Customer Reviews

Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity (Sound Matters)

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I have finished reading this book. It is hard for me
to imagine a stronger case ever made in favor of Roy
Orbison. The author clearly loves Roy Orbison's music
with a passion. Rather than present the usual
chronological biographical narative, the author has
written a scholarly analysis of Roy's:
a) personality
b) music composing style
c) lyric content
d) stage presentation
e) media image
with a psychological analysis of each component listed
above. Throughout he continually stresses that during
Roy's musical formative era (the Sun label period of
the 1950s) and the hit making era (the Monument label
period of the first half of the 1960s) Roy, by virtue
of his own personality and lyrical content did not
reflect the usual masculine mainstream personality so
common at the time. By offering a different approach
and style to masculinity he was something of a godsend
to those men and women who did not conform to or
particularly appreciate the prevailing style of
masculinity. What an original approach to presenting
the life story of Roy Orbison!

I particularly like the emphasis on the idea that the
commonly held visual image of Roy with the dark
clothes, hair, and glasses DID NOT become fully
cultivated until AFTER his hit making era was OVER. I
have always thought that this was a particularly
important point and the author clearly shared this
viewpoint.

I throughly enjoyed reading this book. I recommend it
to other fans of Roy Orbison.

As an Orbison fan since 1960, when I was ten, I was happy to see a recent book about The Big O. Few really have been written since his untimely death. This one presents, rather than a biography, an analysis of his music as it relates to what became known as a rather dark persona. The book was fascinating to me as a long time Orbison fan, and I found it difficult to put down. I often agreed with Lehman's conclusions and thought he himself had to be a bigger fan than me (which I didn't think was possible) to write such in-depth analyses of Orbison's music.

The only issues I take with the book is that its readability slows down greatly in the chapter devoted to David Lynch's use of "In Dreams" in the movie Blue Velvet. This was overanalyzed and boring if one hasn't seen the movie. Secondly, I would have dismissed in a page or two the perverted use of "Oh, Pretty Woman" by 2 Live Crew and the surrounding court cases. To me, legal and fair use arguments aside - no matter how important legally - to devote a chapter to a vulgar, perhaps racist rap group that saw the original song as "white bread" (and didn't get it that it wasn't about a prostitute to begin with) to belittle and make fun of, is to give them too much credibility and legitimacy. They will long be forgotten before Orbison.

Otherwise, it's a good and interesting read and worth the time for Roy's fans.

I truly felt that Mr Lehman's writing was way too analytical. He analyzed to the hilt the songs Roy wrote, the way he dressed, etc. I think Mr Lehman read way too much into the way Roy Orbison performed his songs...the writing of his songs.

I believe Roy knew what listeners of the time liked and wanted. I believe the dark glasses and dark clothing were just the way he wanted to market himself....to stand out from the crowd....not because of some deep dark pain as Mr. Lehman suggests.....

But, then again, I thought (mistakenly) this book was going to be an biography, not an analytical writing.

Sorry about that..

~Cissy