The Big O in Britain Page #4

# In dreams you're mine

# All of... #

I can't remember the structure, but it's like A, B, C, D, E, F, G! I mean, nothing repeats!

From those odd proportions comes the tension and from that comes the emotional impact

that takes you somewhere unexpected.

# But just before the dawn... #

He slowly built it from nothing and into this huge climax

and then it went into another part which was even better. That's what I liked about his songs.

# I can't help it I can't help it if I cry... #

And that's really hard to do as a songwriter.

The ability to just have the music flow with the storyline.

Very few people could do that.

#..all these things Can only happen... #

What you end up with is a pop song that broke every rule.

And...and won.

It's like a classical composition.

# Only in dreams

# In beautiful dreams. #

I was at a classical concert one night

and this Schumann song started that was in the programme.

And I said, "This is the actual melody of a Roy Orbison song!"

# You know I can't help myself

# And now I'm crawling back... #

Roy's song goes... # Only you and you alone Can keep me crawling back

# After all you've done to me The way you've turned me down

# I still will be your clown Because I love you...

# I still will be your clown Because I love you... #

And the Schumann song goes... HUMS THE SAME MELODY

It has a very similar shape, you know.

# You know I would die for you.. #

I suppose like anybody of his age, he could have turned on the radio and heard some gracious melodies.

It doesn't fit in with the other things about his music, as I understand it.

And those early records on Sun were of their time and good records, but they were rock'n'roll records

and at a certain point he started writing these ballads that are not like anything else.

# Crawling back to you... #

Roy was the real thing. In a time when very few people wrote their own material.

There was so much soul in that music and mystery.

And it was. It was mystery music.

They were very dramatic songs and he was kind of dramatic, too.

He was very dark and always in black and the glasses.

# Wild hearts run out of time

# And you'll need a love like mine

# To show you hope is there... #

I never knew why he wore the shades. I think he thought he had weak eyes, or something.

# Wild hearts run out of time. #

I simply left my clear pair on the aeroplane when I toured with The Beatles in '63.

By the time the pictures came back and he'd played a couple of nights,

he never changed. He always wore sunglasses every night he played for the rest of his life.

# Don't let the bright lights burn you... #

Buddy Holly made it OK to wear prescription glasses onstage.

And then Roy made it cool to wear prescription sunglasses. They're still cool today.

# Wild hearts run out of time

# When you're up against the night... #

It's very common for people to wear dark glasses on TV now, but I can't remember anybody before him.

There was a reason why he did it, but it gave him a mysteriousness and they played that up quite a bit.

The image and music together, it went together.

Black sunglasses and mystery.

# You'll need a love like mine... #

There was certainly something dark and a little bit... It was menacing, in an odd sort of way.

# A candy-coloured clown they call the Sandman

# Tiptoes to my room every night... #

Roy's records suddenly started to appear in movies

in the early '80s. Most notably in Blue Velvet.

The shock of hearing a song like that in a different context, juxtaposed with this very dark scene,

it heightened what was already in there, this mysterious, slightly unsettling quality the songs have.

# I softly say

# A silent prayer... #

Things like Running Scared and In Dreams were so dense and evocative and dark and cinematic.

It just had a stranglehold on the dark side of life.

"Candy-coloured clown they call the Sandman". Where does that come from?

# In dreams I walk with you... #

I was thinking all along that it was Crying that would be in Blue Velvet

and I needed to get the record cos I heard it on the radio.

So I got Roy's Greatest Hits.

And...

So I put it on and I was going through it and In Dreams came up

and I completely forgot about Crying and In Dreams was just, you know, perfect.

# A candy-coloured clown they call the Sandman

# Tiptoes to my room every night

# Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper, "Go to sleep..." #

Dennis Hopper was supposed to sing it and so I got him the music and told him to learn the lyrics

and practise. And I thought he was memorising it.

And, uh, Dean Stockwell is a good friend of Dennis's,

He said he would work with Dennis, so I pictured the two of them going and Dennis having it down.

And in the process, you know, Dennis had kind of...

burned himself pretty bad from his past living and wasn't able to memorise these things.

#..of you

# In dreams I walk with you... #

But Dean memorised it, so when we started rehearsing the scene,

where the song was supposed to be, at a certain point

the two of them were sort of singing and Dennis just dropped out and was just watching Dean.

And Dean was letter perfect.

And it just was so obvious what was supposed to happen.

All right. Let's hit the road!

I heard rumours that after the film was released

Roy saw it and was upset about...

That song meant something to Roy and it didn't mean what it was in the film.

There was such a... sexual conflict going on in his songs.

They weren't about holding hands.

They were about... There was a grind to them.

There was a sweatiness, a longing, an anxiousness about them. They were basically songs about sex.

# It's too bad... #

Then he saw it again and changed his mind and appreciated it from a different point of view.

So by the time I met Roy, he was pretty happy about Blue Velvet.

# Only in dreams

# In beautiful dreams... #

I'd had David Lynch's soundtrack to Blue Velvet

and I had it on repeat. It was going round and round.

And it kept stopping, appropriately, on In Dreams.

I couldn't sleep and this song was going through my head.

When I woke up the next day, I had a song in my head, which I presumed was another Roy Orbison song.

I looked for it and couldn't find it.

Maybe...maybe I'd just written it!

So I took it down to the soundcheck and I played the tune to the rest of the band. They really liked it.

I said, "It's like a Roy Orbison song. Is it?"

They said, "Yeah, yeah." And we played the concert,

then after the show I was sitting with the guitar again, trying to finish the song.

They said, "You really are going on about this song." I said, "It's really in my head. Mystery Girl."

I was trying to finish it. And this sounds like horseshit, but there was a knock at the door

and John, our security guy, said, "There's Roy Orbison and his wife, Barbara, outside.

"Can I bring them in? They'd really like to meet you."

So the band looked at me like...

I'd either been winding them up or I had some voodoo in me.

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