New version of Orbison’s ‘Black & White Night’ will feature unearthed footage of Springsteen and others

Roy Orbison and Bruce Springsteen in the original “Black and White Night.”

Roy Orbison’s 1987 “comeback concert” at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles — featuring guests such as Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, and originally released as a black and white TV special, a home video and an album — has been re-edited and re-mastered, and will be released as CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray sets for its 30th anniversary, with lots of previously unreleased footage.

According to a press release, the film should not be considered a reissue.

“Because the concert had been shot using seven separate cameras, there were hundreds of hours of footage that went unused and unseen,” the press release states. “Roy’s youngest son Alex Orbison and his co-editor Luke Chalk have gone back and re-edited the entire performance so that while the look will be familiar to those that have seen the original version, the vast majority of footage in ‘Black & White Night 30’  has never been seen before by the public.”

The DVD and Blu-ray will include alternate versions of six songs, plus a 33-minute mini-documentary. According to a press release, the mini-documentary consists of “rehearsal footage and pre and post show interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne from that night. Absolutely none of this content has ever been released commercially, and until recently, has only been rumored to exist.”

The CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray sets will be released on Feb. 24, and PBS will air the re-edited film in March.

In addition to Springsteen, Costello, lang, Raitt and Browne, other guests include Tom Waits, Jennifer Warnes and J.D. Souther. The core band for the show is former Elvis Presley sidemen James Burton (guitar), Glen D. Hardin (piano), Jerry Scheff (bass) and Ron Tutt (drums). 

The DVD/Blu-ray track list is:

“Only the Lonely”
“Leah”
“In Dreams”
“Crying”
“Uptown”
“The Comedians”
“Blue Angel”
“It’s Over”
“Running Scared”
“Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)”
“Mean Woman Blues”
“Candy Man”
“Ooby Dooby”
“Blue Bayou”
“Go Go Go (Down the Line)”
“All I Can Do Is) Dream You”
“Claudette”
“Oh, Pretty Woman” (alternate version)
“Oh, Pretty Woman”
“(All I Can Do Is) Dream You” (alternate version)
“The Comedians” (alternate version)
“Candy Man” (alternate version)
“Claudette” (alternate version)
“Uptown (alternate version)

This performance of “Blue Angel” has never been released before, and the last five songs are from a session that took place after the show (without an audience) during which the musicians performed some of the songs again.

Here is a clip from the original “Black & White Night.”