Love to Beg
Dana Fuchs
Ruf Records
Whatever happened to female rockers? Sure Joan Jett is still out there but most have gone the way of Stevie Nicks, clinging to yesterday with nothing new to say. Then, along comes someone like Dana Fuchs who all of sudden makes you sit up and take notice. We’re not talking about the watered-down flaccid pop of Cheryl Crow. Dana’s got a voice and she sings songs like she means every word—this is far removed from just going through the motions.
Born in Jersey and raised in Florida, Dana left home for the Big Apple “to sing the blues.” After a little dues paying, she hooked up with guitarist Jon Diamond and the two set out to make some beautiful noise together. Love to Beg is her third album and it’s obvious she is setting out to prove she’s got the stuff for stardom (this, after appearing in the film Across the Universe and playing Janis Joplin in the off Broadway play Love, Janis).
Dana rarely strays far from the blues, even when she’s rockin’ out. When she does, her vehicle of choice is R&B. Listen to “Summersong” and when that Hammond organ kicks in, you’ll swear Al Green could join in any second. Her red-hot rendition of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” is almost pornographic. Too few artists go all out these days, but Dana’s one that gives it all she has.
The Monument Singles Collection
Roy Orbison
Sony Legacy
Orbison…transcended all the genres—folk, country, rock ’n’ roll or just about anything. His stuff mixed all the styles and some that hadn’t even been invented yet…He sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop and he meant business. –Bob Dylan
Roy’s ballads were always best when you were alone in the dark. They were scary. His voice was unearthly…I always wanted to sing like Roy Orbison… –Bruce Springsteen
…Roy Orbison! It was only because we were with Roy Orbison that we were there at all. He was definitely top of the bill…What a beacon in the southernmost gloom. The amazing Roy Orbison. –Keith Richards
Do you remember the first time you heard Roy Orbison? For many, his voice was almost operatic and his songwriting told tortured tales of love and life lived hard.
Now, Sony Legacy, in celebration of what would have been Roy’s 75th birthday year, has gathered 39 of the greatest Orbison tracks and packaged them together onto two CDs with a bonus live DVD. “Oh Pretty Woman,” “Only the Lonely,” “Blue Bayou,” “Crying,” “Falling,” “It’s Over,” plus many others are great ways to celebrate one of rock’s legendary heroes. Buyers be forewarned: there are plenty of Roy Orbison CDs out there, some of which are shoddy inferior cheap-o editions. Don’t waste money on these, which is like buying China rust-on-the-boat-coming-over chrome goodies for your bike.
An amazing feat for Orbison was that his career continued to skyrocket even after the Brit bands invaded these shores in the early ’60s. With his trademark sunglasses, Roy became a larger-than-life rock star, imitated by many, even today—check out Chris Isaak, who comes closest to actually sounding like him.
Orbison suffered through many personal crises; his wife even perished in a motorcycle accident in 1966. But Roy survived this and more, and maybe that’s the torture we hear in his voice. There was something dangerously mysterious, yet at the same time vulnerable about him, and he wore it all the way up until his untimely death in 1989.