowhere near as big as “Only the Lonely”, and this seems to have convinced Orbison and Melson that they needed to follow their instincts and go for different structures than the norm. They started to make their songs, as far as possible, through-composed pieces. While most songs of the time break down into neat little sections — verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, instrumental solo, chorus to fade, or a similar structure, Orbison and Melson’s songs rarely have sections that repeat without any changes. Instead a single melody develops and takes twists and turns over the course of a couple of minutes, with Orbison usually singing throughout. This also had another advantage, as far as Orbison was concerned — their songs hardly ever had space for an instrumental break, and so he never had to do the rock and roll star thing of moving around the stage and dancing while the instrumentalists soloed, which was something he felt uncomfortable doing. Instead he could just stand perfectly still at the microphone and sing. The first single they released that fit this new style was inspired by a piece of music Fred Foster introduced Orbison to — Ravel’s “Bolero”: [Excerpt: Ravel, “Bolero” (West-Eastern Divan Orchestra)] Orbison and Melson took that basic feel and changed it into what would become Orbison’s first number one in the US, “Running Scared”: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Running Scared”] That song was apparently one that met some resistance from the Nashville A-Team. A chunk of the song is in rubato, or “free time”, where the musicians speed up or slow down slightly to make the music more expressive. This was not something that Bob Moore, in particular, was comfortable with — they were making pop music, weren’t they? Pop music was for kids to dance to, and if kids were going to dance to it, it had to have a steady beat. Orbison wasn’t very good at all at dealing with conflict, and wherever possible he would try to take the most positive attitude possible, and in this case he just went into the control room and waited, while the musicians tried to figure out a way of playing the song in strict tempo, and found it just didn’t work. After a while, Orbison walked back into the studio and said “I think we should play it the way it was written”, and the musicians finally went along with him. It may also have been on “Running Scared” that they pioneered a new recording technique, or at least new for Nashville, which was surprisingly conservative about recording technology for a town so rooted in the music industry. I’ve seen this story written about three different early Orbison songs, and it could have been any of them, but the descriptions of the “Running Scared” session are the most detailed. While Orbison had a great voice, at this point it wasn’t especially powerful, and with the addition of strings, the band were overpowering his voice. At this time, it was customary for singers to record with the band, all performing together in one room, but the sound of the instruments was getting into Orbison’s mic louder than his voice, making it impossible to get a good mix. Eventually, they brought a coatrack covered with coats into the studio, and used it to partition the space — Orbison would stand on one side of it with his mic, and the band and their mics would be on the other side. The coats would deaden the sound of the musicians enough that Orbison’s voice would be the main sound on his vocal mic. In this case, the reason his voice was being overpowered was that right at the end of the song he had to hit a high A in full voice — something that’s very difficult for a baritone like Orbison to do without going into falsetto. It may also be that he was nervous about trying this when the musicians could see him, and the coats in the way helped him feel more secure. Either way, he does a magnificent job on that note: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Running Scared”, tag] Apparently when Chet Atkins popped into the studio for a visit, he was utterly bemused by what he saw — but then he was impressed enough by the idea that he got RCA to build a proper vocal isolation booth at their studios to get the same effect. “Running Scared” also came along just after Orbison made one big change to his image. He’d been on tour with Patsy Cline, promoting “Blue Angel”, and had left his glasses on the plane. As he couldn’t see well without them, he had to resort to using his prescription sunglasses on stage, and was astonished to find that instead of looking gawky and rather odd-looking, the audience now seemed to think he looked cool and brooding. From that point on, he wore them constantly. For the next three years, Orbison and Melson continued working together and producing hits — although Orbison also wrote several hits solo during this time, including “In Dreams”, which many consider his greatest record. But Melson was becoming increasingly convinced that he was the real talent in the partnership. Melson was also putting out singles on his own at this time, and you can judge for yourself whether his most successful solo track, “Hey Mr. Cupid” is better or worse than the tracks Orbison did without him. [Excerpt: Joe Melson, “Hey Mr. Cupid”] Eventually Melson stopped working with Orbison altogether, after their last major collaboration, “Blue Bayou”. This