The Bop Shop 10.9.23 -Roy Orbison-

roy orbison “in the real world”

from: mystery girl, 1989

In dreams we do so many things
We set aside the rules we know
And fly the world so high
In great and shining rings

If only we could always live in dreams
If only we could make of life
What, in dreams, it seems

But in the real world
We must say real goodbyes
No matter if the love will live
It will never die

In the real world
There are things that we can’t change
And endings come to us
In ways that we can’t rearrange

I love you, and you love me
But sometimes we must let it be
In the real world
In the real world

When we were dreaming heart to heart
I wish that we had stayed right there
For when the dreamers do awake
The dreams do disappear

If only we could always live in dreams
If only we could make of life
What, in dreams, it seems

But in the real world
We must say real goodbyes
No matter if the love will live
It will never die

In the real world
There are things that we can’t change
And endings come to us
In ways that we can’t rearrange

I love you, and you love me
But sometimes we must let it be
In the real world
In the real world
— R.O.

Released two months following his death in December 1988 from a heart attack, Mystery Girl includes the hit singles "You Got It", which was co-written by Orbison and his Traveling Wilburys bandmates Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, and "She's a Mystery to Me", written by Bono and The Edge. The album was a critical and commercial success. The song that has stuck with me has been In The Real World. And what a voice!

-Alan West-