I assumed that my son must have known this...

but I discovered a while ago that I'd never played it to him. This Roy Orbison song was the first record that really meant anything to me. Interestingly, the 45 was a ‘double A-side’ - ‘Running Scared’ and ‘Love Hurts’. ‘Love Hurts’ is a haunting, distinctive song which becomes quiet background music through much of your life (and then you discover the version by Gram Parsons and Emmylou). ‘Running Scared’ is something else again, the consummate story song, packed with narrative power, building to its magnificent, orgasmic denoument, which, time after time after time - and I’ve been listening to it for fifty years - knocks you into the middle of next week. The point at which the bass rhythm enters and carries the song and the listener forward and upwards is extraordinary. The words build, the story builds, the music builds. So much of the pain and joy of human relationships in a pop song lasting two minutes twelve seconds. And perhaps the most amazing thing about the song - Orbison claims to have written it ‘in about ten minutes’.

Roy Orbison - Running Scared (iTunes)