turned out to be the beginning of the collapse of Orbison’s entire life, though it didn’t seem like it at the time. It was the first crack in the team that produced his biggest hits, but for now he was on a roll. He started collaborating with another writer, Bill Dees, and even though Beatlemania was raging in the UK, and later in the US, he was one of a tiny number of American artists who continued to have hits. Indeed, two of the early collaborations by Orbison and Dees were the *only* two records by an American artist to go to number one in the UK between August 1963 and February 1965. The second of those, “Oh, Pretty Woman”, also went to number one in the US, and became one of his most well-known songs: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Oh, Pretty Woman”] That song again caused problems with his new collaborator, as Bill Dees sang the harmony vocals on it, and felt he wasn’t getting enough credit for that. But that was the high point for Orbison. Wesley Rose and Fred Foster had never got on, and Rose decided that he was going to move Orbison over to MGM Records, who gave him an advance of a million dollars, but immediately the hits dried up. And the events of the next few years were the kind of thing that would would break almost anyone. He had divorced his wife Claudette, who had inspired “Oh, Pretty Woman”, in November 1964, just before signing to MGM, because he’d discovered she was cheating on him. But the two of them had been so in love they’d ended up reconciling and remarrying in December 1965. But then six months later, they were out riding motorbikes together, Claudette crashed hers, and she died. And then a little over two years later, while he was on tour in the UK, his house burned down, killing two of his three children. Orbison continued to work, putting out records that no-one was buying, and playing the chicken-in-a-basket circuit in the UK. He even remarried in 1969, and found happiness and a new family with his second wife. But for about twenty years, from 1965 through to 1985, he was in a wilderness period. Between personal tragedy, changing fashions in music, and the heart condition he developed in the 70s, he was no longer capable of making records that resonated with the public, even though his voice was as strong as ever, and he could still get an audience when singing those old hits. And even the old hits were hard to get hold of — Monument Records went bankrupt in the seventies, and reissues of his old songs were tied up in legal battles over their ownership. But then things started to change for him in the mid-eighties. A few modern artists had had hits with cover versions of his hits, but the big change came in 1985, when he collaborated with his fellow ex-Sun performers Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, on an album called Class of 55: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison and the Class of 55, “Coming Home”] That came out in 1986, and made the top twenty on the country charts — the first time he’d had an album make any chart at all since 1966. Also in 1986, David Lynch used Orbison’s “In Dreams” in his film Blue Velvet, which brought the record to a very different audience. He collaborated with k.d. lang, who was then one of the hottest new singers in country music, on a new version of his hit “Crying”: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison and k.d. lang, “Crying”] That later won a Grammy. He recorded a new album of rerecordings of his greatest hits, which made the lower reaches of the charts. He got inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame, and recorded a live TV special, A Black and White Night, where he was joined by Elvis’ seventies backing band, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Tom Waits, among others, all just acting as backing singers and musicians for a man they admired. He also joined with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan in a supergroup called The Travelling Wilburys, whose first album made the top five: [Excerpt: The Travelling Wilburys, “Handle With Care”] And he recorded an album of new material, his best in decades, Mystery Girl, produced by Lynne and with songs written by Orbison, Lynne, and Petty — along with a couple of songs contributed by famous admirers like Bono and the Edge of U2. But by the time that came out, Orbison was dead — after a day flying model aeroplanes with his sons, he had a heart attack and died, aged only fifty-two. When Mystery Girl came out a couple of months later, it rose to the top five or better almost everywhere — and in the UK and US, he had two albums in the top five at the same time, as in the UK a hits compilation was also up there, while in the US the Wilburys album was still near the top of the charts. Orbison’s is one of the saddest stories in rock music, with one of the greatest talents in history getting derailed for decades by heartbreaking tragedies unimaginable to most of us, and then dying right at the point he was finally starting to get the recognition he deserved. But the work he did, both as a songwriter and as a singer, would inspire people long after his death.
Welcome to the debut episode of the Traveling Wilburys Podcast, where we discuss each Wilburys track, song by song. Every week a new release! This week, we look at Handle With Care, and introduce the band.
