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Rating: "He said son it's just a feeling, way down in your soul..."
It's all pointless. We're here asking ourselves what it all means, days and weeks wondering what this strange word really is. And then four old-timers come along and tell you that in the end, it's all a big bunch of nonsense, that it might be a cliché but it is what it is, "either you have it, or you don't."
By '86, everything had already been done. Punk had arrived and scorched everything, turning back the clock by a couple of decades. What followed made quite a few victims among the youth, musicians and non-musicians alike. So it was easy to drift back in time to the days of the "Million Dollar Quartet," and to the times when maybe everything was easier because you were the first to do it, damn it. Jerry Lee hooking up with young girls, Carl getting his song stolen that would have shot him to fame, Johnny always dressed in black and carrying stuff in his guitar case. And then there was him, damn it. The greatest of them all because no one had ever been like him. Too handsome to be just an actor, too talented to be just a singer. And too fragile, but that would only become clear later, when there was nothing left to do. At the time, they were invincible, kissed by success, even unreal. Forever young.
In this album, Roy Orbison replaces the late Elvis, and it might not be a bad thing. And as inevitable as it is, this is an album of memories and celebrations. Four old-timers who could still show up many young lads come together and sing for those who want to listen. What immediately stands out is the sparkling production by Chips Moman, who accomplishes the enviable task of bringing a thirty-year-old sound up to date. The rest is left to the class of the four, moved kid that I am. Lewis dazzles as usual on Sixteen Candles, Perkins appoints himself the leader and keeps the group together, singing the album's title track with the air of a disillusioned sailor. Cash emerged from the Seventies proving to be in the best shape of all, ready for rehearsals with the Highwayman and future successes: just listen to him in I Will Rock and Roll With You to get a clear idea. But above all, there's Roy Orbison, with a voice that seems like a child's angel that ended up there by chance. He shyly appears only after two songs, and in the wonderful Coming Home, he puts the seal on the most beautiful piece of the album. One of the last, wonderful performances before the melancholy farewell.
Nothing else to say. If rock and roll was coming home in '86, it couldn't have been welcomed by anyone better than these four.
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