Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Cream Barbara Orbison Dead at 60
Posted by Edd Hurt on Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 4:00 PM
- Photo: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
Born in Bielefeld, Germany, Jakobs married Roy Orbison in 1969. After a fallow period in the 1970s, Orbison began to attract a new generation of fans by the end of the decade. Linda Ronstadt covered "Blue Bayou" in 1977 — Orbison had co-written the song and released it in 1963. The over-the-top style Orbison had perfected remained in the popular mind, with heavy-metal band Nazareth doing an effective version of "Love Hurts," another song Orbison had recorded in his glory days.
Barbara Orbison managed her husband's career during the '80s, a decade that saw Orbison's moody music become perfectly in tune with the mood of the moment. Most famously, director David Lynch recontextulized Orbison's "In Dreams" in the 1986 film Blue Velvet. The following year, Barbara served as executive producer for In Dreams: The Greatest Hits, which brought together Orbison with contemporary production styles. She also was at the helm of 1988's acclaimed concert film Roy Orbison and Friends, a Black and White Night (see clip below).
Until his death, Orbison was established as one of rock 'n' roll's biggest and most mysterious attractions, with solo records, sold-out concerts and his work with supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. Barbara oversaw the fine 2008 box set Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock 'n' Roll, which sums up the singer's work quite thoroughly. The Nashville publishing company she founded and ran, Still Working Music, sports such titles as Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me," along with such past and present writers as Liz Rose, Jedd Hughes and Tommy Lee James.
Savvy in business, Barbara Orbison helped preserve and extend Roy Orbison's legacy at a crucial time. She died yesterday at Los Angeles County Medical Center after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
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The tribute concert documentary "Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night" was filmed on September 30, 1987 at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles about a year before Orbison's death.
Participating musicians and singers included Jackson Browne, T-Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, J. Steven Sole, J.D. Souther, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Jennifer Warnes, Alex Acu, James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, Ronnie Tutt, Michael Utley, Jerry Scheff and Roy Orbison himself.
Roy Orbison ws considered by many in the music world to have the best voice of anyone in the business. Listening to some of his songs here will immediately explain the reason for their admiration.
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The above mention concert was truly a great one. We can thank Nashville
Public Television for bringing it to us many times, which I have enjoyed
over and over on every occasion. I'm sure many of us outside "The Biz"
here in Nashville didn't know that Barbara was suffering with Cancer.
Sad loss of his wonderful partner!
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