“Is The Same Old Train… Just A Different Time”. Es el mismo viejo tren… sólo un tiempo diferente. Así ha sido y seguirá siendo TOMA UNO, un programa que reúne el pasado, el presente y parte del futuro de la música de raíces norteamericana. En la edición número 41 de los premios Grammy, la de 1998, este tema que compuso Marty Stuart se llevó la estatuilla a la mejor colaboración vocal de country. Era "Same Old Train", que cerraba el álbum Tribute To Tradition, y donde podíamos encontrar las voces de, nombrados por orden alfabético, Clint Black, los tristemente desaparecidos Joe Diffie y Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Pam Tillis, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt y Dwight Yoakam. La country music sigue siendo un estilo musical claramente enraizado con su tierra y hoy vamos a acercarnos a él para escuchar esas formaciones circunstanciales que en algún momento han permitido que escucháramos juntos a modo de supergrupos a artistas de una categoría extrema como ocurrió en 1994 cuando Carl Perkins, el legendario guitarrista Duane Eddy y los Mavericks, capitaneados por Raúl Malo, grababan juntos una versión espectacular del tema para el álbum Red Hot + Country que reunió a distintos artistas del género para recaudar fondos en la lucha contra el SIDA. Carl Perkins es un referente de los pioneros del rock and roll y una pieza clave también entre los guitarristas de la country music, buen amigo y compañero de Johnny Cash y de tantos otros. "Matchbox" es un blues de Blind Lemon Jefferson que se convirtió en un clásico del rockabilly gracias a la versión realizada por el músico de Tennessee en 1957 durante su etapa de Sun Records. A Portrait of Merle Haggard llegaba en 1969 con “Workin' Man Blues" como tema más destacado. Puede entenderse como un cierto homenaje a una parte muy importante de sus seguidores, la clase trabajadora, con ese orgullo por el trabajo bien hecho y el sacrificio, con referencias a la familia y al relax en el bar con una buena cerveza y mejor música. Es uno de los mejores ejemplos de lo que es el Bakersfield Sound. "Workin' Man Blues" sobresalía junto a "Silver Wings" y "Hungry Eyes" en aquel registro, contando con músicos como James Burton, Lewis Talley y una base de ritmo compuesta por el bajista Chuck Berghofer y el batería Jim Gordon. Esta vez eran Diamond Rio junto a Leroy Parnell y Steve Wariner quienes se recrearon en el tema bajo el nombre de Jed Zeppelin. Cuando hablamos de supergrupos inesperados, no todo el mundo recuerda a Buzzin 'Cousins, que estaban formados por John Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, el recientemente fallecido John Prine, Joe Ely y James McMurtry. Fue una idea de Mellencamp que con la edición den single “Sweet Suzanne” convirtió en un one-hit wonder intentando responder en cierta forma a los Travelin’ Wilburys. Era el año 1992 y él debutaba como actor y director en la película Falling From Grace, basado en el Lonesome Dove del que era autor Larry McMurtry. Con Mariel Hemingway, Kay Lenz y los veteranos Claude Akins y Dub Taylor, aquel drama familiar tenían muchas similitudes con la biografia del artista de Indiana. Su banda sonora nos dejó canciones propias y la participación de amigos como Nanci Griffith, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine o Janis Ian. Pero fue su pieza central, la sorprendente “Sweet Suzanne”, el tema que nos cautivó. Cada uno de los cinco componentes de los Buzzin 'Cousins aportaba su propia idiosincrasia, especialmente vocal. Incluso fueron nominados para el Evento Vocal del Año por la CMA. Han pasado 16 años desde que en 2004 Raúl Malo, Pat Flynn, Rob Ickes y Dave Pomeroy se reunieron para recrearse en versionar algunas canciones que mostraban su evidente eclecticismo y editar aquel proyecto bajo el nombre de The Nashville Acoustic Sessions. Allí estaba “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” para nuestro disfrute. Cuando Bob Dylan publicó en 1975 el álbum Blood On The Tracks, que muchos consideran uno de los álbumes más inspirados a nivel literario de toda su discografía, no fueron demasiados los que se fijaron en “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”, una canción que tiene mucho que ver con el final de la relación amorosa con su mujer, Sara, de quien se divorció en 1977. Curiosamente, Dylan no ha cantado el tema desde hace más de 