Thursday 28 June 2012

Roy Orbison - Oh Pretty Woman

Roy Orbison and Friends - A Black and White Night

Still in the throes of examining so not posting much. Listening is mainly to the radio as I mark, though I have heard some exciting recent music like Neneh Cherry and The Thing's The Cherry Thing, but more on that another time.

Tonight I dipped into the A Black and White Night programme just as they were playing out on Orbison's classic song Oh Pretty Woman. There's nothing I need to say about how great this really is. I just wanted to observe I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard this: in my big sister's bedroom in Norfolk, Nebraska, and I was a 10 or 11 old kid and I thought then, immediately, that this was an amazing song.


Guitarist James Burton plays some superb licks on the televised recording from 1988, ably assisted by Bruce Springsteen.

It was in Norfolk Nebraska where my big sister and one of her tough boyfriends stole my dad's car one night - a beautiful Chrysler - and they had to take me along for our illicit ride because I used the money collected from my paper-round that night to pay for the gasoline. I don't think I heard Oh Pretty Woman on the car radio but it would have been a cool song playing as we glided up and down the hills on the long straight road I recall our cruising across that night.

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