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Home » Only the lonely

Only the lonely

The New Neo Posted on by

The guy who made this video, Chris, has a channel in which he goes around spotting people who look interesting to him, and he talks to them and offers to take their photos. Here’s one:

And now for some music on the theme:

The Bee Gees wrote so many songs about loneliness that it’s hard to pick just one. But here’s my choice from their early years:

And I’ll close with this:

Comments

Only the lonely — 37 Comments

  1. Roy Orbison was great. Listen to “Pretty Woman”.
    Bobby Vinton was clean-cut, with short hair. Ahh, the days gone by. Now we have druggies.Note the the attire of the BeeGees in 1970.

  3. Ah, the late, great John Prine. I don’t think he wrote a better song in all his long career.

  4. As an unflinching Roy Orbison fan since “Only The Lonely” first charted in mid-1960, I feel almost morally obligated to chime in here.

    First, thank you, neo, for highlighting what became Roy’s first chart-topper (#1 in the U.K.; it stalled at #2 in the U.S.A.).

    CICERO (2:48 pm), “Oh, Pretty Woman” was Roy’s biggest and most iconic, and for that reason it certainly deserves mention. But — M J R editorial comments follow:

    Roy could do hard rock with the best of them. Another hard rocker that Roy took to #5 was “Mean Woman Blues” in 1963. Interestingly, the B-side of that was “Blue Bayou”, which was an A-side in many/most other countries. Linda Ronstadt made it *very* big with “Blue Bayou” in 1977.

    But my chief point here is that for me, it was always what I call Roy’s power ballads that highlighted both his voice and songwriting ability. [ALL of the songs mentioned in this comment were written or co-written by Roy Orbison, *except* for “Mean Woman Blues”.]

    Here are a few examples of Roy’s power ballads, chronologically and all top-tenners: “Only The Lonely”, “Blue Angel”, “Running Scared”, “Crying”, “In Dreams”, “It’s Over” — and finally, 25 years after “It’s Over”, “You Got It” in 1989.

    Especially “In Dreams”, written by Roy alone, which I regard as his *very* best effort.

    End of infomercial. I now return you to your regular programming.

  7. neo (5:11 pm), this warms my heart very much. Soul mate [smile]!

    — — — — — — —

    For what it’s worth, the PRE-disco Bee Gees were always favorites of mine. I still have not one but two Bee Gees’ Greatest Hits LPs, both released *before* they went disco on me. Now, I don’t dislike their disco music at all, but the Bee Gees of that era/genre just never made it into my “favorites” category. I know you like them an awful lot.

  8. M J R:

    I love the Bee Gees in all their manifestations, but my favorite era is their pre-disco one.

    Get a load of this, by the way. It’s Barry Gibb post-disco and Orbison in his later years. The Gatlin Brothers are also part of it, and I think the other Bee Gees are in the background but I’m not sure

  9. Re: Lonely / Lonesome

    We’ve got to get Hank into the line-up with this classic:
    ____________________________

    Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
    He sounds too blue to fly
    The midnight train is whining low
    I’m so lonesome I could cry

    –Hank Williams, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (1949)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7hDyxyEGCk
    ____________________________

    Boy, look at that portrait of him, white double-breasted suit and cowboy hat, skinny as a rail and staring straight out at you.

    IMO the Cowboy Junkies gave Hank full justice with this eerie dark cover:

    –Cowboy Junkies, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Official Audio)” (1988)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJt9KFyJnbk

  11. huxley:

    From Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song”:

    I said to Hank Williams, “How lonely does it get?”
    Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet
    But I hear him coughing all night long
    Oh, a hundred floors above me in the tower of song.

    .

  13. Re: Hank Williams / Leonard Cohen

    neo:

    Indeed! Cohen wasn’t just name-dropping. Most people don’t know how deeply country music influenced Cohen.

    His first band was “The Buckskin Boys” in high school.

    When the novels and poetry didn’t pay the bills he moved to the US. He planned to become a country songwriter.

    However, the mid-sixties folk/poetry/music scene called him and he went that way.

    One can hear Cohen’s country influence in songs like “Tower of Song,” “Bird on a Wire” and “Closing Time.”

    When Cohen places Hank Williams “a hundred floors above me in the tower of song,” that’s sincere.

  14. neo (6:43 pm) said: “Barry looks SO happy to be singing with Orbison.”

    I agree — and vice versa. It reminds me of The Traveling Wilburys* just plain enjoying singing together, just for the joy of combining their voices and talents and having a jolly good time doing it.

    (I’m omitting the Black and White Night performance from the foregoing because that amazing collection of luminaries all gathered in support of one artist, Roy Orbison. The Wilburys and the Gatlin-Orbison-Gibb collaborations all were performed as equals.)

    * George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne [E.L.O. frontman]

  16. Huxley, when we moved out here 30+ years ago, we heard whippoorwills frequently. Now we hear none. Wonder why. Possibly housing developments moved out our way and chased them away?