40 años. En 1994, dentro del proyecto Red Hot + Country para luchar contra el SIDA, Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss y Kathy Mattea unieron sus voces con las de Crosby, Stills & Nash para realizar esta versión antológica de un clásico tan significativo como “Teach Your Children”, que había sido grabado a finales de Octubre de 1969 por aquel supergrupo nacido en las colinas de Laurel Canyon, con la incorporación de Neil Young, para que formara parte del álbum Déjà Vu. Una canción pacifista creada por Graham Nash a la que Stephen Stills incorporó un medio tiempo de country con el añadido del steel guitar de Jerry Garcia, líder de Grateful Dead. La canadiense k.d. lang siempre ha sido una cuidadosa defensora de la tradición de la country music, algo habitual en sus conciudadanos, pero cuando apareció desde su natal Consort, en la provincia de Alberta, con una clásica voz campera, una banda de acompañamiento que era más rock'n'roll que country y la determinación de crear un sonido propio, estaba haciendo algo que no tenía precedentes. Patsy Cline, la mítica artista de Virginia es su influencia definitiva y en su tercera grabación, Shadowland, The Owen Bradley Sessions, contó incluso con la producción de quién la consiguió sus mayores éxitos: Owen Bradley. Prescindió de su propia banda, The Reclines, y utilizó a los mejores músicos de estudio de Nashville, algunos de los cuales habían participado originalmente en las sesiones de Patsy. El disco se convirtió en uno de los más respetados de 1988 y para la canción de cierre contó con el apoyo vocal de Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn y Kitty Wells. En el video se incorporaba, además, la mítica Minnie Pearl. Bajo el título de "Honky Tonk Angel's Medley" pudimos escuchar “In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down”, “You Nearly Lose Your Mind” y “Blues Stay Away From Me”. En 1993 apareció el álbum Honky Tonk Angels en el que la siempre inquieta Dolly Parton se unió en formato de trío a dos leyendas como Tammy Wynette y Loretta Lynn para grabar el álbum Honky Tonk Angels, una colección de canciones que celebraba el papel de la mujer en la country music. Para versionar el clásico de J.D. Miller “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonks Angels” que en 1952 fue grabado por Kitty Wells como respuesta a "The Wild Side of Life" de Hank Thompson, recuperaron a la mítica vocalista de Nashville, resultando un legendario cuarteto impagable en el terreno de la country music. Neoyorquino de Corning, Duane Eddy, que este viernes cumplió 82 años, es posiblemente el instrumentista de rock’n’roll más popular e influyente de su tiempo y, junto a Chuck Berry, el responsable de que se popularizara la guitarra eléctrica por entonces. Eddy está considerado como el máximo responsable del llamado twang factor, dando un gran protagonismo a las cuerdas bajas. Era el año 1977 cuando Duane Eddy conjugo un supergrupo impensable, al reunirse con Waylon Jennings, su mujer Jessi Colter (con quien el guitarrista había estado casado con anterioridad), Willie Nelson y otros amigos para revitalizar “You Are My Sunshine” en un extraño single que hoy hemos rescatado del pasado. Roger Miller es uno de los artistas tejanos que no pueden olvidarse. Tras pasar tres años en Corea, donde fué asignado a los Servicios Especiales, intentó ser reconocido como compositor en Nashville mientras realizaba cualquier trabajo eventual. Grabó en RCA sin ninguna repercusión, pero encontró una buena via escribiendo éxitos para Del Shannon, Ray Price y Andy Williams, entre otros, en los 60. Cuando consiguió fichar por Mercury las cosas cambiaron. "King Of The Road" fue un claro ejemplo, obteniendo un tremendo éxito en 1965 en su propia voz. La letra habla de cómo una persona común también puede sentirse libre y se describe a sí mismo como el rey de la carretera. Su homenaje en forma de disco, King Of The Road. A Tribute To Roger Miller, ha reunido a Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, Merle Haggard en una de sus últimas grabaciones, Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Brad Paisley y Ringo Starr, entre otros que han cerrado el trabajo con esta versión conjunta de aquella canción inolvidable. Probablemente, “Amazing Grace” es el himno más popular de los creados en el idioma inglés, y pudiera ser porque sus palabras