Roy Orbison: Invention of an Alternative Rock Masculinity

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 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.