Why I frigging love: The big O
Roy Orbison: One of the lonley ones / Hound dog man
I became a fan of Roy Orbison as a teenager in the early '90s when his last album was released after he passed away suddenly. I then made my way back through his music, and now I have the Big O always firmly in my music-loving heart.
Listening to Roy Orbison is like recalling a memory of my childhood. Okay, so it's a strange memory of a man dressed in black and singing about heartbreak, but that's the kind of kid I was.
If I had to choose between Roy and his pretty-boy contemporary Elvis Presley, I'd take Roy any day. I have a thing for the vintage sound of early Rock 'n' roll, and I think Roy Orbison created his distinct version of it.
I first heard Roy Orbison when his final album came out in 1988, warbling out You Got it. I fell for his ephemeral voice and slowly worked my way backwards through the catalogue of one of the founders of mainstream American Rock and Roll.
Unfortunately, Orbison had a massive heart attack and died the same year his new Mystery Girl album came out, just as it was set to become an enormous success.
Bless his soul; he had one hell of a voice tinged with darkness and tragedy (losing his first wife in a motorcycle accident and later his two eldest sons in a house fire while he was away on tour). His songwriting was all about honesty and emotion without any sentimentality.
In short, I loved Roy to death. He spoke to me as an artist; he could also tell a great story and be famous without losing himself.
The tall slim, and rather pale Texan didn't fit into the usual Rock star mould. He was painfully shy, soft-spoken, with terrible eyesight. He was mercilessly teased in high school for his plain looks, thick-lensed glasses and shyness. But he knew he could sing, and as soon as he could get his hands on a guitar, he learnt how to play and quickly began to write songs.
As a young child, Orbison would take his guitar and play outside the local grocery store in his tiny Texan country hometown of Wink. The town was so small, Orbison quipped; if you 'winked', you'd miss it.
People soon noticed his big sweet tenor voice, and he began to front and play in several local bands. He formed his own band in high school, which played in nearby towns. His obsession with music, guitar playing and songwriting sealed his fate for a lifetime career as a musician.
Roy Orbison was always a strange fit in the music industry; his love of the ballad made him stand out in the catchy pop ditty, creating hits of the 50s and 60s.
Orbison was always painfully shy while performing; he never talked to the audience. He never moved a muscle or danced during his performances, and he even barely opened his mouth to sing. Yet when he did sing, he revealed one of the best voices ever heard in rock and roll, a powerful tenor voice with an impressive three-octave range and a glass-shattering falsetto.
The incredible thing is that he never really looked after his voice; there are many videos of him smoking and drinking coca-cola in the recording studio. Smoking and caffeine were something I'm sure also didn't help him with his heart problems either.
Despite his incredible talent, Roy always suffered from terrible stage fright. While on tour with the Beatles in 1963, he forgot his regular glasses on the plane and was forced to wear his prescription tinted glasses on stage. He discovered he prefered them, so he developed a sunglass-wearing, dark and brooding stage image, which helped him hide and perform more comfortably.
Roy Orbison's songbook comprises the most extensive songs about heartbreak, loneliness, dark emotions, paranoia, regret, despair, dreams and nightmares. He was the first man to sing openly about his feelings and fears. Some of his most loved songs include heartbreaking epics like Only the lonely, Crying, In dreams and Running Scared. His song Pretty Woman is one of the most loved and recognised tunes ever written. He turned his love Lorne persona into the guy who gets the girl at the end, unleashing sexy, sensual energy, which wins over his pretty woman.
The origins of Orbison's music are firmly in his country music roots. Growing up listening to Hank Williams and other artists from the Grand Old Opry, the influence of the country genre is evident.
Orbison's career spanned five decades, starting as a professional performer in the 1950s and releasing 22 studio albums from the 1960s to the early 90s.
Despite tremendous heartbreak and tragedy in his life, he never really stopped writing music, recording records and touring.
Roy Orbison married his high school sweetheart Claudette Frady in 1957; they had three boys Anthony King, Roy Dewayne and Wesley.
Claudette was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident, leaving Roy alone to bring up his three boys.
While on tour in the UK in 1968, he received the news that his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, had burned down and his two eldest sons had died.
Orbison later remarried a German teenager Barbara Jakobs in 1969 and had two more sons, Alex and Roy Jr. From his first wife, his youngest son, Wesley, was raised by Orbison's parents.
After these tragedies, Roy Orbison's career took a turn for the worst, as his style of music became deeply unpopular. After a terrible attempt at starting a film career in his corny Western The Fastest Guitar Alive, which was a bow office flop and an unsuccessful Hank Williams cover album, he became lost and directionless.
Orbison continued to record albums, despite the lack of any real major success. His fan base in the UK, Europe and Australia was very loyal, so he tirelessly toured and performed even in smaller venues. He still performed his now-classic favourites to the delight of audiences, and he never really lost his voice, which never abandoned him.
