First chapter in a truly legendary career - Roy Orbison's "Sun Records" music might be just a prelude to greatness and step towards bigger things to come but its hard to dismiss because here is a young 25 years old rockabilly Texan emulating his idols and trying his best to catch up with the energy he admired in Elvis Presley. Though his later work is certainly more famous and yes he did hit his stride & found his voice later, this first rockabilly phase is very enjoyable for what it is - joyous music by young rocker who might still be beginner but he is great fun to listen.
Album is built around several successful singles ("Ooby Dooby" is probably best-known track here) and though those memorable high notes were still just around the corner, there is nothing wrong with this music - if anything, its charming, earnest and cheerful. Perhaps the main reason why Orbison did not immediately achieve superstardom is that there were simply so many similar guys around and Sam Phillips was way to busy with all of them to specifically groom just one single artist. As "Trying To Get To You" shows, Orbison was just fine but Presley simply had a spotlight and his later version got better attention. CD version of album brings a lot of bonus tracks and unreleased demos, the most interesting here are undubbed versions that shows that rough ideas were perhaps more energetic and to me they sound much better when uncluttered with backing vocals and echoes.
Perhaps this is not really quintessential from the perspective of his later megastardom and music that truly catapulted him into world, but as a chapter in a rockabilly universe this is great fun. I simply love Roy Orbison and everything he did so its hard for me to be critical about him.
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