describen perfectamente a su autor: John Newton que era un comerciante de esclavos antes de convertirse al cristianismo. La pieza fue compuesta entre 1760 y 1770, posiblemente para un servicio semanal. A lo largo de los años, distintos escritores han añadido versos que bien pudieran proceder también de otros himnos escritos por John Newton. La música, eso sí, es de dos virginianos que la crearon con el nombre de “New Britain”. En 1994 se filmó la película Maverick, basada en la serie de televisión de los años 50 del mismo nombre. Con Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster y James Garner encabezando el reparto, la banda sonora de la cinta resultó ser lo más destacable. Su tema de cierre fue una versión coral de “Amazing Grace” en la que intervenían una pléyade interminable de estrellas de la escena del country de la década de los 90 que hoy nos dejan en la parada final de nuestro viejo tren... pero en un tiempo diferente. Escuchar audio
Despite the fact that he was a household name by 1989, Full Moon Fever is the debut solo album by Tom Petty, since his other albums were as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was a little straining on the members of the Heartbreakers, but everyone but drummer Stan Lynch contributed to Full Moon Fever. It was even recorded in Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell's garage studio. Members of the Traveling Wilburys participated as well (except for Bob Dylan), and Jeff Lynne (ELO) produced it along with Petty and Campbell.Full Moon Fever was recorded at the same time as the first Traveling Wilburys album, and was interrupted to allow time for the Wilburys recording.We hope you enjoy this solo effort from the late Tom Petty, who passed in 2017. Runnin' Down a DreamThis is the second single from the album, following "I Won't Back Down." It reached number 23 on the billboard hot 100. The mention of "me and Del were singin' 'Little Runaway'" references Dell Shannon's Runaway, which hit number 1 in 1961. Check out that outro "Attention, CD Listeners."I'll Feel a Whole Lot BetterThe Byrds originated this cover song. It was first released in June 1965, and was written by Byrds founding member Gene Clark. Petty's cover starts the second side of the album, was the fourth single, and hit number 18 on the US Rock Chart. It's a nice, tight single, as are many of the pieces on the album. You may recognize this song from the soundtrack of "Dumb and Dumber"A Face In The CrowdPetty and Jeff Lynne wrote this one, and you can readily sense Lynne's influence. It was the fourth singe, and peaked at number 46 on the Hot 100 Chart. This is a rare, melancholy song from what is a mostly upbeat album.Yer So BadA humorous song also written by Petty and Lynne. "My sister got lucky, married a yuppie. Took him for all he was worth. Now she's a swinger, dating a singer. I can't decide which is worse." ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:“Wild Thing” from the motion picture Major LeagueThis classic was played when Charlie Sheen's character came out to pitch. The song is performed by X. STAFF PICKS:"Stand” by R.E.M.Brian features the Athens, GA stars, who encourage us to get involved in our local communities and businesses. Peter Buck came up with what he thought was a "stupid guitar riff," and Michael Stipe decided to "write some stupid lyrics." The result was nevertheless a hit.“I'll Be You” by The ReplacementsWayne's staff pick showcases the biggest hit by The Replacements during a time when alternative music was becoming popular on the hit charts. The Replacements disbanded in 1991, just before alternative music exploded into grunge.“Voices of Babylon” by The OutfieldRob's staff pick is a lesser known hit than "Your Love," which gets a lot of play at football stadiums. The Outfield is a trio from Britain, and got their name when their manager objected to their original name "The Baseball Boys." “Jelly Roll” by Blue MurderBruce closes out the staff picks with this hair band epic. John Sykes, co-writer of many of Whitesnake's hits, plays the 12 string and electric guitar in this supergroup which also contained drummer Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge) and bassist Tony Franklin (The Firm). INSTRUMENTAL TRACK:“Memphis Train Blues” by R.E.M.The B-side from R.E.M.'s single "Stand" finishes us off for this week's podcast.
