A quiet reckoning with how swiftly love, certainty, and innocence can slip into memory
Released in 1963 as the B side to the Top 30 Billboard Hot 100 hit Blue Bayou, It Wasn’t Very Long Ago belongs to Roy Orbison at a moment when his artistry was reaching an uncommon emotional maturity. The song later appeared on the album In Dreams, a record that captured Orbison in full command of his singular voice and his unmatched ability to dramatize vulnerability. While the charts remember the single for its A side, history has slowly come to recognize the deeper ache embedded in its quieter companion.
Roy Orbison was never a singer who needed volume to command attention. On It Wasn’t Very Long Ago, restraint becomes the defining force. The song opens not with spectacle, but with reflection, as if the listener has arrived mid thought, just after the realization has settled in. The title itself carries a devastating irony. The phrase suggests closeness, recency, almost comfort. Yet every line that follows dismantles that illusion, revealing how quickly emotional landscapes can change without warning or mercy.
Lyrically, the song explores a universal human shock. The moment when happiness is still close enough to remember vividly, yet already far enough away to hurt. Orbison does not narrate a dramatic collapse. There is no betrayal described, no singular act that ends the romance. Instead, the loss feels quiet, almost administrative, as though love simply expired while no one was watching. This ambiguity is essential to the song’s power. It mirrors real emotional endings, the ones without clear villains or explanations, only aftermath.
Musically, the arrangement supports this emotional economy. The instrumentation remains measured, allowing Orbison’s voice to carry the full emotional weight. His phrasing is deliberate, each syllable placed with care, as if he understands that rushing would cheapen the confession. When his voice rises, it is not to dominate, but to expose. The listener hears a man replaying recent happiness in his mind, stunned by how fragile it was.
Within the context of In Dreams, the song serves as a crucial emotional bridge. Where other tracks soar into operatic despair or cinematic longing, It Wasn’t Very Long Ago stays grounded in psychological realism. It is the sound of grief before it becomes dramatic, the stage where disbelief still outweighs anger. This subtlety may explain why the song was overshadowed upon release. It does not demand attention. It earns it over time.
Culturally, the song stands as an example of why Roy Orbison remains timeless. He treated emotional pain with dignity, refusing to simplify it or dress it up for easy consumption. In an era increasingly drawn to spectacle, this recording reminds listeners that some of the deepest wounds announce themselves softly.
More than sixty years later, It Wasn’t Very Long Ago still resonates because it understands something essential. Loss does not always arrive with thunder. Sometimes it arrives as a quiet sentence, spoken almost to oneself, acknowledging that what once felt permanent has already slipped into the past.