Saturday, August 20, 2011

Roy's 75th

Roy Orbison was born on April 23, 1936. To honor his 75th birthday, the Spring 2011 cover of Texas Music Magazine was dedicated to him. I'm behind on my reading, so I am just now getting to this magazine.

Now I knew who Roy Orbison was, who hadn't heard of the songs Pretty Woman or Only the Lonely? But I had missed out on a huge portion of his discography. Songs like Blue Bayou and Running Scared I had some how missed.

Most impressive about Orbison is the influence he had on rock music. Bono said about it "The thing people don't talk about enough as far as I'm concerned is how innovative this music was, how radical in terms of its songwriting. As I become more interested in songwriting, you hit a wall where Roy Orbison is standing." He combined an amazing voice with a creativity he was not scared to use to produce some of the greatest and influential rock music.

Happy belated birthday!

Here are a few of his songs:


Running Scared


Mean Woman Blues


Blue Bayou