A 1969 Roy Orbison gem is unearthed
Roy Orbison and his wife, Barbara, during a tour of Britain in 1969, a year of heartache for the singer.
Roy Orbison, “One of the Lonely Ones” (Roy Orbison Records). This heart-wrenching 1969 album lay dormant for 46 years. Recorded a few months after Orbison lost two of his sons in a car crash, “One of the Lonely Ones” got lost amid Orbison’s busy recording schedule and landed in a vault somewhere. The few who knew he’d recorded it seemed to forget.
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FOR THE RECORD:
Roy Orbison’s sons: The Jan. 10 Essential Tracks column said two of Roy Orbison’s sons died in a car crash. They died in a house fire.
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Recently rediscovered by the estate, “One of the Lonely Ones” features Orbison’s trademark weepers but mixed in are late-1960s psychedelic flourishes that add a certain mystical weirdness to the proceedings. This is an essential document.
Anenon, “Mouth” (Friends of Friends). The composer and instrumentalist Brian Allen Simon earned his reputation as the founder of the influential Non Projects Records, where he and kindred spirits have explored the collision of electronics, acoustic instruments and improvisation. On “Petrol,” the first track from Simon’s forthcoming album (March 4) as Anenon, he and drummer and collaborator Jon-Kyle Mohr employ modular synthesizers, percussion and Simon’s primary instrument, saxophone, to craft a work that connects humming new-age tones with tense saxophone blurts and melodies.
Each of the eight tracks on “Why Pay More?” has its own theme, but all were built, according to the notes, “out of audio from YouTube files tagged with the words ‘Step’ and ‘Looking.’” The track “Party Pills” samples an intimate recording of a giddy someone looking for some fun. At the center of “Awesome” is a clip of some dudes blowing up a microwave. After the explosion, the track ups the energy while the sound of a fly buzzes through the mix. Awesome indeed.
Follow Randall Roberts on Twitter: @LilEdit
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