Volley.FM - Click here for more great shows!
Legendary American Rocker, Tom Petty tracks from The Heartbreakers and Traveling Wilburys. Broadcast on OAR 105.4FM Dunedin www.oar.org.nz
For this milestone 150th episode, legendary songwriter and producer Jeff Lynne (ELO, George Harrison, Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty, The Beatles) sits down with Simon and Brian in London to discuss the writing of his new album From Out Of Nowhere. In his inimitable way, Jeff explains how he approaches chords, melody and lyrics to create the distinctive sounds we've loved across decades of classic albums.
There are very few friendships that span multiple decades that have shifted cultures. Peter Coleman and Richard Dodd met each other at the ripe old age of 11 and have made some of the most impactful records in recent history. Peter Coleman is one of the most prolific recording and mixing engineers in the music business, having worked with Blondie, The Knack, Pat Benatar, Steve Earle and many others. Peter and Rich have worked together to create music for every Jason Aldean song recorded from day one as well as music for Montgomery Gentry, Frankie Ballard, Randy Owen, Josh Thompson, The Road Hammers, Michael Tyler, and many others. Richard Dodd is one of the most accomplished recording, mixing and mastering engineers on the planet. He has worked with Boz Scaggs, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Delbert McClinton, and won a Grammy for Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” record. Topics covered: - What exactly is engineering and mastering? - Their thoughts on the Queen movie - Tenacity and getting their start - Wanting to redo some of what they've already done - Serving the song The Rich Redmond Show is now sponsored by The School of Rock Nashville and Franklin! https://locations.schoolofrock.com/nashville https://locations.schoolofrock.com/franklin The Rich Redmond Show is about all things music, motivation and success. Candid conversations with musicians, actors, comedians, authors and thought leaders about their lives and the stories that shaped them. Rich Redmond is the longtime drummer with Jason Aldean and many other veteran musicians and artists. Rich is also an actor, speaker, author, producer and educator. Rich has been heard on thousands of songs, over 25 of which have been #1 hits! Rich can also be seen in several films and TV shows and has also written an Amazon Best-Selling book, "CRASH! Course for Success: 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Personal and Professional Life" currently available at: https://www.amazon.com/CRASH-Course-Success-Supercharge-Professional/dp/1733757007/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=crash+course+for+success&qid=1572615267&sr=8-2 Follow Rich: @richredmond www.richredmond.com Jim McCarthy is the quintessential Blue Collar Voice Guy. Honing his craft since 1996 with radio stations in Illinois, South Carolina, Connecticut, New York, Las Vegas and Nashville, Jim has voiced well over 10,000 pieces since and garnered an ear for audio production which he now uses for various podcasts, commercials and promos. Jim is also an accomplished video producer, content creator, writer and overall entrepreneur. Follow Jim: @jimmccarthy www.jimmccarthyvoiceovers.com
A groundbreaking Beatles engineer has passed, Paul plays another festival, and Wilburys fans get a holiday treat.
AFTERBUZZ TV — Billions edition, is a weekly "after show" for fans of Showtimes Billions. In this episode hosts Nadine Della Pelle, Frank Moran, and Keven Undergaro discuss episode 8. ABOUT BILLIONS: Wealth, influence and corruption collide in this drama set in New York. Shrewd U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades is embroiled in a high-stakes game of predator vs. prey with Bobby Axelrod, an ambitious hedge-fund king. To date, Rhoades has never lost an insider trading case -- he's 81-0 -- but when criminal evidence turns up against Axelrod, he proceeds cautiously in building the case against Axelrod, who employs Rhoades' wife, psychiatrist Wendy, as a performance coach for his company. Wendy, who has been in her position longer than Chuck has been in his, refuses to give up her career for her husband's legal crusade against Axelrod. Both men use their intelligence, power and influence to outmaneuver the other in this battle over billions. The high-profile cast is led by Em --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · The Colin and Samir Podcast: The Colin and Samir Podcast hosted by LA - based friends and filmmakers Colin and Samir takes a look into what it’s like to make creativity your career. https://open.spotify.com/show/5QaSbbv2eD4SFrlFR6IyY7?si=Dj3roVoJTZmOime94xhjng
The Ringer’s Alison Herman and Chris Almeida link up to talk about Ari Spyros’s cringiest moments of the episode (17:06), the tense relationship between Axe and Taylor (10:42), and their MVPs and LVPs of the week (35:32).
