'Pretty Woman' gets everyone out dancing

Roy Orbison
Originally uploaded by Brite Lights photos.

VALOIS, New York - My right knee feels like Jim Lindell tackled me full force. No, I wasn't playing football last night, it was a party here at Seneca Lake with a couple of hundred folks ranging from toddlers to great-grandmothers.

And the band - what a great band! - Steve Southworth and Rockabilly Rays, pounded on one great song after another for three hours.

No wonder my knee hurts.

At first, not too many people were out dancing. Everyone was milling around, sloshing down beer or box wine. (OK, the toddlers weren't...) Then those first few notes of 'Pretty Woman' sounded and there was a stampede to get the dance floor.

I've never seen so many guys playing the air guitar. (Maybe that's how I hurt my knee, doing that Chuck Berry dance move...)

The neatest thing was everyone was out there for that song, and continued for most of the rest of the evening. Of course, it was freezing outside of the covered area where the band was.

I've collected almost all of Roy Orbison songs and read biography of him written a few years after his death in 1988. He died at 52! And remember the dark glasses he wore performing? They became his trademark after he went to perform one night and couldn't find his regular specs. So...the shades became an Orbison trademark.

Today's song, of course, is Pretty Woman...

Pretty Woman
Roy Orbison

(Words and Music by Roy Orbison and Bill Dees)

Pretty woman, walkin' down the street
Pretty woman the kind I like to meet
Pretty woman I don't believe you, you're not the truth
No one could look as good as you---mercy

Pretty woman won't you pardon me
Pretty woman I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman that you look lovely as can be
Are you lonely just like me---

Pretty woman stop awhile
Pretty woman talk awhile
Pretty woman give your smile to me
Pretty woman yeah, yeah, yeah
Pretty woman look my way
Pretty woman say you'll stay with me-ee
Cuz I need you, I'll treat you right
Come with me baby, be mine toni-i-ght

Pretty woman don't walk on by
Pretty woman don't make me cry
Pretty woman don't walk away, hey----
OKIf that's the way it must be---
OKI guess I'll go on home, it's late
There'll be tomorrow night, but wait
What do I see?
Is she walkin' back to me?
Yeah, she's walkin' back to me
Oh, oh, pretty woman