  17. We don’t really have songs about loneliness these days.

    Though to read news articles today, America is lonelier than ever.

  18. Huxley, when we moved out here 30+ years ago, we heard whippoorwills frequently. Now we hear none. Wonder why. Possibly housing developments moved out our way and chased them away?

    R2L:

    Likely. I grew up in Florida in the 60s. I remember the quiet and dark nights.

  19. M J R, thanks for your tribute to “Orbie.”

    In his early days, Roy Orbison would stay up all night working on a song with his writing partner, not satisfied until every last drop of emotion and heartbreak had been distilled in the song.

    In his youth he was very blond, almost albino. His high school classmates insultingly called him “Facetush.” It seemed that Chris Isaak’s singing style was very similar to Orbison’s.

    Orbison was a huge hit in the UK. The Beatles opened shows for him. They were impressed by how he stood like a statue when he sang, mesmerizing the audience with just his voice. He’s also been called an underrated, “sneaky” guitar player.

    The Bee Gees were great, but not exactly “clean cut.” 🙂

    I worked for a time with a real Southern lady from Nashville, who said that B. J. Thomas “did a lot more with that song” than Hank Williams, and I agree.

  20. huxley, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” is one of my favorite songs and IMHO one of the finest songs ever written by anyone, both musically and lyrically.

    Selfy: “He’s [Orbison] also been called an underrated, “sneaky” guitar player.”

    In the “Black and White” tribute to Orbison neo references above they gave guitar solos to Orbison, Bruce Springsteen and studio legend James Burton, probably on “Mean Woman Blues” IIRC. While Burton’s was of course the best Orbison’s was surprisingly good, I had never thought of him as a guitarist (with that voice hard to think of him as anything but a singer). Springsteen trailed badly. Springsteen also lost points in my book by hamming it up too much in what was supposed to be Orbison’s show, he should have shown far more reverence for a great talent and legend like Roy.

    Another “lonely” song – “All Alone Am I” by Brenda Lee (1962).

  21. “B. J. Thomas “did a lot more with that song” than Hank Williams”

    Williams wrote the song. The greatest singers have nothing without a song to sing.

  22. I cannot imagine what possessed that chap to spill his guts to a perfect stranger on a Dublin street.

  23. Sennacherib:

    Favorite film for me and my wife, although the theme of loneliness is not as central to the movie as independence from government control.

    As for James — a very moving story. What boy doesn’t feel lonely at 4 years of age, and for another decade or so. He did let it carry on, though, while many boys outgrow it. I don’t think girls go through the same evolution, as they are more social from an early age.

    James’ story is particularly sad, though, as he never outgrew his loneliness. But he shared it willingly enough. Thanks for the link, Neo.

  24. To Art Deco:

    “I cannot imagine what possessed that chap to spill his guts to a perfect stranger on a Dublin street.”

    I think I can. He disclosed the following. He never married. He has no children. He had a mother who was “ice” and he wanted affection but never got it. He saw his friends get affection from their mothers. He considers himself the greatest failure on the planet. No one meets him at the airport. He says he makes people laugh so he is outgoing. He hates bullies.

    Yet he is alone and says he has no friends in London – a city of 9 million. I have family in London and one of them is from Dublin. I like to think they would befriend him.

    After I watched this I feel that I am sorry he’s lonely. Wonder about the (2) plays he’s written and what has held him back all these years. Hope the Good Lord watches over this chap. So sad.

    Thank you, neo for this video – made my day.

  25. To Art Deco:

    “I cannot imagine what possessed that chap to spill his guts to a perfect stranger on a Dublin street.”

    I think I can. He disclosed the following. He never married. He has no children. He had a mother who was “ice” and he wanted affection but never got it. He saw his friends get affection from their mothers. He considers himself the greatest failure on the planet. No one meets him at the airport. He says he makes people laugh so he is outgoing. He hates bullies.

    Yet he is alone and says he has no friends in London – a city of 9 million.

    After I watched this I feel that I am sorry he’s lonely. Wonder about the (2) plays he’s written and what has held him back all these years. Hope the Good Lord watches over this chap. So sad.

    Thank you, neo for this video – made my day.

  35. OK; this is not related to Neo’s post at all, but here goes.

    Is it possible that the Dems have caved in re: the govt. shutdown?
    That’s what is being reported in some news outlets.

    I will believe it when I see it.
    Usually, the dumbpublicans always cave in first.

    Time will tell.

  36. That man is the living embodiment of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:”

    “I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,

    And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,

    And in short, I was afraid.”

    You don’t have to do anything to exist, but you do have to choose to live.

    This man never chose.

  37. Watching the video of James was something. It makes you appreciate the life you have. Sure, I have a few regrets, but they’re really nothing, and I certainly don’t dwell on them – they’re usually just fleeting thoughts.

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