Chris starts off this episode with a special guest, and former podcast producer. The infamous Jon Sargent. Oh, yeah it's because Kris is on vacation, again. They reminisce for a while, before getting to the heart of Jons appearance, musical super groups (4:39). I strongly believe this is why Kris went on vacation. And honestly, their conversation should have ended with The Highwaymen. Move on boys...actually good call on Wilburys as the Golden State Warriors. Oh good Kris calls in to talk NFL picks, thank god (36:30). This is a good thing right?
In which we go over the long career & legacy of one of my all-time favorite artists, the late Tom Petty. As the everyman's rock star, between the Heartbreakers, the Wilburys, Mudcrutch & solo work, he's left behind one of the most solid & timeless discographies in rock. However, for a guy that's never cared for flashy videos or reinventing himself for the times, this may have ended up a double-edged sword. Find out why I (along with more casual fan Johnny) believe that in this special retrospective episode. // SONGS PLAYED IN ORDER: Saving Grace (Highway Companion, 2006), I Should Have Known It (Mojo, 2010), Make It Better (Southern Accents, 1985), Asshole (Songs & Music from "She's the One", 1996), Hungry No More (Mudcrutch 2, 2016), Joe (The Last DJ, 2002), Echo, (Echo, 1999), We Stand a Chance (Long After Dark, 1982), Anything That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll (self-titled, 1976). // Check out more on the Mad Sounds YouTube channel, and follow us on Twitter! // Mark @SpinItReviews, Johnny @Viralrak
Stories about engineering & producing The Traveling Wilburys. Richard Dodd is a multi-platinum Grammy winning producer, recording engineer, and mastering engineer with 40 years of amazing credits to his discography. He began recording hits in the 1970’s like “Kung Fu Fighting,” and has since distinguished himself many times over while working with artists Boz Scaggs, Stephane Grappelli, George Harrison, Clannad, Roy Orbison, Wilco, Green Day, Steve Earle, Delbert McClinton, Robert Plant, Roger Daltry, the Travelling Wilburys, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Freddie Mercury, Placido Domingo, and many more. Leave a Review Get the full show notes at: http://RSRockstars.com/96 -Also- Free mix training with Lij at: MixMasterBundle.com Get yourself a Rockstar T-shirt at: RSRockstars.com/Tshirt Download the theme music at: SkadooshMusic.com
Well shoot, Joe McAdam makes a quick return to the Palace of Sin for another hot steamy Jam Sandwich. This episode was recorded on May 18th, which also happened to be the same day Chris Cornell of Soundgarden passed away. Joe suggested we listen to Badmotorfinger to memorialize the fallen singer, but if I'm being perfectly honest I was never really much of a Soundgarden fan and I didn't wanna have the episode come off as a half assed eulogy. Instead I decided we should start with Gregg Allman's I'm No Angel and we give Gregg some lite ribbing. Then that dude had to go and die before I could release this episode, thusly completely going against my original intentions. Oy vey! Furthermore, the formatting is a little different on this one. It was done in a bit of a rush, so we don't focus on a full album or even singular artist. We play a bunch of random songs that we thought of in the moment, so you get a bunch of little insights on a whole slew of artists. It's kind of similar to our old show Revolutions Per Minute, so you get a taste of the past. Put a napkin in your collar and dig in!! Joe recently dropped a new video with Butt, so go check out Butt on it's youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1RAfouK5SOTiz1v7U8OpCQ Subscribe to Joe's analog twitter feed, which is delivered to you via snail mail, here: https://www.patreon.com/joemcadam Last, and in the case actually the least, get more Jam Sandwiches at these various world wide web locations: jamsandwichpodcast.com || manontop69.com || Twitter: @jamsandwichpod || Instagram: @jamsandwichpodcast
