Big O week Number 5 - Communication Breakdown
In June 1965 after six years of phenomenal success with indie Monument record label, Roy was lured to MGM Records by promises of loads more money and opportunities to get into the movies. However the lack of Fred Foster production that marked the style of his Monument hits was sorely missed and after a couple of successful slow ballads namely the wonderful "Crawling Back" and "Too Soon to Know" Roy found himself abandoning his unique song structures in favour of more traditional verse chorus, verse chorus, middle eight verse chorus fare. While the quality at MGM wasn't maintained, his early stuff there was often excellent and "Communication Breakdown" is one of the best.
There's much to admire in this, the morse code style guitar (is it?), the excellent drumming, the harmony backing singing, but most of all Roy's impassioned singing as he ruminates on the final throes of a relationship.
When it's right, it's so right,
when it's wrong it's so wrong,
when it's gone, it's all gone,
it's too late
communication breakdown.....
I can tell that it's over now....