In 1977 he had major heart surgery, a triple bypass which was a significant operation to unblock severely obstructed arteries. He suffered from ulcers since 1960 and had been a heavy smoker since adolescence.
In the 80s, his music was rediscovered by a new generation of listeners, helped by other artists who covered his songs, and the use of his music in movies like Roadie, the Dukes of Hazzard and the feature film Blue Velvet.
One of the events that relaunched his career was his big comeback concert in 1988. Roy Orbison and friends: a black and white night included a wonderfully brilliant selection of Oribison's admirers and friends who came together in a one-off concert performance to celebrate the legendary Texan with the biggest voice and magical songwriting talent.
The concert lineup included: Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, T Bone Burnett, Jennifer Warnes, K.D Lang and Bonnie Raitt. It was an excellent star-studded concert with its performers, and there were many famous people in the audience.
Roy Orbison was also a great collaborator throughout his career, which kept his work evergreen and constantly renewed. He allowed his songs to be covered by new artists, and he also recorded with different artists. He recorded a now-historic album, Class of 55, with other American Rock and roll legends, including Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.
Orbison also recorded songs with the Bee Gees and, simultaneously with his last album, performed with other music greats Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison, who formed the now legendary super band the Travelling Wilburys.
His final album, Mystery Girl, was produced by ELO's frontman Jeff Lynne and included songs written by Lynne, Elvis Costello, Bono and Tom Petty.
Choosing my favourite songs from Roy Orbison's long catalogue isn't easy. I love most of them as each album reflected Orbison's experiments and particular style through the decades. No one can ignore the early rockabilly sounds of his 1950s classic Rock House. Or his big hits of the 60s at the height of his early fame, from Crying to in Dreams. I also enjoyed his mostly ignored 1970s experimental album Laminar Flow. Orbison prided himself on being a rebel, and he always followed whatever he wanted to explore or express, as most great artists do.
Orbison had a natural gift as a storyteller. Many of his songs reflect this ability to construct a narrative from pieces like Blue Bayou, Working for the man, Running scared, Leah, Uptown and the now politically incorrect Indian Wedding. There was real potential for Roy Orbison to write musicals. Who knows what his career would have taken him if only he had survived his final heart attack. He was only 52 when he died.
Out of all of Orbison's songs, there are two in particular that I wanted to highlight. It's a challenge to limit myself to only two as he has written some of the best love songs in existence, but the emotions and context of these two songs have made them stand out more for me, and so they are a part of my current Orbison playlist.
One of the lonely ones is the title track from one of the saddest albums ever written. Roy Orbison recorded this album in his darkest period after he had lost his first wife and two children. Recorded in 1969, the album was never released as it was simply too melancholy. But this song is an ode to grief and is a deep psychological exploration of the nature of depression. It's the most depressing thing you will ever hear, but it expresses the beauty of even the darkest moments anyone can experience, like any great poetry.
Also, Orbison's song Hound dog man is a bittersweet dedication to his friend Elvis Presley. It explores Orbison's memories of his friend, who he toured with in his early career. Hound Dogman references Elvis's early hit You ain't nothing but a hound dog. The song reflects the transitory nature of time and laments the passing of what Orbison saw as a golden age of music and culture. It's a beautiful tribute to the king of Rock and Roll and a reminder to appreciate life.
Orbison left behind so much music to listen to; there are endless anthologies of his music, filled with covers of most of the great American songbook classics, lovingly remastered and rearranged. There are Orbison albums dedicated to the songs of Don Gibson and Hank Williams. He sang everything from Gospel to Country, Rock, Pop and even tried his hand out briefly at glam rock in the 1970s. He has recorded stunningly original and beautiful renditions of songs from the likes of Sweet Caroline to the Everly brother's unchained melody and classics like Danny Boy.
Roy Orbison's surviving family, namely his three sons Wesly, Roy Jr and Alex, have done their best to keep their father's legacy alive. Roy's boys released many new albums after their father's death. Including the King of Hearts, which had been recorded as a follow up to Mystery Girl. The definitive collection of his most popular singles in the singles collection 1965 to 1973 and several of his live performances, including his last concert only a few days before his death.
In 2017 and 2018, Roy Orbison's voice was remastered and combined with new arrangements by the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra to record the compilation albums A Love so Beautiful and Unchained Melodies. A love so beautiful peaked at number 2 on the UK charts becoming Orbison's highest-charting album in almost 30 years, and went Platinum.
In Dreams: Roy Orbison, in concert, was also one of the first-ever Hologram tours to be launched in 2018.
Thanks to Roy Orbison's tireless work ethic, his family is still working through his immense back catalogue and is still discovering old demos and unreleased songs that will undoubtedly provide us with more surprises in the future.
I’ve put together a playlist over on Spotify of some of my favourite Roy Orbison songs, together with some of those mentioned in this post. Click on to have a little listen.