Roy Orbison Authorized Bootleg Collection CD

Roy Orbison's widow, Barbara, organized the release of these four live concert recordings taken from various points in Orbison's career. In doing so, and putting them out as a mid-priced quadruple-disc set, she not only filled a yawning gap in her late husband's career -- Monument Records never did record its biggest-selling act of the 1960s in concert -- but undercut potential bootleggers by getting the family-authorized version to market first, and at a competitive price. With one major exception here, the set list doesn't vary much from show to show; an artist like Orbison would be hidebound to sing his hits, and the audience certainly lets him know which ones they want to hear throughout this four-disc collection. Regarding sound quality, these are soundboard tapes cleaned up as much as possible; don't expect them to sound awful and they won't, but don't expect them to sound like a record, either, because they fall quite short. However, you don't come to a Roy Orbison concert, tap your foot, and say, "Nice mix on the bass player." No, you come to hear Orbison, and here's one time when a vocal-heavy board tape has the spotlight falling on the right set of shoulders. If you're going to subject yourself to listening to four hours of one person singing louder then the entire band track put together, it might as well be somebody great like Roy Orbison. He never falters once in these shows, presiding over all of them with a laid-back, good-natured stage personality that perfectly fits the music. What's more, the disc containing the earliest of these shows here, the May 9, 1969 performance at the Batley Variety Club in Batley, England, is of special interest to fans -- it was recorded with the intention of being released as an official live album, as part of Orbison's MGM and Decca Records contract, but the resulting tape fell a little bit short technically; Orbison recut a lot of the same songs a few weeks later, without an audience, for what became The Big O album, which was only released in England; but in this live set, he included, in addition to his own hits, renditions of such vintage rock & roll and R&B standards as "Help Me Rhonda," "Land of 1,000 Dances," and "Money," which make this disc a fuller picture of his stage set during this period in his career. The overall set will mostly interest completists and hardcore fans, perhaps -- and one heartily wishes there were a concert here featuring Orbison playing live with his '60s-era backing band the Candy Men -- but here's one of rock & roll's greatest singers tearing it up in four hit-packed concerts; it doesn't get much better than that, sound quality and overlapping repertory be damned. ~ Cub Koda & Bruce Eder

4 CD box set. Features four classic Orbison performances throughout his remarkable career. Each show includes all of Orbison's biggest hits plus other live favorties. Eagle Records.

Audio Remasterer: Glenn Meadows.

Liner Note Author: John "Woog" Johnson.

Recording information: Batley Variety Club, Blatley, England (05/09/1969-07/13/1980); Birmingham, AL (05/09/1969-07/13/1980); The Fiesta Club, Stockton, England (05/09/1969-07/13/1980).