00:00 - TICKS! - Hikers pick up 400 ticks on Mantario Trail earlier this week. Are you concerned? 28:04 - Dr. Harold Katz, internationally recognized bad breath expert -- DO NOT BBQ YOUR BREATH -- Dr. Katz reveals the five worst BBQ foods for your breath, and the five vital tips and foods to prevent bad bbq breath 37:22 - Mike Dover, author of "Dante's Infinite Monkeys: Technology Meets the 7 Deadly Sins", an exploration of the dark side of today's technology. Dover is a business professor, and co-author of Wikibrands. 56:45 - Dr. Syras! Psychologist with Dr. Syras Derksen & Associates, website DrSyras.com -- Are Therapists Just Rent-A-Friends? A lot of people doubt that therapy works. Are they right? 75:31 - Tristan is a Star Trek fan, but he is bored by the first trailer for the new CBS series Star Trek: Discovery 83:44 - Unraveling the Wilburys ticket giveaway 88:39 - Hal Anderson tees up his weekend show, AND his show Friday night filling in for Charles Adler. 97:03 - Richard Cloutier & Julie Buckingham tee up THE NEWS
00:00 - Hamilton police officers arrests journalists at the scene of a crash, even though they're well-behind the police tape. Too far? 13:46 - Topic continued: Duncan Pike -- Campaigns and Advocacy Coordinator, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression 18:32 - Death of Chris Cornell -- Eric Alper, music commentator 29:06 - Toronto Blue Jays' Kevin Pillar apologizes for homophobic slur -- 680 CJOB's Keith McCullough & Matt Carty 37:42 - Bestselling Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo, who has sold over 30 million books! He'll be at McNally Robinson Booksellers this evening at 7pm to sign his latest novel featuring Detective Harry Hole -- "The Thirst". Also, one of his previous books "The Snowman" is being adapted into a movie starring Michael Fassbender. That's pretty neat. 55:38 - Carolyn Klassen, therapist with Conexus Counselling -- Loyalty! Where does it originate, and how do we nurture it? 74:07 - "Drag queen story time holds court at Winnipeg Public Library" -- This Saturday May 20th at Millenium Library and Wednesday May 31st at West End Library, the city is teaming up with Sunshine House for "Red By Queens", a family story time event featuring local drag queens. INCLUDING our guest, Levi Foy, who is the founder of the "Like That by Sunshine House" program, and goes by "Prairie Sky" as a drag queen. 87:12 - Unraveling the Wilburys ticket giveaway 93:07 - Richard Cloutier & Julie Buckingham tee up THE NEWS, then Brett & Greg go at it over the Kevin Pillar situation.
This week on Molllywood, Alex and Molly discuss Kardashian affiliate programming options, Molly recounts her trip to see ELO, and Alex reveals the secret world of Wilbury. PLUS! A rare deleted scene from Andrew Ti's appearance on last week's show.
This week, Allan, Al, Ken and Steve look at the beginning of Paul McCartney's One On One Tour with a report from Steve, who saw the first show in Fresno, California. Plus we talk about the new Traveling Wilburys streaming and other news items. We'd love to hear what you think. Send your comments and suggestions about future shows to thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com. We love hearing from you. And thanks for making us part of your week. (Image copyright MPL Communications Ltd.)
How do we follow an episode of two fun, charming, wonderful songs by legendary musicians? By reviewing and ranking two weird, dull, mystifying songs by legendary musicians, of course! RJ and Ian try to decipher the how and why of Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again" and struggle to understand anything at all about Bob Dylan's "Must Be Santa". Many thanks to our friend Andy for requesting "Must Be Santa"! You can check out Andy's work at wahwriter.wordpress.com, or follow him on twitter @ DeputyMasterWAH! For links to all the stuff we talked about in this episode, check our tumblr: harkpodcast.tumblr.com!
Fab 4 Free 4 All analyze and review the debut album by George Harrison's 'other' band, the incredible Traveling Wilburys.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
