And the title 'Crawling Back,' of course, even points to that." "There's even a kind of public-spectacle aspect to this pain and suffering.
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" that that character brings upon himself, that he seems to almost long for," Lehman says. Lehman, who directs the center for film, media and popular culture at Arizona State University, says Orbison frequently utilized an almost masochistic stage persona, which Lehman says seems to embrace and almost revel in pain and loss. Orbison's song titles alone tell part of the story: "Crying," "Only the Lonely," "Running Scared," "Crawling Back." "Roy's extreme development of those kinds of emotions and the intensity with which he expressed them certainly went against the grain of the kind of macho, confident, masculine display that characterized so much of mainstream rock 'n' roll," Orbison biographer Peter Lehman says. Orbison wasn't afraid to sing about fear, anxiety, loss or insecurity. He and Buddy Holly shared what you might call geek chic: a unique style expressed in what he sang about and how he sang it. But Orbison - with his thick corrective glasses, insurance-salesman looks and stiff stage presence - stood out. Chuck Berry had one-of-a-kind guitar riffs to go with his trademark duck walk. Elvis Presley had his sexy hip-shake swagger. Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard had that pound-the-piano self-confidence. Among rock 'n' roll's pioneers, Orbison was different.