1964 Roy Orbison: It's Over

It starts out almost like a creative writing exam question - "Your baby doesn't love you anymore": Discuss. Orbison knew a thing or two about loss and he nails the 'good times then, bad times now' theme squarely in first verse alone: "Golden days before they end, whisper secrets to the wind. Your baby won't be near you anymore" - almost haiku-like, it wouldn't need anything further to score an A+ in this exercise, but Roy doesn't stop there. Not by a long chalk.

"But, oh what will you do? When she says to you there's someone new" - Orbison piles on the pain until he's almost majestically revelling in the negativity he's dishing out ("You won't be seeing rainbows anymore"), building within the funeral drum bolero with the intensity of a Puccini aria before mere descriptive statements can no longer do justice to the misery so he implodes with a primal, self realising "It's over, it's over, it's over" howl that reveals that he wasn't indulging in a little salt rubbing schadenfreude in those earlier lines - they were directed as much to himself as any third party listening and they serve to usher in the realisation inherent in one last scream of that title to bring the song, and presumably Roy's life as he once knew it to a close with the finality of a stool being kicked away.

'It's Over' is as serious a statement of adult emotion in the context of it's relatively lightweight contemporaries to date in this 1964 chart as a serial killer mingling in with a bunch of trick or treaters. One of the most nihilistically bleak songs to have hit number one to date; there's no hope in 'It's Over', none at all. No promise of a better tomorrow, no hint of bridges to be rebuilt or fresh starts to pursue; this girl has knocked Roy on his arse and we leave him face down in the gutter, defiantly not staring at any stars. In one sense it's an uncomfortable, voyeuristic listen, like getting a crossed line with The Samaritans - you don't want to eavesdrop but you can't help getting carried along with it. In another, played loud enough and in the right frame of mind, listening to 'It's Over' can feel like an exorcism.